VIFF 2026 Lights Up Vancouver: Why You Should Go This Week

By Elke Porter | WBN News Vancouver | October 2, 2026
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Vancouver's film season kicked off last night. The 45th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) opened Thursday at 5:45 pm at the Vancouver Playhouse with Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut, a by-invitation gala screening. The festival runs through October 11.

What VIFF Is

VIFF screens 162 features and 91 shorts from 76 countries at nine venues, and organizers expect 110,000 audience members. The festival dates back to 1958. The Debut follows a meek woman, played by Julianne Moore, who lands a part in a community-theatre musical and starts to lose her grip on reality. Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, will close the festival.

How VIFF Differs From TIFF

Toronto's TIFF unfolds in September and thrives on studio premieres, star-studded red carpets and awards-season buzz. VIFF takes a different path. Emerging directors, international voices and Canadian storytellers share the spotlight. Its documentary slate makes VIFF the second-largest documentary festival in Canada, behind Toronto's Hot Docs. The more intimate scale invites audiences to settle into a film and, often, into a conversation with the people who made it.

What to Expect This Week

More than 50 non-fiction features take the screen, including new films about Terry Fox, Rick Hansen and Brian Mulroney. Canadian premieres include Tony Gilroy's Behemoth!, Cristian Mungiu's Fjord and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden, plus Hong Sangsoo's Nowhere to Lay My Eyes. Guest curator Sophy Romvari revives classics, including Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. Music fans can catch DEVO's Mark Mothersbaugh in the VIFF Live program, where he highlights his work as a film composer.

Why You Should Watch

Pick three films and you will travel farther than any airline could take you. Subtitled features invite you to slow down and listen, and short films reward your curiosity in minutes. You will hear stories no streaming algorithm would recommend, and you will share a dark room with neighbours who react in real time. Adult tickets cost $22, and standby lines form for sold-out shows. Buy a ticket, take a chance on something unfamiliar, and see what Vancouver's screens reveal.

Elke Porter at:
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