GIVEAWAY VIFF Vancouver International Film Festival

It’s opening day of the 45th VIFF Vancouver International Film Festival and you can enter to win two screening tickets! Audience can enjoy a robust festival program that includes 162 features, including 12 world premieres, 6 international premieres, 15 North American premieres, and 49 Canadian premieres. The program also includes 91 short films and two episodic series.

VIFF Vancouver International Film Festival

• October 1-11, 2026
• Tickets are available now

VIFF’s program is a celebration of the year’s best cinema along with a variety of talks and special events, an expanded VIFF Live program that runs the duration of the festival, new initiatives through the recently established Institute for the Moving Image, and more.

The festival offers a unique balance of narrative, documentary, and short films; live cinematic performances; and artist development programs, situated in one of the continent’s most productive film and television hubs. 76 nations are represented in the lineup for one of North America’s largest and most dynamic film festivals.

Indigenous Spotlight

There are so many films to list, I encourage you to browse the program, and I’ve chosen to highlight the NORTHERN LIGHTS: The next wave of Canadian and Indigenous storytellers program, presented by Telefilm Canada:

• Ba’s Book dir. Ashley Duong (Canada)
  • A TIFF Docs world premiere and Cannes Docs award winner, Ba’s Book follows Vietnamese-Canadian filmmaker Ashley Duong as she brings her father’s memoir to Vietnam and recreates it with her family, blending documentary and staged scenes.
• The Bryce Lee Story dir. Arnold Lim (Canada)
  • BC Feature, World Premiere
  • A 13-year-old immigrant and aspiring filmmaker falsely claims he’s related to Bruce Lee in this Vancouver Island-set film. The Bryce Lee Story is a heartfelt coming-of-age tale about identity, family, and the search for belonging.
• Clubfoot dir. Nathan Donovan (Canada)
  • World Premiere
  • An adopted teen and his friend coerce a younger adoptee to go for a drive out to the countryside — but things turn violent. With a fragmented structure and unresolved questions, Clubfoot reflects the uncertainty and isolation that often follow adoption.
• First Comes Love: Nakabingwit dir. Joella Cabalu (Canada)
  • BC Feature, World Premiere
  • An engaging hybrid documentary with a rom-com aesthetic, First Comes Love: Nakabingwit follows Canadian women in the Filipino diaspora as they search for the language to discuss race, privilege, and love with their white romantic partners.
• The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony dir. Habiba Nosheen (Canada/Pakistan/USA)
  • The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony follows a group of young female gymnasts in Pakistan’s Machar Colony, a highly conservative fishing settlement. Habiba Nosheen’s deeply empathetic documentary is a celebration of girlhood, resilience, and self-expression.
• In the Heart of the South dir. Nyla Innuksuk (Canada)
  • In the Heart of the South, from the director of Slash/Back, brings North of North co-stars Anna Lambe and Zorga Qaunaq together for a propulsive, psychological meta-thriller about an Inuk multimedia writer possessed by her own narrative.
• Lifeline dir. Ilhan Abdullahi (Canada)
  • BC Feature
  • When a Somali youth worker is assigned a high-stakes case, her professional responsibilities pull her back toward a community — and a past — she has worked to leave behind. Lifeline is an intimate exploration of belonging and responsibility.
• Pocket Mirror dir. Adrian Murray (Canada)
  • World Premiere
  • Lonely, isolated, and haunted by the possibility her cat has been replaced with a replica, Maisie’s closest confidant is an AI chatbot. Pocket Mirror is a striking distillation of modern alienation with wry humour and underlying suspense.
• Relax, Open Your Eyes dir. David Ehrenreich (Canada)
  • BC Feature
  • Confronted with her husband’s declining health, Carrie Radomski dedicates herself to building Canada’s first cryonics facility in this intimate documentary about hope, conviction, and humanity’s enduring quest to overcome death.
• A Safe Distance dir. Gloria Mercer (Canada)
  • BC Feature
  • Following a camping trip gone awry, a woman is rescued by a free-spirited couple living off the grid. As she warms to the pair, she finds herself becoming dangerously entangled in their psychosexual affairs in Gloria Mercer’s red-hot crime drama.
• Send the Rain dirs. Hayley Gray, Kaayla Whachell (Canada)
  • BC Feature, World Premiere
• Seventeen dir. Justin Ducharme (Canada)
  • BC Feature
  • Seventeen takes us through a rough day in the lives of three Indigenous sex workers, shining a light on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and telling a story of solidarity and love.
• Smudge the Blades dir. Cody Lightning (Canada)
  • This rousing hockey drama centres on the Treaty 6 Blades, a team of Indigenous youth on a quest for redemption. Blessed with a terrific cast, this is a crowd-pleaser in which victory is about much more than winning the game.
• Still Night, Burning House dir. Carol Nguyen (Canada)
  • A world premiere at TIFF Docs, Still Night, Burning House follows Vietnamese-Canadian filmmaker Carol Nguyen and her family to Vietnam to try and understand her uncle’s mysterious death and the grief left unspoken.
• Strong Son dir. Ian Bawa (Canada)
  • A bodybuilder returns home to care for his ailing father in Ian Bawa’s debut feature. A moving exploration of masculinity, filial duty, and the emotional distance between first-generation immigrant parents and their children.
• Turtle Island Rap dir. Alexandra Lazarowich (Canada)
  • Taking us into the world of Indigenous hip-hop, this soulful doc profiles three up-and-comers in the genre. Exploring its subject’s personal lives as well as their career moves, the film is a work of complex human portraiture — and the music is terrific.

Enter to Win

I’m giving away two voucher codes for a film of the winner’s choosing (pending availability). Here’s how you can enter to be that winner in this quick draw: