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VIFF 2026 Reviews

Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things Feature VIFF-2026-24

Title: Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things Foreign Title: Rebecca Horn – Die Seele der Dinge Year: 2026 Country: German Language: In German with English subtitles Director: Claudia Müller Click here to see the cast and crew If you are open to – or even curious about – modern art but have never heard of the grand dame of German art, Rebecca Horn, this documentary is for you.

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VIFF 2026 Reviews

Farruquito: a Flamenco Dynasty Feature VIFF-2026-17

Title: Farruquito: a Flamenco Dynasty Foreign Title: Serás Farruquito Year: 2025 Country: Spain / USA Language: In Spanish with English subtitles Director: Santi Aguado, Reuben Atlas Click here to see the cast and crew When he enters the first frame, we hear him before we really see him. Juan Manuel Fernández Montoya strides toward a raised platform on center stage, the camera catching him in a tight close-up where only his

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VIFF 2026 Reviews

Crocodile Feature VIFF-2026-16

Title: Crocodile Foreign Title:  Year: 2026 Country: Nigeria / New Zealand Language: In English, Pidgin English, Hausa, and Yoruba with English subtitles Director: The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly Click here to see the cast and crew At the outset, The Critics are identified as a Nigerian “collective” of (mainly) seven teenage boys with filmmaking skills that have earned them a viral following since 2012 when they began making mobile phone-shot sci-fi

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VIFF 2026 Reviews

Last Movies Feature VIFF-2026-14

Title: Last Movies Foreign Title:  Year: 2026 Country: United Kingdom Language: In English and French with English subtitles Director: Stanley Schtinter Click here to see the cast and crew Stanley Schtinter’s introduction to his film speaks of “navigating the history of cinema” in terms of life, chance, death and public figures. Oh yes – and also the chance that the one movie that these “most famous” public figures happened to

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VIFF 2026 Reviews

Concrete Kids Short VIFF-2026-13

Title: Concrete Kids Foreign Title: Betono vaikai Year: 2026 Country of Origin: Lithuania Language: In Lithuanian with English subtitles Director: Saulius Baradinskas Click here to see the cast and crew Ah, feature or short, it’s the dilemma of fiction. What if? The myriad moves available to a young director often determines the outcome. Is it going too far to suggest that leaning on one’s own traumatic memories of street violence

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VIFF 2026 Reviews

Object of Riddle Short VIFF-2026-8

Title: Display Object of Riddle Foreign Title: Objet d’énigme Year: 2026 Country of Origin: Belgium/Italy Language: Not applicable Director: Chiara Caterina Click here to see the cast and crew Objet d’Enigme is translated as Object of Riddle. Now, if you can’t judge a book by its cover, you probably shouldn’t depend on this film’s title either. You see, I’m not a big fan of puzzles, so I was leaning toward

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VIFF 2026 Reviews

Tristesse Short VIFF-2026-6

Title: Tristesse Foreign Title: トリステス Year: 2026 Country: Japan Language: In Japanese with English Subtitles Director: Yuri Muraoka Click here to see the cast and crew This being the film’s North American Premiere provides an excellent opportunity to finally experience contemporary experimentation by Yuri Muraoka, the multi-award-winning filmmaker and poet, whose work has been described as “disturbingly beautiful” and her subject matter as “the search for one’s own self.” Her

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VIFF2025 Reviews

News From Home Feature VIFF 2025-32

Title:  News From Home Foreign Title:  Year: 1976 Country:  France Language: In French with English subtitles Awards:                 Director: Chantal Akerman Credits:  Since its first survey in 1952, every ten years the British Film Institute’s internationally renowned magazine Sight and Sound has provided the film world with its famous poll of critics and filmmakers to appraise and name the 100 Greatest Films of All

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VIFF2025 Reviews

The Bora Feature VIFF2025-31

Title:  The Bora Foreign Title: Sardbad Year: 2024 Country: Iran Language: In Farsi with English subtitles Awards: Director: Mohammad Esmaeili Cast: “Four members of the Sarab mountaineering team made the winter ascent of the Takht-e-Sulaiman Massif. Only one of them managed to return to the base unharmed. The team’s leader didn’t go missing – he was murdered.” And so, begins our film; with white text on a black background, director Muhammad

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Muljil: Diving Shorts Review VIFF2025-22

Title: Muljil: Diving  Foreign Title:  Year: 2025 Country: South Korea Language: In Korean with English subtitles Awards: Director: Young Eun Yoo (Yooye) Credits:  There are hundreds of documentaries about people struggling to secure the most basic, universally accepted necessities of life, food, water and shelter. This is not one of them… Well, not quite. It’s about 77-year-old Yang Young-sam’s melancholy farewell to the sea that has nourished her not only with

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Our Pantheons Shorts Review VIFF2025-19

Title: Our pantheons Foreign Title: Nos panthéons Year: 2025 Country: France Language: In French with English subtitles Awards: Director: Rosalie Charrier Credits: “Everything is political. Every choice, every camera angle in my technical cuts, everything means something” – Rosalie Charrier, Director The French love their Pantheon. It houses the tombs of great men and women of France, but mainly men. According to D. W. O’Boyle, the creator of a world-building Tabletop Role

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Sixty-Seven Milliseconds Shorts Review VIFF2025-15

Title:Sixty-Seven Milliseconds Foreign Title: Soixante-sept millisecondes Year: 2025 Country: France Language: In French with English subtitles Awards: Directors: Galdric Fleury, Antoine Fontaine Credits: What happens “after” a shooting of a teen is recorded on a surveillance camera? Alternating between images of the high-caliber weapon used in the deed and the repulsive badges of the Anti-Crime Squad who appear and disappear around corners like a video game, the event at the

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Four Walls of Memory Shorts Review VIFF2025-12

Title: Four Walls of Memory Foreign Title:  Year: 2024 Country: Poland Language: English Awards: Director: Joanna Płatek Credits: When you think about it, animated shorts are potentially the most imaginative and problematic of all the film genres. Nothing is off the table. Four Walls of Memory may not be the most abstruse work, but it does provide the type of “situation” that will test even the more “open-minded” cinephiles among

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VIFF2025 Reviews

A Poet Feature Review VIFF2025-7

Title: A Poet Foreign Title: Un poeta Year: 2025 Country: Colombia/Germany/Sweden Language: In Spanish with English subtitles Awards: Director: Simón Mesa Soto Cast What’d he do before he started not making a living writing poetry?”- Dashiell Hammett There are way too many words “about” poetry, what it does and doesn’t do and what it means to people these days and this quote by the hard-boiled detective story writer serves our

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Bleat! Shorts Review VIFF2025-6

Title: Bleat! Foreign Title: Kattu! Year: 2025 Country: Malaysia/Philippines/France Language: In Tamil with English subtitles Awards: Director: Ananth Subramaniam Cast At this point in time, when the requirement of absolute loyalty to an authoritarian figure has become a dominant theme in our society, it is easy to see a parallel with an ancestral culture’s deity who demanded and, as in Malaysian-Tamil director Ananth Subramaniam’s tale, still demands an unreserved allegiance

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VIFF2025 Reviews

The Housekeeper Shorts Review VIFF2025-5

Title: The Housekeeper  Year: 2024 Country: India Language: In Hindi, English and Marathi with English subtitles Director: Surya Balakrishnan Credits:  A hectic morning routine cannot mask the mundane home life of Abhi, an independent young man who leaves his bachelor apartment in Mumbai each day to the care of his housekeeper, Deepa, who in turn is followed in her equally mundane daily chores of cleaning, washing, making the bed, cooking

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