Nine Canadian features and 10 Canadian shorts will world premiere at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

The 43rd edition of VIFF is showcasing 150 features and 81 shorts from around the globe, the Festival announced on Wednesday (Aug. 28).

Opening the fest is the Canadian film Ari’s Theme (Salazar Film), co-directed by Nathan Drillot and Jeff Lee Petry. It is a Telus original documentary produced by Drillot and Petry, who co-wrote the film along with Ari Kinarthy (pictured), the subject of the documentary. It premiered earlier this year at the Hot Docs Film Festival. The documentary follows Kinarthy, who was born with a rare genetic condition, and his music composition career.

Three other documentaries are world bowing at VIFF, including Ninan Auassat (We, The Children) (National Film Board of Canada [NFB]), written and directed by Kim O’Bomsawin and tells the stories of three groups of children from three different Indigenous nations; The Chef & the Daruma (Wallop Film), a Telus original doc directed by Mads K. Baekkevold and written by Natalie Murao and features Vancouver-based Japanese chef Hidekazu Tojo, who is credited for inventing the California Roll; and The Stand (NFB), written and directed by Christopher Auchter. The film chronicles a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii, an archipelago in B.C.

The remaining six premieres are dramas, including Cat’s Cry (YN Films, Nova Film, Artizana Film), a Canada/Serbia/Croatia coproduction by Serbian-Canadian director Sanja Živković. The movie is co-written by Goran Paskaljević and Djordje Sibinović. It follows a couple as they fight for the custody of their granddaughter after her mother rejects her due to a rare genetic disorder named Cat’s Cry.

The next premiere is Cherub, a no-dialogue drama written and directed by Devin Shears and produced by Shears and Mithila Majithia. The film tells the story of a lonely man who submits a photo as part of a contest for a gay magazine named Cherub. The next two films are Inedia (Experimental Forest Films, Good Question Media) by filmmaker Liz Cairns, which is about a woman who suffers from mysterious food allergies who joins a community that nourishes themselves through light; and Mongrels (Masubi Arts), by filmmaker Jerome Yoo and distributed by Game Theory Films. The movie follows are Korean family in rural Canada in the 1990s who are bombarded with a series of strange occurrences.

Rounding out the dramas are Preface to a History (Sad Hill Media), co-directed by Devan Scott and Willa Harlow Ross and written by Scott and Ross along with Sophy Romvari, Vladimir Fedulov and Paige Smith, which follows the story of a musician and his partner as they struggle with their internal issues; and There, There (Brass Door Productions, Houseplant Films), written and directed by Heather Young. The film explores the story of an elderly woman struggling with dementia and her young pregnant caretaker.

The collection of Canadian short films making their premiere at VIFF this year features five documentaries, three dramas and two comedies. The lineup includes Walter Scott’s animation Organza’s Revenge, and the comedy Soap Box, written and directed by Jimmy G. Pettigrew.

The dramas include Hatch, directed by Alireza Kazemipour and Panta Mosleh; The Death of James (Blue Ant Studios, Lakeside Animation), an animated drama directed by Sam Chou; and Salem on the Road, a drama directed by Étienne Galloy.

The documentaries making their premiere are Delta Dawn, written and directed by Asia Youngman; Grizzly Bear Country, directed by Mave Ky; Judas Icarus Twists His Wrist, directed by Kerr Holden; Like a Spiral, written and directed by Lamia Chraibi; and Nemo 1, written, produced and directed by Albéric Aurtenèche.

Four Canadian features are making their Canadian premiere including A Stranger Quest (Il Varco Cinema, Kublai Film) a Canada/U.S./Italy coproduction directed and written by Andrea Gatopoulos; Blink (Fishbowl Films), a Canada/U.S. coproduction documentary directed by Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher; The Heirloom (Cheekdance Spectacular), written and directed by Ben Petrie; and Inay (Mama) (No More Productions, Knowledge Network, The Cinematheque), a Canada/Philippines coproduction documentary directed by Thea Loo.

VIFF runs this year from Sept. 26 to Oct. 6.

Image Courtesy of VIFF