Five Canadian features and 15 short films will make their world bow at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

The lineup for the 42nd edition of VIFF features 140 feature films and 100 shorts from around the world. This year’s festival will be the first fully in-cinema event since 2019, with films presented on 10 screens in seven Vancouver venues, according to a news release.

The five Canadian features include a romance and a drama, and three documentaries, all from B.C.

The romance Float (pictured), directed by Sherren Lee, is adapted from Kate Marchant’s Wattpad novel of the same name. It follows the story of a young Asian woman whose life opens up to a world of possibilities and questions after she meets and falls for a lifeguard.

Float is produced Jeff Chan, star Robbie Amell, Chris Paré, and Matthew Kariatsumari of Collective Pictures, Wattpad Webtoon Studios’ Aron Levitz, and Aaron Au and partner Shawn Williamson of Brightlight Pictures. Executive producers include Wattpad’s Allen Lau and Jamie D. Greenberg, Wattpad Webtoon Studios’ Eric Lehrman and Lindsey Weems Ramey, and Jordan Nahmias, Emily Alden, Noah Segal and Sandra Desrosiers Karr.

Lionsgate is the film’s worldwide distributor, while Elevation Pictures is handling the Canadian distribution.

The drama Wild Goat Surf by director Caitlyn Sponheimer is set in Okanagan during the summer of 2003 and centres on a girl who dreams of becoming a surfer. The film is produced by Sponheimer alongside Warren Sulatycky of Toronto and Calgary-based Raging River Films and Vancouver’s Studio 104 Entertainment’s Mike Johnston. Executive producers include Sulatycky, Abubakar Salim and Dyllón Burnside.

The docs include Physician, Heal Thyself by writer-director-producer Asher Penn, WaaPaKe by writer-director Jules Arita Koostachin, and Union Street by writer-director Jamila Pomeroy.

In Physician, Heal Thyself Penn documents the work of Dr Gabor Maté, and his theories about addiction, trauma and childhood development and also his personal story. Shannon Walsh is the executive producer on the doc.

Koostachin’s WaaPaKe is about the survivors of residential schools, told through the lens of individuals who directly or indirectly experienced intergenerational trauma. WaaPaKe is produced by Teri Snelgrove, while Shirley Vercruysse is the executive producer.

Union Street looks at the issues of systemic racial injustice faced by Black communities through the history of Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley, a Black neighbourhood which was destroyed by the construction of the Georgia viaduct in the 1970s. The film is produced by Pomeroy and Mack Stannard, who both also serve as the EPs.

Union Street, Float and Wild Goat Surf are part of the Northern Lights section of the festival, Physician, Heal Thyself  and WaaPaKe are part of the Insights lineup.

The Braid by Laetitia Colombani, an Italy-Canada-India coproduction and the Georgia-Canada drama Gamodi by Toronto’s Felix Kalmenson are making their world premiere, while two B.C. feature films Les Filles du Roi by Corey Payette and Asog by Seán Devlin, which is a Canada-Philippines copro, are making their Canadian premiere.

The Canadian shorts making their world premiere as part of VIFF Short Forum section include: Autre Chose (Something Else) by Étienne Lacelle, Cassandra by Bea Santos, The Company We Keep by Wojtek Jakubiec, Death Mask by John Greyson, Dream Tricks: Over a Six Stair by Adam Seward, Four Mile Creek by Ryan McKenna and Julien G. Marcotte, Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush’s Katshinau (Les mains sales), and My Tomato Heart (Mon cœur de tomate) by Benoît Le Rouzès Ménard.

The lineup also includes Black Box Investigations by Paige Smith; A.W. Hopkins’ Cloud Striker; Master of the House by Dylan Maranda; Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos and Kayah George’s Our Grandmother the Inlet; Sun, Moon and Four Peaks by Kevin Jin Kwan Kim; Take Care by Tony Massil; and Yun by Yuezhang Qin, which are all from B.C.

The shorts selection also includes two films making their North American premieres: the Canada-Kenya copro Defining Human by Daniel Code and the Canada-Iran film Silkworm by Amir Honarmand. Meanwhile, the Canada-U.S. copro Donna by Keenan MacWilliam and the Canada-U.S.-Denmark title Unspeakable Heap by Kara Ditte Hansen are making their international premieres.

Seven shorts are making their Canadian premiere including Sisters by Marisa Hoicka; Portrait of the Con Artist as a Young Man by Ryan Leedu; Les Lavandières by Laura Kamugisha; the Canada-France copro Dickinsonia by Charline Dally; the Canada-Panama copro Cristo Negro by Paul Stavropoulos and Brendan Mills; and two B.C. films Hair or No Hair by Janessa St. Pierre and Between You and Me by Cameron Kletke.

Asia Youngman and Kathleen Jayme’s I’m Just Here for the Riot has also been added to VIFF’s special presentations, joining previously announced Canadian films Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe, Swan Song and Seven Veils. The Elliot Page-led Canada/U.K. drama Close to You, directed by Dominic Savage, and the documentary I Am Sirat, a collaboration between Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja, are among the Showcase selections.

The 42nd edition of VIFF will take place from Sept. 28 to Oct. 8.

Photo courtesy Vancouver International Film Festival