Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut to open Vancouver International Film Festival, while Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine to close it
Amid today’s full programming announcement of more than 160 features, DEVO icon Mark Mothersbaugh is added to VIFF Live lineup
The Debut
Wild Horse Nine
THE VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL will open October 1 at the Vancouver Playhouse with Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, an offbeat comedy about self-serious community theatre starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti.
At a press conference today at the VIFF Centre, director of programming Curtis Woloschuk said it’s an apt opener that carries through a fest theme of empowerment and self-actualization through art, as Moore’s timid housewife finds her inner strength in her small role in a musical.
The fest also announced it will close the event on October 11 with Martin McDonagh’s much-anticipated Wild Horse Nine, set on the eve of the 1973 Chilean coup, as bumbling CIA agents played by John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell head from Santiago to Easter Island. McDonagh, who has directed critically acclaimed films like The Banshees of Inisherin, has called the bitter comedy his most political film yet. The dream cast also includes Tom Waits, Steve Buscemi, and Parker Posey.
VIFF unveiled more than 160 features in all. “This fest is one of great balance,” said executive director Kyle Fostner at the event. “We’re seeing a real expression of multigenerational programming, with the latest from great filmmakers like Kore-eda and Almodóvar, but also from a new generation of filmmakers.”
The choices span a rich assortment of hits from fests in Cannes and Berlin. Among the standouts: award-winners from Cannes, including Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, as well as Venice hits, including Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Look Back and Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love.
The festival had earlier announced its largest VIFF Live lineup so far—and had a big addition to announce today: An Evening With Mark Mothersbaugh will feature the legendary DEVO frontman and prolific film composer (The Lego Movie, Thor: Ragnarok, The Royal Tennenbaums) in concert with a 16-piece ensemble, October 8 at the Vancouver Playhouse. “They [DEVO] will be performing with the B52s a few weeks before that,” Fostner said of the Rogers Arena show September 27. “This is a completely bespoke concert of his film work.”
Other big-name works set to hit theatres for the 45th annual celebration: acclaimed British realist Mike Leigh’s swan song Tender Loving Care, Spanish icon Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas; Peter Farrelly’s true filmmaking underdog story I Play Rocky; and Pawel Pawlikowski’s luminous, black-and-white Fatherland.
Elsewhere, big draws include Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!, starring Pedro Pascal as a cello player who scores motion pictures, in its Canadian premiere. Other notable offerings include Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson’s Wicker, Alain Gomis’s Dao, Ali Asgari’s A Bit of Light, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s Mouse, Lance Hammer’s Queen at Sea, and Hong Sangsoo’s Nowhere to Lay My Eyes.
Buzzed-about newcomers include “Los Javis” Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s epic La bola negra, a Cannes directing-award-winner that looks at queer pain and resilience from pre–Spanish Civil War till 2017; and Club Kid, the tale of a washed-up underground-party promoter forced to care for the young son he didn’t know he had, all written, directed, and starring Jordan Firstman in his feature directorial debut. “Club Kid is going to be one of the audience favourites this year,” predicted Woloschuk, adding the film is the current subject of an international bidding war.
Among VIFF’s celebrated B.C. voices, Mina Shum (of Double Happiness fame) is set to screen Whatcha Want, about a young trophy wife whose marriage to a wealthy businessman is falling apart; Woloschuk said the Vancouver-set film is about “how someone finds their own voice, their own self-expression—in this case through dance.” Meanwhile, Marie Clements brings both How We Stand and the world premiere of the first three episodes of Reclaim My Skin, her forthcoming Knowledge Network documentary series about reclaiming Indigenous women’s history and authority—a collaboration with Pura Fé that blends music, choreography, and stylized documentary techniques.
From Clements’s projects to Cody Lightning’s hockey movie Smudge the Blades, “I think there are 19 Indigenous films in the fest, which is the highest number I can remember and also the strongest slate I can remember,” Fostner said.
This year’s Focus on New German Cinema: Extreme Tension, presented with German Films, showcases six features from fast-rising talents: Christoph Otto’s The Ballad From Wednesday to Thursday, Ella Cieslinski and Nina Wesemann’s Dear Future Self, Kilian Armando Friedrich’s I Understand Your Displeasure, Faraz Shariat’s Prosecution, Daniela Magnani Hüller’s Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party, and Kai Stänicke’s Trial of Hein.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney
As usual, the fest has a strong nonfiction lineup, boasting more than 50 features to qualify as the second-largest documentary festival in Canada. Entries include the world premieres of the NFB film First Comes Love: Nakabingwit by Vancouver-based Joella Cabalu (about three Filipino women and their white romantic partners navigating conversations about race and love) and Relax, Open Your Eyes by B.C.’s David Ehrenreich. Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney is the latest effort from Matthew Rankin, who attracted international attention with 2024’s Universal Language; it’s described on producer NFB’s website as “a psychedelic doomscroll through the mind of a master Canadian politician” and “a fever dream of politics, propaganda and pop culture”. And two Canadian heroes are explored in Run Terry Run, about Terry Fox’s legacy, and Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story.
Programming for the VIFF Industry conference was also unveiled, featuring such guests as Flow cowriter and producer Matīss Kaža, Sound of Falling editor Evelyn Rack, and Locarno Film Festival programmer Pamela Biénzobas.
The soundtrack-music-focused VIFF Amp features guests such as Meg Remy (U.S. Girls), Peter Peter (composer of Heated Rivalry), and Matthew Rogers (of the musical duo the Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer).
VIFF Industry and the Amp Music in Media Summit take place from October 2 to 8, all under the umbrella of VIFF’s recently established Institute of the Moving Image. Additionally, a slate of talks is set to be unveiled next month.
Fostner said today that the integration of the Institute with programming, plus an expanded roster of curators, has brought a new sense of clarity and identity to the organization. "We've gone through a lot of changes over the last seven to 10 years," he said. "The organization feels whole."
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