2021 Vancouver International Film Festival

Last updated

2021 Vancouver International Film Festival
Opening film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
Closing film Petite Maman
Location Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Founded1958
No. of films190
Festival dateOctober 1–11, 2021
Website VIFF
Vancouver International Film Festival

The 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 40th event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from October 1 to October 11, 2021. [1] Unlike the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, which was staged entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 festival featured in-person screenings at the VIFF Centre and other venues, although most titles were also available on the online VIFF Connects platform. [2]

Contents

The festival opened with the film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain , and closed with the film Petite Maman . [1] 190 films from 51 countries where screened in the festival constituting 113 features, 77 shorts, 80 narrative features and 33 documentary features.

In addition, the festival screened some titles outside Vancouver, including in Terrace and Powell River. [3] Some, but not all, titles on the online platform were available for viewing across Canada rather than being geoblocked to British Columbia. [3]

Awards

Audience-voted awards were announced on October 13 following the end of the festival; however, the juried award winners were announced during the festival as a technique to help publicize and promote the winning films. [4]

AwardFilmFilmmaker
Audience Award, Galas & Special Presentations Official Competition (Competencia oficial) Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn
Audience Award, Contemporary World Cinema The In-Laws (Tesciowie) Kuba Michalczuk
Audience Award, True North Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, Kirk Thomas
Audience Award, GatewayTime Ricky Ko
Audience Award, ImpactLittle Palestine: Diary of an OccupationAbdallah Al-Khatib
Audience Award, Insights The Six Arthur Jones
Audience Award, M/A/D Charlotte Eric Warin, Tahir Rana
Audience Award, Altered States Saloum Jean Luc Herbulot
Best Canadian Film Without Havana (Sin la Habana) Kaveh Nabatian
Best Canadian Documentary Returning Home Sean Stiller
Best Canadian Short Film Together Albert Shin
Emerging Canadian Director Bootlegger Caroline Monnet
Best BC Film Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, Kirk Thomas
Best BC Short FilmThe HorsesLiz Cairns
BC Emerging Filmmaker Portraits from a Fire Trevor Mack
VIFF Impact AwardBlue BoxMichal Weits
Rob Stewart Eco Warrior Award Coextinction Gloria Pancrazi, Elena Jean
Immersed (Virtual Reality Program), Best Cinematic Live ActionSymphonyIgor Cortadellas
Immersed, Best DocumentaryInside COVID19Gary Yost, Adam Loften
Immersed, Best Augmented RealityMission to Mars ARPiotr Baczyński, Bartosz Rosłoński
Immersed, Best AnimationBeatKeisuke Itoh
Immersed, Best Animation Honorable MentionThe Passengers Ziad Touma
Immersed, Audience AwardRed EyesSngmoo Lee

Films

Special presentations

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
All My Puny Sorrows Michael McGowan Canada
Belfast Kenneth Branagh United Kingdom, Ireland
Benediction Terence Davies United Kingdom, United States
Bergman Island Mia Hansen-Løve France, Mexico, Brazil, Germany
Drive My Car Doraibu mai kā Ryusuke Hamaguchi Japan
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain Will Sharpe United Kingdom, United States
Everything Went Fine Tout s'est bien passé François Ozon France
Memoria Apichatpong Weerasethakul Thailand, Colombia, France, Germany, Mexico, China
Mothering Sunday Eva Husson United Kingdom
Night Raiders Danis Goulet Canada
Official Competition Competencia oficial Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn Spain
One Second 秒钟 Zhang Yimou China
Petite Maman Céline Sciamma France
Red Rocket Sean Baker United States
The Worst Person in the World Verdens verste menneske Joachim Trier Norway

Contemporary World Cinema

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
Azor Andreas FontanaArgentina, France, Switzerland
The Beta Test Jim Cummings, PJ McCabeUnited States
Bone MarrowHamid Reza GhorbaniIran
The Book of DelightsO Livro dos PrazeresMarcela LordyBrazil
Brighton 4th Levan Koguashvili Georgia, Russia, Bulgaria, Monaco, United States
Brother's KeeperOkul TıraşıFerit KarahanTurkey, Romania
Bye Bye Morons Adieu les cons Albert Dupontel France
CeltsKeltiMilica TomovićSerbia
Clara Sola Nathalie Álvarez Mesén Sweden, Costa Rica, Belgium, Germany
Compartment No. 6 Hytti nro 6 Juho Kuosmanen Finland, Estonia, Germany, Russia
Fabian – Going to the Dogs Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde Dominik Graf Germany
Father PabloPadre PabloJosé Luis Isoard ArrubarrenaMexico
The Girl and the Spider Das Mädchen und die SpinneRamon Zürcher, Silvan ZürcherSwitzerland
GirlfriendsChavalasCarol Rodríguez ColásSpain
Godavari Nikhil MahajanIndia
Havel Slávek HorákCzech Republic
HimHanGuro BruusgaardNorway
Hit the Road Jadde KhakiPanah PanahiIran
The In-Laws TesciowieKuba MichalczukPoland
Lamya's Poem Alex Kronemer Canada, United States
Miracle MiracolBogdan George ApetriRomania, Czech Republic, Latvia
Paris, 13th District Les Olympiades Jacques Audiard France
Queen of Glory Nana Mensah United States
The Siamese BondLas siamesas Paula Hernández Argentina
Small BodyPiccolo CorpoLaura SamaniItaly, France, Slovenia
Souad Ayten Amin Egypt, Tunisia, Germany
A Tale of Love and DesireUne histoire d'amour et de désir Leyla Bouzid France, Tunisia
Unclenching the Fists Разжимая кулакиKira KovalenkoRussia
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt?Alexandre KoberidzeGermany, Georgia

True North

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)
Be Still Elizabeth Lazebnik
The Boathouse Hannah Cheesman
Bootlegger Caroline Monnet
Coextinction Gloria Pancrazi, Elena Jean
Damascus DreamsÉmilie Serri
DarkroomLukas Maier
Drunken Birds Les Oiseaux ivres Ivan Grbovic
Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, Kirk Thomas
Hands That Bind Kyle Armstrong
Islands Martin Edralin
The Last TouristTyson Sadler
Learn to Swim Thyrone Tommy
Night Blooms Stephanie Joline
Portraits from a Fire Trevor Mack
Quickening Haya Waseem
Returning Home Sean Stiller
Ste. Anne Rhayne Vermette
See for Me Randall Okita
The White Fortress Tabija Igor Drljaca
Wildhood Bretten Hannam
Without Havana Sin la Habana Kaveh Nabatian
Zo Reken Emanuel Licha

Gateway

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
Barbarian Invasion Tan Chui Mui Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines
A ChatWang XideChina
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko Gyokō no Nikuko-chan Ayumu Watanabe Japan
In Front of Your Face Hong Sang-soo South Korea
Money Has Four Legs Maung SunMyanmar
Moneyboys 尋找C.B.YiTaiwan, Austria
Sinkhole Singkeuhol Kim Ji-hoon South Korea
Spaghetti Code LoveTakeshi MaruyamaJapan
Three Sisters Lee Seung-wonSouth Korea
TimeRicky KoHong Kong
Wife of a Spy Spy no Tsuma Kiyoshi Kurosawa Japan
Yuni Kamila Andini Indonesia, Singapore, France, Australia

Impact

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
Ayukawa: The Weight of LifeTu Neill, Jim SpeersNew Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan
Behind the HeadlinesDaniel Andreas SagerGermany
Blue BoxMichal WeitsIsrael, Canada, Belgium
From the Wild SeaFra det vilde havRobin PetréDenmark
Her Socialist Smile John Gianvito United States
Little Palestine: Diary of an OccupationAbdallah Al-KhatibLebanon, France, Qatar
Secrets from PutumayoAurélio MichilesBrazil

Insights

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
Daughter of a Lost BirdBrooke Pepion SwaneyUnited States
Faya Dayi Jessica BeshirEthiopia, United States, Qatar
The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation Avi Mograbi France, Finland, Israel, Germany
Flee Jonas Poher Rasmussen United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark
Just a MovementJuste un mouvementVincent MeessenBelgium, France
The King of North SudanDanny AbelUnited States, China, Egypt, Thailand
MayaJamshid Mojaddadi, Anson HartfordUnited Kingdom, Iran
My Childhood, My Country - 20 Years in Afghanistan Phil Grabsky, Shoaib SharifiAfghanistan, United Kingdom
The Six Arthur JonesChina
Taming the Garden Salomé JashiSwitzerland, Germany, Georgia
The Velvet Queen La Panthère des neiges Marie Amiguet  [ fr ], Vincent Munier France
Venetian MoleculesMolecole Andrea Segre Italy

M/A/D

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
Charlotte Eric Warin, Tahir RanaCanada, France, Belgium
The Endless Moment: The Painter Rolf KuhlmannClaudia SchmidGermany, Greece
Keep RollingMan Lim ChungHong Kong
Nine SevillesNueve SevillasGonzalo García Pelayo, Pedro G. RomeroSpain, France
Records Alan Zweig Canada
Rock Bottom RiserFern SilvaUnited States
Stories That Transform Us Corey Payette Canada
To the MoonTadhg O'SullivanIreland
White Cube Renzo Martens Netherlands, Belgium

Modes

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
Adversarial InfrastructureAnna EngelhardtRussia
The CanyonZachary EpcarUnited States
The Coast Sohrab Hura India
Corps SamplesAstrid de la ChapelleFrance
Happiness Is a JourneyIvete Lucas, Patrick BresnanUnited States, Estonia
In Flow of WordsEliane Esther BotsNetherlands
I've Been Afraid Cecelia Condit Mexico
Motorcyclist's Happiness Won't Fit Into His SuitAl motociclista no le cabe la felicidad en el trajeGabriel HerreraMexico
Neon PhantomFantasma NeonLeonardo MartinelliBrazil
New AbnormalSorayos PrapapanThailand, South Korea, Singapore
Once Upon a Screen: Explosive ParadoxKevin B. LeeGermany, United States
Show Me Other Places Rajee Samarasinghe Sri Lanka, United States

Altered States

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
BipolarQueena LiChina
Kicking Blood Blaine Thurier Canada
Saloum Jean Luc Herbulot Senegal
The Scary of Sixty-First Dasha Nekrasova United States
Strawberry Mansion Albert Birney, Kentucker Audley United States
Tin Can Seth A. Smith Canada
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror Kier-La Janisse United States

Short Forum

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)
Ajjigiingiluktaaqtaugut (We Are All Different)Lindsay McIntyre
Bad Seeds Mauvaises herbes Claude Cloutier
Big ThingsEric Peterson
The BlactorRukiya Bernard
Boobs LolosMarie Valade
Canucks Riot ILewis Bennett
ChocolateCharlene Moore
Defund Kahdijah Roberts-Abdulla, Araya Mengesha
Evan's DrumOssie Michelin
Flower BoyAnya Chirkova
Hatha Asia Youngman
Heavy PettingBrendan Prost
The HorsesLiz Cairns
Indigenous DadsPeter Brass
The Isobel ImprintLiz Grant
Jean Swanson: We Need a New MapTeresa Alfield
Kiri and the Girl Grace Dove
Like the Ones I Used to Know Les Grandes claques Annie St-Pierre
Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian AgainCourtney Montour
Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics Terril Calder
Militant MotherCarmen Pollard
The MohelCharles Wahl
Nalujuk Night Jennie Williams
News from HomeSara Wylie
On Either SideElisa Julia Gilmour
PersonalsSasha Argirov
PrometheusMarie Farsi
A Safe DistanceGloria Mercer
Solitary SkiesAmanda Cassidy
Srikandi Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto
Things We Feel But Do Not SayLauren Grant
Tla-o-qui-aht Dugout CanoeSteven Davies
Together Albert Shin
Twelve Hours Paul Shkordoff
The UntouchableAvazeh Shahnavaz
A VoidDominique Van Olm
Without You Mina Shum

International Shorts

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
Al-SitSuzannah MirghaniSudan, Qatar
All Dogs DieAllir Hundar Deyja Ninna Pálmadóttir Iceland
Anyhow, AnywaySeja como forCatarina RomanoPortugal
Apart, TogetherOlivia Hang ZhouUnited States, China
The Black DisquisitionQuincy G. LedbetterUnited States
CarrierLastiMax OvaskaFinland
Chants from a Holy BookCassiana Der Haroutiounian, Cesar GananianBrazil
CharlotteZach DornUnited States
CharonYannick KarcherFrance
Don vs. LightningBig Red ButtonUnited Kingdom
DonaMarga MeliàSpain
Fall of the Ibis KingMikai Geronimo, Josh O'CaoimhIreland
Flowing HomeNhu môt dòng sôngSandra DesmazièresFrance
The Following YearMiguel CampañaSpain
Goodbye TornioHei hei TornioEmilia HernesniemiFinland
Granny's Sexual LifeBabičino seksualno življenjeUrška DjukićSlovenia, France
MeTube: August Sings Una Furtiva LagrimaDaniel MoshelAustria
The MonkeyLorenzo Degl´Innocenti, Xosé ZapataPortugal, Spain
Neko and FliesTsao Shih HanTaiwan
The Night I Left AmericaLaki KaraviasUnited States
Nuevo Rico Kristian Mercado FigueroaUnited States
Quality TimeOmer Ben-DavidIsrael
A Quiet ManL'Homme silencieuxNyima CartierFrance
A Roll in the HayUne partie en l'airGeoffrey FighieraFrance
RoyTom Berkeley, Ross WhiteUnited Kingdom
The Saverini WidowLa Veuve SavariniLoïc GaillardFrance
Unnecessary ThingsНепотрібні речіDmytro LisenbartUkraine
WakeMark BostonUnited Kingdom
Your StreetDeine StrasseGüzin KarSwitzerland

Reel Youth

English titleOriginal titleDirector(s)Production country
10amProdipto SahaBangladesh
All AloneMackenzie DyCanada
The Art of Being in a World of Not BeingSoheil Soheili, Parsa Shojai, Alireza Ahmadi, Sajad TeymooriIran
Christopher HunteTiffany Siu, Andrea LeungCanada
Eye RobotElina Villemure, Noah HarrisonUnited States
From the NorthAvi MaksagakCanada
ḥaḥuupač̓akukqinTim MassoCanada
A Letter to Hong KongWynne KwokCanada
KamayanMinerva NavascaCanada
kʷənáŋət néʔMarius Fernandes, Julian Fernandes, Anthony Fernandes, Malinalli Angulo, Weah FernandesCanada
The MomentsChwilePiotr KaźmierczakPoland
Music for the End of the WorldEmmanuel LiUnited Kingdom
Pitoc e icinakosianJos-Onimskiw Ottawa-Dubé, Gerry OttawaCanada
The Secret of ColorsTravis NguyenCanada
Sophie and JacobMax ShohamCanada
WicketHarsh KhuranaIndia
Witch's Hunt DayOdilia TanujayaIndonesia

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vancouver International Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October.

Julia Kwan is a Canadian screenwriter, director, and occasional producer of her own short and feature films. She has brought a keen sense of the Chinese-Canadian cultural experience to her films. Several of the films were made in conjunction with the National Film Board of Canada. Her feature films include Eve and the Fire Horse (2005), as well as the feature length documentary film Everything Will Be (2014). She is also known for her short film 10,000 Delusions (1999) which screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

VIFF Dragons and Tigers Award for Young Cinema was an award from the Vancouver International Film Festival for a film director from the Asia-Pacific region. Presented to a film judged as the best film by an emerging director within the festival's Dragons and Tigers program for Asian cinema, it awarded a creative and innovative film, made early in the director's career, which had not yet won significant international recognition.

<i>Haida Modern</i> 2019 documentary

Haida Modern is a 2019 Canadian documentary film about the art and activism of Haida artist Robert Davidson. The film was directed by Charles Wilkinson, filmed, produced and edited by Wilkinson and Tina Schliessler and executive produced by Kevin Eastwood. It premiered at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival.

<i>Beans</i> (2020 film) 2020 film by Tracey Deer

Beans is a 2020 Canadian drama film directed by Mohawk-Canadian filmmaker Tracey Deer. It explores the 1990 Oka Crisis at Kanesatake, which Deer lived through as a child, through the eyes of Tekehentahkhwa, a young Mohawk girl whose perspective on life is radically changed by these events.

<i>Monkey Beach</i> (film) 2020 drama film

Monkey Beach is a 2020 Canadian drama film, directed by Loretta Todd. Her debut narrative feature, the film is an adaptation of Eden Robinson's 2000 novel Monkey Beach.

The 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 39th event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from September 24 to October 7, 2020. On September 3, organizers announced a lineup of 180 films; due to the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia and the associated social distancing restrictions remaining in place at movie theatres and other public venues, the festival took place primarily on the online VIFF Connect platform.

Bad Omen is a 2020 Canadian short drama film, directed by Salar Pashtoonyar. The film stars Fereshta Afshar as Pari, a widowed tailor in Kabul who must find the money to pay for a pair of prescription glasses to keep her job, despite Afghan culture's social stigmatization of widows.

The Book of Distance is a Canadian virtual reality documentary film, directed by Randall Okita and released in 2020. Made for the National Film Board of Canada, the film is an animated immersive environment placing the viewer inside the context of Okita's grandfather Yonezo Okita's experiences during the internment of Japanese Canadians in World War II.

<i>Yuni</i> (film) 2021 film

Yuni is an internationally co-produced drama film, written and directed by Kamila Andini. It stars Arawinda Kirana in the title role.

<i>Portraits from a Fire</i> 2021 Canadian comedy-drama film

Portraits from a Fire is the first narrative feature film written and directed by a Tsilhqot'in filmmaker.

Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew is a 2021 Canadian documentary film, directed by Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux and Kirk Thomas. The film is a portrait of the Notic Streetball Crew, a streetball team who were active in Vancouver in the early 2000s; Schaulin-Rioux and Thomas got their start in the film industry making short documentary films and performance videos about the team.

Coextinction is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Gloria Pancrazi and Elena Jean and released in 2021. The film centres on the environmental threat to orcas in the Pacific Ocean, caused in part by the simultaneous decline of Pacific salmon stocks that the orcas depend on for food.

Be Still is a Canadian drama film, directed by Elizabeth Lazebnik and released in 2021. An adaptation of Janet Munsil's theatrical play of the same name, the film is a biographical portrait of Hannah Maynard, a photographer from Victoria, British Columbia who was an unheralded innovator in the artistic genre of surrealism.

<i>Riceboy Sleeps</i> (film) 2022 Canadian film

Riceboy Sleeps is a 2022 Canadian drama film, written, produced, edited, and directed by Anthony Shim. Based in part on Shim's own childhood, the film centres on So-Young, a Korean immigrant single mother raising her teenage son Dong-Hyun after moving to Canada to give him a better life.

The Vancouver International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film is an annual award, presented by the Vancouver International Film Festival to honour the film selected by a jury as the best Canadian film screened at VIFF that year.

The 2022 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 41st event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from September 29 to October 9, 2022. The festival opened with the Marie Clements film Bones of Crows, and closed with Hirokazu Kore-eda's film Broker.

Kathleen Jayme is a Canadian documentary filmmaker from Vancouver, British Columbia. She is most noted for the films Finding Big Country and The Grizzlie Truth, which examine the history of the ill-fated Vancouver Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association.

The 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 42nd event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from September 28 to October 8, 2023.

Gamodi is a Canadian-Georgian science fiction film, directed by Felix Kalmenson and released in 2023. Set during the COVID-19 pandemic, the film stars Matt Shally and Maqzime Rauch as Viktor and Tarzan, a drag queen and a teenage drifter in Tbilisi who, with nowhere to self-isolate during COVID lockdowns, squat together in an abandoned tower block which increasingly resembles a purgatory between life and death.

References