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2021 Vancouver International Film Festival

Opening film
Petite Maman
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
1958
190
October 1–11, 2021
VIFF

The 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 40th event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from October 1 to October 11, 2021. Unlike the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, which was staged entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 festival featured in-person screenings at the VIFF Centre and other venues, although most titles were also available on the online VIFF Connects platform.

The festival opened with the film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, and closed with the film Petite Maman. 190 films from 51 countries where screened in the festival constituting 113 features, 77 shorts, 80 narrative features and 33 documentary features.

In addition, the festival screened some titles outside Vancouver, including in Terrace and Powell River. Some, but not all, titles on the online platform were available for viewing across Canada rather than being geoblocked to British Columbia.

Audience-voted awards were announced on October 13 following the end of the festival; however, the juried award winners were announced during the festival as a technique to help publicize and promote the winning films.

Award	Film	Filmmaker
Audience Award, Galas & Special Presentations	Official Competition (Competencia oficial)	Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn
Audience Award, Contemporary World Cinema	The In-Laws (Tesciowie)	Kuba Michalczuk
Audience Award, True North	Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew	Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, Kirk Thomas
Audience Award, Gateway	Time	Ricky Ko
Audience Award, Impact	Little Palestine: Diary of an Occupation	Abdallah Al-Khatib
Audience Award, Insights	The Six	Arthur Jones
Audience Award, M/A/D	Charlotte	Eric Warin, Tahir Rana
Audience Award, Altered States	Saloum	Jean Luc Herbulot
Best Canadian Film	Without Havana (Sin la Habana)	Kaveh Nabatian
Best Canadian Documentary	Returning Home	Sean Stiller
Best Canadian Short Film	Together	Albert Shin
Emerging Canadian Director	Bootlegger	Caroline Monnet
Best BC Film	Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew	Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, Kirk Thomas
Best BC Short Film	The Horses	Liz Cairns
BC Emerging Filmmaker	Portraits from a Fire	Trevor Mack
VIFF Impact Award	Blue Box	Michal Weits
Rob Stewart Eco Warrior Award	Coextinction	Gloria Pancrazi, Elena Jean
Immersed (Virtual Reality Program), Best Cinematic Live Action	Symphony	Igor Cortadellas
Immersed, Best Documentary	Inside COVID19	Gary Yost, Adam Loften
Immersed, Best Augmented Reality	Mission to Mars AR	Piotr Baczyński, Bartosz Rosłoński
Immersed, Best Animation	Beat	Keisuke Itoh
Immersed, Best Animation Honorable Mention	The Passengers	Ziad Touma
Immersed, Audience Award	Red Eyes	Sngmoo Lee

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
All My Puny Sorrows	Michael McGowan	Canada
Belfast	Kenneth Branagh	United Kingdom, Ireland
Benediction	Terence Davies	United Kingdom, United States
Bergman Island	Mia Hansen-Løve	France, Mexico, Brazil, Germany
Drive My Car	Doraibu mai kā	Ryusuke Hamaguchi	Japan
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain	Will Sharpe	United Kingdom, United States
Everything Went Fine	Tout s'est bien passé	François Ozon	France
Memoria	Apichatpong Weerasethakul	Thailand, Colombia, France, Germany, Mexico, China
Mothering Sunday	Eva Husson	United Kingdom
Night Raiders	Danis Goulet	Canada
Official Competition	Competencia oficial	Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn	Spain
One Second	秒钟	Zhang Yimou	China
Petite Maman	Céline Sciamma	France
Red Rocket	Sean Baker	United States
The Worst Person in the World	Verdens verste menneske	Joachim Trier	Norway

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
Azor	Andreas Fontana	Argentina, France, Switzerland
The Beta Test	Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe	United States
Bone Marrow	Hamid Reza Ghorbani	Iran
The Book of Delights	O Livro dos Prazeres	Marcela Lordy	Brazil
Brighton 4th	Levan Koguashvili	Georgia, Russia, Bulgaria, Monaco, United States
Brother's Keeper	Okul Tıraşı	Ferit Karahan	Turkey, Romania
Bye Bye Morons	Adieu les cons	Albert Dupontel	France
Celts	Kelti	Milica Tomović	Serbia
Clara Sola	Nathalie Álvarez Mesén	Sweden, Costa Rica, Belgium, Germany
Compartment No. 6	Hytti nro 6	Juho Kuosmanen	Finland, Estonia, Germany, Russia
Fabian – Going to the Dogs	Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde	Dominik Graf	Germany
Father Pablo	Padre Pablo	José Luis Isoard Arrubarrena	Mexico
The Girl and the Spider	Das Mädchen und die Spinne	Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher	Switzerland
Girlfriends	Chavalas	Carol Rodríguez Colás	Spain
Godavari	Nikhil Mahajan	India
Havel	Slávek Horák	Czech Republic
Him	Han	Guro Bruusgaard	Norway
Hit the Road	Jadde Khaki	Panah Panahi	Iran
The In-Laws	Tesciowie	Kuba Michalczuk	Poland
Lamya's Poem	Alex Kronemer	Canada, United States
Miracle	Miracol	Bogdan George Apetri	Romania, Czech Republic, Latvia
Paris, 13th District	Les Olympiades	Jacques Audiard	France
Queen of Glory	Nana Mensah	United States
The Siamese Bond	Las siamesas	Paula Hernández	Argentina
Small Body	Piccolo Corpo	Laura Samani	Italy, France, Slovenia
Souad	Ayten Amin	Egypt, Tunisia, Germany
A Tale of Love and Desire	Une histoire d'amour et de désir	Leyla Bouzid	France, Tunisia
Unclenching the Fists	Разжимая кулаки	Kira Kovalenko	Russia
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?	Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt?	Alexandre Koberidze	Germany, Georgia

English title	Original title	Director(s)
Be Still	Elizabeth Lazebnik
The Boathouse	Hannah Cheesman
Bootlegger	Caroline Monnet
Coextinction	Gloria Pancrazi, Elena Jean
Damascus Dreams	Émilie Serri
Darkroom	Lukas Maier
Drunken Birds	Les Oiseaux ivres	Ivan Grbovic
Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew	Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, Kirk Thomas
Hands That Bind	Kyle Armstrong
Islands	Martin Edralin
The Last Tourist	Tyson Sadler
Learn to Swim	Thyrone Tommy
Night Blooms	Stephanie Joline
Portraits from a Fire	Trevor Mack
Quickening	Haya Waseem
Returning Home	Sean Stiller
Ste. Anne	Rhayne Vermette
See for Me	Randall Okita
The White Fortress	Tabija	Igor Drljaca
Wildhood	Bretten Hannam
Without Havana	Sin la Habana	Kaveh Nabatian
Zo Reken	Emanuel Licha

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
Barbarian Invasion	Tan Chui Mui	Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines
A Chat	Wang Xide	China
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko	Gyokō no Nikuko-chan	Ayumu Watanabe	Japan
In Front of Your Face	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Money Has Four Legs	Maung Sun	Myanmar
Moneyboys	尋找	C.B.Yi	Taiwan, Austria
Sinkhole	Singkeuhol	Kim Ji-hoon	South Korea
Spaghetti Code Love	Takeshi Maruyama	Japan
Three Sisters	Lee Seung-won	South Korea
Time	Ricky Ko	Hong Kong
Wife of a Spy	Spy no Tsuma	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Yuni	Kamila Andini	Indonesia, Singapore, France, Australia

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
Ayukawa: The Weight of Life	Tu Neill, Jim Speers	New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan
Behind the Headlines	Daniel Andreas Sager	Germany
Blue Box	Michal Weits	Israel, Canada, Belgium
From the Wild Sea	Fra det vilde hav	Robin Petré	Denmark
Her Socialist Smile	John Gianvito	United States
Little Palestine: Diary of an Occupation	Abdallah Al-Khatib	Lebanon, France, Qatar
Secrets from Putumayo	Aurélio Michiles	Brazil

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
Daughter of a Lost Bird	Brooke Pepion Swaney	United States
Faya Dayi	Jessica Beshir	Ethiopia, United States, Qatar
The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation	Avi Mograbi	France, Finland, Israel, Germany
Flee	Jonas Poher Rasmussen	United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark
Just a Movement	Juste un mouvement	Vincent Meessen	Belgium, France
The King of North Sudan	Danny Abel	United States, China, Egypt, Thailand
Maya	Jamshid Mojaddadi, Anson Hartford	United Kingdom, Iran
My Childhood, My Country - 20 Years in Afghanistan	Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi	Afghanistan, United Kingdom
The Six	Arthur Jones	China
Taming the Garden	Salomé Jashi	Switzerland, Germany, Georgia
The Velvet Queen	La Panthère des neiges	Marie Amiguet, Vincent Munier	France
Venetian Molecules	Molecole	Andrea Segre	Italy

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
Charlotte	Eric Warin, Tahir Rana	Canada, France, Belgium
The Endless Moment: The Painter Rolf Kuhlmann	Claudia Schmid	Germany, Greece
Keep Rolling	Man Lim Chung	Hong Kong
Nine Sevilles	Nueve Sevillas	Gonzalo García Pelayo, Pedro G. Romero	Spain, France
Records	Alan Zweig	Canada
Rock Bottom Riser	Fern Silva	United States
Stories That Transform Us	Corey Payette	Canada
To the Moon	Tadhg O'Sullivan	Ireland
White Cube	Renzo Martens	Netherlands, Belgium

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
Adversarial Infrastructure	Anna Engelhardt	Russia
The Canyon	Zachary Epcar	United States
The Coast	Sohrab Hura	India
Corps Samples	Astrid de la Chapelle	France
Happiness Is a Journey	Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan	United States, Estonia
In Flow of Words	Eliane Esther Bots	Netherlands
I've Been Afraid	Cecelia Condit	Mexico
Motorcyclist's Happiness Won't Fit Into His Suit	Al motociclista no le cabe la felicidad en el traje	Gabriel Herrera	Mexico
Neon Phantom	Fantasma Neon	Leonardo Martinelli	Brazil
New Abnormal	Sorayos Prapapan	Thailand, South Korea, Singapore
Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox	Kevin B. Lee	Germany, United States
Show Me Other Places	Rajee Samarasinghe	Sri Lanka, United States

English title	Original title	Director(s)
Bipolar	Queena Li	China
Kicking Blood	Blaine Thurier	Canada
Saloum	Jean Luc Herbulot	Senegal
The Scary of Sixty-First	Dasha Nekrasova	United States
Strawberry Mansion	Albert Birney, Kentucker Audley	United States
Tin Can	Seth A. Smith	Canada
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror	Kier-La Janisse	United States

English title	Original title	Director(s)
Ajjigiingiluktaaqtaugut (We Are All Different)	Lindsay McIntyre
Bad Seeds	Mauvaises herbes	Claude Cloutier
Big Things	Eric Peterson
The Blactor	Rukiya Bernard
Boobs	Lolos	Marie Valade
Canucks Riot I	Lewis Bennett
Chocolate	Charlene Moore
Defund	Kahdijah Roberts-Abdulla, Araya Mengesha
Evan's Drum	Ossie Michelin
Flower Boy	Anya Chirkova
Hatha	Asia Youngman
Heavy Petting	Brendan Prost
The Horses	Liz Cairns
Indigenous Dads	Peter Brass
The Isobel Imprint	Liz Grant
Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map	Teresa Alfield
Kiri and the Girl	Grace Dove
Like the Ones I Used to Know	Les Grandes claques	Annie St-Pierre
Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again	Courtney Montour
Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics	Terril Calder
Militant Mother	Carmen Pollard
The Mohel	Charles Wahl
Nalujuk Night	Jennie Williams
News from Home	Sara Wylie
On Either Side	Elisa Julia Gilmour
Personals	Sasha Argirov
Prometheus	Marie Farsi
A Safe Distance	Gloria Mercer
Solitary Skies	Amanda Cassidy
Srikandi	Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto
Things We Feel But Do Not Say	Lauren Grant
Tla-o-qui-aht Dugout Canoe	Steven Davies
Together	Albert Shin
Twelve Hours	Paul Shkordoff
The Untouchable	Avazeh Shahnavaz
A Void	Dominique Van Olm
Without You	Mina Shum

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
Al-Sit	Suzannah Mirghani	Sudan, Qatar
All Dogs Die	Allir Hundar Deyja	Ninna Pálmadóttir	Iceland
Anyhow, Anyway	Seja como for	Catarina Romano	Portugal
Apart, Together	Olivia Hang Zhou	United States, China
The Black Disquisition	Quincy G. Ledbetter	United States
Carrier	Lasti	Max Ovaska	Finland
Chants from a Holy Book	Cassiana Der Haroutiounian, Cesar Gananian	Brazil
Charlotte	Zach Dorn	United States
Charon	Yannick Karcher	France
Don vs. Lightning	Big Red Button	United Kingdom
Dona	Marga Melià	Spain
Fall of the Ibis King	Mikai Geronimo, Josh O'Caoimh	Ireland
Flowing Home	Nhu môt dòng sông	Sandra Desmazières	France
The Following Year	Miguel Campaña	Spain
Goodbye Tornio	Hei hei Tornio	Emilia Hernesniemi	Finland
Granny's Sexual Life	Babičino seksualno življenje	Urška Djukić	Slovenia, France
MeTube: August Sings Una Furtiva Lagrima	Daniel Moshel	Austria
The Monkey	Lorenzo Degl´Innocenti, Xosé Zapata	Portugal, Spain
Neko and Flies	Tsao Shih Han	Taiwan
The Night I Left America	Laki Karavias	United States
Nuevo Rico	Kristian Mercado Figueroa	United States
Quality Time	Omer Ben-David	Israel
A Quiet Man	L'Homme silencieux	Nyima Cartier	France
A Roll in the Hay	Une partie en l'air	Geoffrey Fighiera	France
Roy	Tom Berkeley, Ross White	United Kingdom
The Saverini Widow	La Veuve Savarini	Loïc Gaillard	France
Unnecessary Things	Непотрібні речі	Dmytro Lisenbart	Ukraine
Wake	Mark Boston	United Kingdom
Your Street	Deine Strasse	Güzin Kar	Switzerland

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production country
10am	Prodipto Saha	Bangladesh
All Alone	Mackenzie Dy	Canada
The Art of Being in a World of Not Being	Soheil Soheili, Parsa Shojai, Alireza Ahmadi, Sajad Teymoori	Iran
Christopher Hunte	Tiffany Siu, Andrea Leung	Canada
Eye Robot	Elina Villemure, Noah Harrison	United States
From the North	Avi Maksagak	Canada
ḥaḥuupač̓akukqin	Tim Masso	Canada
A Letter to Hong Kong	Wynne Kwok	Canada
Kamayan	Minerva Navasca	Canada
kʷənáŋət néʔ	Marius Fernandes, Julian Fernandes, Anthony Fernandes, Malinalli Angulo, Weah Fernandes	Canada
The Moments	Chwile	Piotr Kaźmierczak	Poland
Music for the End of the World	Emmanuel Li	United Kingdom
Pitoc e icinakosian	Jos-Onimskiw Ottawa-Dubé, Gerry Ottawa	Canada
The Secret of Colors	Travis Nguyen	Canada
Sophie and Jacob	Max Shoham	Canada
Wicket	Harsh Khurana	India
Witch's Hunt Day	Odilia Tanujaya	Indonesia

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