Vancouver International Film Festival Announces 2025 Line-up

New documentaries from Brishkay Ahmed, Alison Reid, and Jenn Strom are among the world premieres set for this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). Today’s line-up announcement includes Ahmed’s NFB doc In the Room, which tells the story of five Afghan women fighting for their freedom in their homeland. Reid’s The Art of Adventure follows painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster as they seek to recover the Land Rover that transported them from Africa to Australia during their landmark 1957 expedition. Finally, Strom’s The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes offers a portrait of the titular landscape artist in one of the portrait’s close to home.

Other Canadian docs screening at VIFF include Agatha’s Almanac, directed by Amalie Atkins; The Track, directed by Ryan Sidhoo; Everest Dark, directed by Jereme Watt; and Shifting Baselines, by Julien Elie. International titles having their Canadian premieres in Vancouver include Jesse Short Bull and David France’s Free Leonard Peltier, Jenn Nkiru’s The Great North, Christine Turner’s Sun Ra: Do the Impossible, and Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize winner Seeds by Brittany Shyne.

Hits from the circuit touching down in Vancouver include Cover-Up by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winners Cutting through Rocks by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, Assembly by Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons, and Orwell: 2+2=5 by Raoul Peck.

This year’s edition of VIFF opens with Richard Linklater’s Godard drama Nouvelle Vague and closes with Ido Fluk’s Köln 75, a portrait of jazz musician Keith Jarrett’s 1975 concert. VIFF runs Oct. 2 to 12.

 

Documentaries announced today include:

INSIGHTS

Cover-Up dirs. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus (USA)

Cutting Through Rocks dirs. Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni (Iran/Netherlands/USA/Germany/Qatar/Chile/Canada)

Everest Dark dir. Jereme Watt (Canada)| BC Feature

Factory dir. Hao Zhou (China)| North American Premiere

Free Leonard Peltier dirs. Jesse Short Bull, David France (USA)| Canadian Premiere

How to Build a Library dirs. Maia Lekow, Christopher King (Kenya)

I Died dir. Ana Ts’uyeb (Mexico)

Landmarks dir. Lucrecia Martel (Argentina/USA/Mexico/France/Netherlands/Denmark)

Life After dir. Reid Davenport (USA)

Marriage Cops dirs. Shashwati Talukdar, Cheryl Hess (India/USA)

Remaining Native dir. Paige Bethmann (USA)

Seeds dir. Brittany Shyne (USA)| Canadian Premiere

The Shadow Scholars dir. Eloise King (UK)| Canadian Premiere

Shifting Baselines dir. Julien Elie (Canada)

Walls – Akinni Inuk dirs. Sofie Rørdam, Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg (Greenland)

With Hasan in Gaza dir. Kamal Aljafari (Palestine/Germany/France/Qatar)

 

SPECTRUM

Agatha’s Almanac dir. Amalie Atkins (Canada)

Always dir. Deming Chen (USA/France/Taiwan/China)

Ancestral Visions of the Future dir. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (France/Lesotho/Germany/Qatar/Saudi Arabia) | North American Premiere

BLKNWS:Terms & Conditions dir. Kahlil Joseph (USA)

Edhi Alice: Take dir. Kim Ilrhan (South Korea) | Spotlight on Korea | Canadian Premiere

Fiume O Morte! dir. Igor Bezinović (Croatia/Italy/Slovenia) | Canadian Premiere

The Great North dir. Jenn Nkiru (UK)| Canadian Premiere

Khartoum dirs. Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox (UK/Sudan/Germany/Qatar)

Memory of Princess Mumbi dir. Damien Hauser (Kenya/Switzerland)

WTO/99 dir. Ian Bell (USA)| International Premiere

Your Touch Makes Others Invisible dir. Rajee Samarasinghe (Sri Lanka/USA)| Canadian Premiere

 

PORTRAITS

Are We Good? dir. Steven Feinartz (USA)| International Premiere

The Art of Adventure dir. Alison Reid (Canada)| World Premiere

Assembly dirs. Rashaad Newsome, Johnny Symons (USA)

Caravaggio dirs. David Bickerstaff, Phil Grabsky (UK)| Canadian Premiere

The Essence of Eva dirs. Malcolm Willis, Alex Fegan (Ireland)

Half Moon: Kinan Azmeh dir. Frank Scheffer (Netherlands) | North American Premiere

I Want It All. Hildegard Knef dir. Luzia Schmid (Germany) | North American Premiere

John Candy: I Like Me dir. Colin Hanks (USA)

La Salsa Vive dir. Juan Carvajal (Colombia/USA)

The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes dir. Jenn Strom (Canada)| BC Feature | World Premiere

particle dance dir. Hiromoto Oka (Japan)| North American Premiere

Sun Ra: Do the Impossible dir. Christine Turner (USA)| Canadian Premiere