The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

held in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society, a provincially-registered

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

and federally-registered

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ...

, which also runs the year-round programming of the Vancity Theatre and Studio Theatre at the

VIFF Centre The VIFF Centre (formerly the Vancouver International Film Centre and the Vancity Theatre) is a movie theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which houses the 175-seat Vancity Theatre, the 41-seat Studio Theatre, as well as the offices fo ...

. Both in terms of admissions and number of films screened (133,000 and 324 respectively in 2016), VIFF is among the five largest film festivals in North America. The festival screens films annually from approximately 73 countries on 10 screens. The festival has three main programming platforms: East Asian film, Canadian film, and nonfiction films. Besides films from around the world, VIFF also includes talks, workshops, performances, and other special events related to cinema.

History

The festival was first launched in 1958; however, facing financial and organizational difficulties in the late 1960s, it was discontinued after the 1969 festival. The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society was incorporated in the early 1980s and relaunched the festival in its current form in 1982. In 2019, Member of Parliament

Hedy Fry Hedy Madeleine Fry, (born August 6, 1941) is a Trinidadian-Canadian politician and physician who is currently the longest-serving female Member of Parliament, winning nine consecutive elections in the constituency of Vancouver Centre includin ...

, chairwoman of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, announced that the Government of Canada would provide over $1.4 million in funding for that year's festival, as well as for cultural infrastructure upgrades to its main theatre.

Venues

The relaunched festival was staged entirely at the city's independent Ridge Theatre, although the festival has since expanded into a multi-venue event headquartered at the

downtown Vancouver Downtown Vancouver is the central business district and the city centre neighbourhood of Vancouver, Canada, on the northwestern shore of the Burrard Peninsula in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. It occupies most of the north shor ...

. The VIFF Centre hosts VIFF's year-round programming, workshops, special events and collaborates with local organizations for special events.

Awards

Festival awards (juried and audience-voted): * Most Popular International Film *

National Film Board The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

Award for Best Documentary * Special Jury Prize * Kyoto Planet "Climate for Change" Award * Dragons and Tigers Award for Young Cinema Citytv Western Canadian Feature Film Award LAP0440 ombTurnerVIFF 0011

Women In Film and Television Vancouver Artistic Merit Award * Rogers People's Choice Award * International Film Guide Inspiration Award * ''documentary'' Audience Award * VIFF Most Popular Canadian Film Award * VIFF Environmental Film Audience Award * Super Channel People's Choice Award * Ignite Award * VIFF IMPACT Award BC Spotlight Awards * Sea to Sky Award — a $20,000 cash prize awarded to one female key creative on a BC-produced feature or short. * Best BC Film Award — $10,000 from Creative BC and $15,000 in

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

services credit supplied by

Company 3 Company 3 (CO3) is an American post-production company founded in 1997 by colorists Stefan Sonnenfeld and Mike Pethel and visual effects artist/supervisor Noel Castley-Wright. Rob Walston brought the team of artists together and funded Company 3 ...

. * BC Emerging Filmmaker Award — a $5,000 award from UBCP/ACTRA, with an additional $10,000 equipment credit supplied by William F. White International Inc. Canadian Awards * Best Canadian Film — $15,000 award presented by the

Directors Guild of Canada The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. Founded in 1962, the DGC represents directors, editors, assist ...

(DGC). * Emerging Canadian Director — $3,000 award presented by the DGC. * Best Canadian Documentary — $15,000 prize presented by the

Rogers Rogers may refer to: Places Canada *Rogers Pass (British Columbia) * Rogers Island (Nunavut) United States * Rogers, Arkansas, a city * Rogers, alternate name of Muroc, California, a former settlement * Rogers, Indiana, an unincorporated communit ...

Group of Funds. * Best BC Short Film — $5,000 award presented by

TELUS Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services ...

Storyhive. * Best Canadian Short Film — $15,000 in colour grading and/or

VFX Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...

services credit supplied by Side Street Post and $2,000 award presented by VIFF. * Most Promising Director of a Canadian Short Film International Awards * VIFF Impact Award —

CA$ The Canadian dollar (symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style g ...

5,000 presented by the

Lochmaddy Foundation Lochmaddy ( gd, Loch nam Madadh, "Loch of the Hounds") is the administrative centre of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. ''Na Madaidhean'' (the wolves/hounds) are rocks in the bay after which the loch, and subsequently the village, are ...

to an international documentary playing in the 'Impact' competition. *Rob Stewart Eco Warrior Award — $5,000 prize presented by RBC and Cineplex to a documentary playing in the Impact competition that recognizes an outstanding contribution by an activist-storyteller. VIFF Immersed Awards VIFF Immersed Awards focus on narrative-driven

virtual-reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), ed ...

experiences. * Best in Cinematic Live-Action * Best in Documentary * Best in Animation * Honorable Mention in Animation — determined by unanimous decision from the jury. * Audience Award — determined by votes cast on the

VeeR VR Velocious Technologies (known as VeeR VR). History Veer VR is the global VR content community founded in 2016. The three co-founders have been featured by Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2018 as honourees for the consumer technology sector, become the on ...

platform. Audience Awards * Super Channel People's Choice Award * VIFF Most Popular International Feature * VIFF Most Popular International Documentary * VIFF Most Popular Canadian Documentary * #mustseebc Sustainable Production Excellence Awards * Sustainable Production Impact * Sustainable Production Champion

References

External links

*
VIFF
on

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{VIFF Film festivals established in 1982 1982 establishments in British Columbia