VIFF24 line-up
Download VIFF 2024 Line-up (pdf)
FLUXX
Thursday 8th (8pm)
Director Brendan
Gabriel Murphy
Narrative Feature
100 mins | USA | 2024
Famed actress Vada Pierce inexplicably awakens in her bathtub with no memory of the events prior, only to discover that her home has been ransacked and her husband is missing. But every time Vada tries to leave the house, she finds herself back in the bathtub. Desperate for answers, she must race against time to discover the truth of her circumstances.
Debuting with a hat trick at the Egypt International Film Festival in 2023 with awards for Best International Film, Best International Director, and Best Actress, this mind-bending multi-genre film has only gained steam since, netting another three awards at the Mammoth Film Festival (Best Genre Film, Best Actress, and Best Cinematography) and taking home a
A NEW KIND OF WILDERNESS
Thursday 8th (6pm)
Director Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
Documentary Feature
84 mins | Norway | 2024
On a small farm in the Norwegian forest, a family seeks a wild free existence. However, after a tragic event changes everything, they are forced from their idyllic farm and into the expectations of modern society.
BASTARDS OF SOUL
Friday 9th (1:30 pm)
Director Paul Levatino
Documentary Feature
81 mins | USA | 2024
Bastards of Soul dives into a Texas band’s journey toward stardom, only to be marred by the pandemic and a sudden tragedy. Capturing their final sessions and live shows, this intimate film celebrates music’s power to heal and unite. Premiering at the Sun Valley Film Festival earlier this year and Audience Award Winner for Best Documentary at both the Dallas International Film Festival and Hill County Film Festival, “Bastards of Soul find joy in the sadness.” (People)
SWARM
Cast
Roma Gasiorowska, Eryk Lubos, Adam Wojciechowski, Antonina Litwiniak
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Friday 9th (3:45 pm)
Director Bartek Bala
Narrative Feature
105 mins | Poland | 2023
Isolated from society for over a decade, a family has self-exiled on a remote island at the command of its patriarch. But when his wife expresses a desire to return to the world from which they are hiding, the family’s foundation will be put to the test. Requiring over 9 months of pre-production to plan a brutal 33-day shoot on a remote section of the coast of Poland that has since been lost to erosion, the soundtrack for this gut-wrenching thriller features over 60 highly-specialized musicians and atavistic vocalists.
I SAW THE TV GLOW
Cast
Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, with Fred Durst and Danielle Deadwyler
Friday 9th (6 pm)
Director Jane Schoenbrun
Narrative Feature
100 mins | USA | 2024
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show: a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack. Programmed at both Sundance and SXSW in 2024, I Saw the TV Glow is a once-in-a-generation horror from Jane Schoenbrun with critics pronouncing it “the best film of 2024, if not the decade.” (Movie Marker)
INHERITANCE
Cast
Austin Highsmith Garces, Rachel Noll James, Wes Brown, with Chris Mulkey and Michelle Hurd
Saturday 10th (10:30 am)
Director Emily Moss Wilson
Local Spotlight Feature
102 mins | USA | 2024
Estranged sisters Lucy and Paige reunite to bury their father, becoming entangled in the complicated web of their past as they realize that they have inherited more from their father than just money. Hot off its premiere at Dances With Films in June, “Inheritance is an authentic indie drama that tackles the messy realities of family, betrayal, and redemption.” (Film Threat) Written by lead actress and Seattle local Rachel Noll James. Saturday 10th (10:30am) Director Emily Moss Wilson Local Spotlight Feature 102 mins | USA | 2024
BLACK DOG
Cast
Eddie Peng, Jia Zhang-Ke, and Xiaoxin
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Saturday 10th (1:15pm)
Director Guan Hu
Narrative Feature
100 mins | China | 2024
On the edge of the Gobi Desert in Northwest China, Lang returns to his hometown after being released from jail. While working for the local dog patrol team to clear the town of stray dogs before the Beijing Olympics, he strikes up an unlikely connection with a black dog; two lonely outcasts finding purpose in each other. From legendary Chinese director Guan Hu (The Eight Hundred), this remarkable film was the recipient of the top Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.
RESYNATOR
Saturday 10th (3:30 pm)
Director Alison Tavel
Documentary Feature
96 mins | USA | 2024
In unearthing the revolutionary synthesizer her late father invented in the 1970s, Alison Tavel not only revives his mission to share it with the world, she unexpectedly forges a deep bond with the father she never got the chance to know. The Audience Award Winner for Best Documentary at the SXSW Film Festival this year, Resynator is “bursting with heart, and genuinely moving in its improbable journey to close the distance between the dead and the living.” (Austin Chronicle)
GRIFFIN IN SUMMER
Cast
Everett Blunck, Melanie Lynskey, Owen Teague, Abby Ryder Forston, and Kathryn Newton
Saturday 10th (6 pm)
Director Nicholas Colia
Narrative Feature
93 mins | USA | 2024
Fourteen-year-old Griffin Nafly is the most ambitious playwright of his generation. But once he meets handsome twenty-five-year-old handyman Brad, his life (and play) will never be the same. Sweeping the Tribeca Film Festival in June with top awards for Best U.S. Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, and Best New Narrative Director, “Griffin in Summer is a brilliant movie about first crushes” (Screen Rant) that “will have you rolling in laughter with its sublime portrayal of a disaffected youth.” (MovieWeb).
SONGS FROM THE HOLE
Sunday 11th (10 am)
Director Contessa Gayles
Documentary Feature
106 mins | USA | 2024
At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. Now, an incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary visual album composed behind bars. “A fresh and lyrical take on the genre,” (Hollywood Reporter) “Songs from the Hole simultaneously teaches the lesson of how music not only entertains, but literally can save lives” (The Curvy Film Critic). Audience Award Winner for Visions at SXSW 2024.
PORCELAIN WAR
Sunday 11th (12:15 pm)
Directors Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev
Documentary Feature
97 mins | Ukraine | 2024
A stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, embodying the passion and fight that only artists can put back into the world when it’s crumbling around them. With extraordinary footage filmed by ordinary citizens in a war-torn Ukraine, Porcelain War is a story much bigger than a single country: it’s about all of us. Boasting 11 wins and 10 nominations across 15 film festivals this season, including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance, “[the] intensity with which Porcelain War presents its horrors will knock you down.” (The Wrap)
BANG BANG
Cast
Tim Blake Nelson, Glenn Plummer, Kevin Corrigan, Andrew Liner, Nina Arianda
Sunday 11th (2:15pm)
Director Vincent Grashaw
Narrative Feature
103 mins | USA | 2024
Retired pugilist Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski is inspired to try his hand at training once he reconnects with his estranged grandson. While their training brings him out of the hole he’s been living in, everyone questions Bang Bang’s motivations. Is he merely passing down inherited rage, or is there true altruism behind his tutelage? Hailed as “the most satisfying movie at the Tribeca Film Festival” this season and “a career highlight from Tim Blake Nelson.” (Awards Radar)
SUJO
Cast
Juan Jesús Varela, Yadira Pérez, Alexis Varela, Sandra Lorenzano, Jairo Hernández
CLOSING NIGHT SCREENING
Sunday 11th (4:30pm)
Directors Astrid Rondero & Ferndanda Valadez
Narrative Feature
127 mins | Mexico | 2024
When a cartel gunman is killed, he leaves behind Sujo, his 4-year-old son. The shadow of violence surrounds Sujo during each stage of his life. As he grows into a man, Sujo finds that fulfilling his father’s destiny may be inescapable. A circuit juggernaut (8 wins/21 nominations/19 festivals) and Grand Jury Prize Winner for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival, Forbes film critic Scott Phillips urges: “Put this one on your personal Watch List.”