Vancouver Latin American Film Festival
VLAFF 2025: The Best Mother, Opening Night Film.
For over 20 years, the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival has been entertaining, exciting, and inspiring audiences across the Lower Mainland.
Founded in 2003, VLAFF has grown from a weekend showcase to an 11-day festival exhibiting over 90 features, documentaries, and short films representing works from over 17 countries in 11 different languages (always with English subtitles).
Each year VLAFF invites local, national, and international guests to participate in artist talks, Q&As, and panel discussions. It organizes special events with receptions catered by local Latin American restaurants, and music and dance performances. To complement the film programming, over the years the fest has also organized literary readings, art exhibitions, concerts, master classes, and workshops.
An important part of our vision is the creation of a space where people can come together to exchange ideas and be inspired. The interactive discussions following the screenings engage both the audience and the artists, promoting dialogue among diverse communities. By making these films available to the public, VLAFF hopes to increase awareness of the range and complexity of media art coming from Latin American, Latin-Canadian, and Indigenous filmmakers.
Innovative and inclusive programming is at the core of the festival’s mission and in addition to a programming committee, each year VLAFF works with guest curators to bring new visions to the event. VLAFF has developed several signature sections including: the New Directors Competition, Shorts in Competition, Future Ancestors: Indigenous Cinema, ¡Activismo!, Queer Latinx, and Canada Looks South. The organization also welcomes a Youth Jury made up of 20 to 30 students who engage in dialogues with the filmmakers and select the winner of the Best New Director award.
VLAFF screenings are held at The Cinematheque, SFU Woodward’s, Cinewords and Cineplex International Village.
And none of this would be possible without the VLAFF Volunteers—an amazing group of over 100 people, playing a key role in the presentation of the festival and its year-round activities.
