Please find below, the first of 21 daily columns on our 32nd annual Vancouver International Film Festival. See you back here every day.
The 32nd annual, and much-changed, Vancouver International Film Festival is a film festival in transition.
With the closure of its longtime Granville 7 Cinema home at the end of VIFF 2012, Festival staff was hard-pressed to replace the seven cinemas within the Granville 7 theatre complex in order that a thriving Vancouver film festival might prevail in 2013.
To that end, Vancouver International Film Festival administrators have found success, in 2013 transitioning the Festival from downtown to “cross-town”, a neighbourhood The Straight’s Sarah Rowland describes as …
Nestled in between the hustle and bustle of downtown, the new-money flash of Yaletown, the historical character of Gastown, and the colourful grit of Chinatown is where Crosstown is quietly making a name for itself as Vancouver’s hippest up-and-coming micro-hood and home-décor hub. Like Swiss cuisine, this hidden gem is a mix of influences from all its bigger neighbours, yet still has a distinct flavour of its own.
The Festival has found multiple new homes in Crosstown: at the 350-seat SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (in the Woodwards building, at Abbott and Hastings); the nearby Cineplex International Village, in Cinemas 8, 9 and 10 (799 seats in total); the Vancouver Playhouse, on Hamilton (668 seats); The Centre for the Performing Arts, on Homer, between Georgia and Robson (1800 seats, 900 on the main floor); the Rio Theatre, at Commercial and Broadway (420 seats); all in addition to their traditional longtime venues, at the Vancity Theatre on Seymour (185 seats), and The Cinematheque on Howe Street, near Davie (194 seats).
Ticket prices remain the same as last year ($13, a bargain compared to the single seat $23.35 charged at the Toronto Film Festival), and passholders will find they may have to line up for each screening, rather than acquire tickets for the day’s screenings at days outset, as was the case in years past. As we say, a Festival in transition, a sort of back to the future, where the old is new again (at least that would appear to be how Festival Director Alan Franey would frame some of this year’s changes, as the Festival reverts to a logistical approach employed pre the Granville 7 era). All said, with all the jumping around from location to location, and the necessity of lining up for each film, chances are that die-hard passholder cinéastes will see fewer films in 2013 than has usually been the case.
Which is a pity, because there are a great many fine films that will screen at the 2013 version of the Vancouver International Film Festival. Read on to discover what Vancouver’s Crosstown festival has in store for you in 2013.
Cannes Film Festival award winners at VIFF 2013
At the top of the list, there’s the controversial, provocative and epic erotic tale, this year’s Palme d’Or winner, Blue is the Warmest Colour, a must-see VIFF film in 2013. Next up, there’s Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazus’ Jury Prize winner, Life Father, Like Son, a wrenching domestic drama that also manages to mix in humour and a fair degree of wit amidst the human drama. Cannes’ Best Director winner Amat Escalantes brings his wildly controversial Heli, a gritty Mexican drugs and guns saga, to VIFF 2013.
You’ll also want to make sure to catch Asghar Farhadi’s engrossing psychological drama, The Past, winner of Best Actress for Bérénice Bejo; Alexander Payne’s bittersweet father-son road trip drama, Nebraska, winner of Best Actor for Bruce Dern, and VIFF 2013’s Opening Gala film; and, Anthony Chen’s subtle snapshot of family life in 1990s Singapore, the Camera d’Or winner, Ilo Ilo, a film that, according to Variety film critic Maggie Lee, “brims with love, humour and heartbreak.”
Finally, there’s the Un Certain Regard Best Picture co-winners, The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh’s sobering peek into the harrowing vision of a living hell that was 1970s Cambodia; and, Diego Quemada-Diez’s harrowing début feature, La jaula de oro, which tracks three Guatemalan kids trying illegally to cross the Mexican border into the United States, the film an example of unobtrusive silent-witness storytelling offered as a powerful yet unsentimental thriller.
As always, timely and provocative documentaries have a home at VIFF, as 40 new Non-Fiction feature films will take to the screen. The annual Spotlight on France series will see 11 films made available to festival-goers, including Grand Central, with two of France’s hottest young actors, Léa Seydoux and Tahar Rahim, who star in a powerful drama about workers at a nuclear power station who fall in love.
As part of the Canadian Images series at VIFF 2013, there’s a 12-film BC Spotlight, with new films from directors Charles Wilkinson (whose new doc, Oil Sands Karaoke, just knocked our socks off), Ben Ratner, Anne Wheeler, Vic Sarin, Twyla Rosovich (her Alexandra Morton doc, Salmon Confidential, is a must-see — you’ll never buy a farmed salmon again, and you’ll be damned pissed off at Christy Clark’s Liberal government, and have your worst fears about the corrupt nature of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives confirmed), Bruce Sweeney, Oliver Hockenhull (whose From Neurons to Nirvana offers a thought-provoking and compelling sit), and Gary Hawes.
This year, you’ll be able to find the full 2013 Vancouver Film Festival programme at all Chapters and Indigo book stores across Greater Vancouver. For those impecunious of circumstance, VIFF has outdone itself this year with a skookum Mini-Guide, which in 2013 includes a Mini-Guide Schedule. Of course, you’re going to want to check VIFF’s website for programme and venue change Updates.
For tickets there’s a Print-at-Home option available for each title on the Festival website, or tickets may be purchased in person at each cinema from 30 minutes before the first show of the day at each venue. Festival staff suggest that Ticket Packs are a good deal this year (e.g. the 5-Ticket Pack, at $60 will guarantee you a seat at a film, should you arrive 30 minutes in advance of the screening; the Student/Senior 5-Ticket Pack costs only $50). Perhaps the best deal, though, is the Matinée Pass, which will gain you entrance to all films screening before 6pm, at a cost of only $175.
And, don’t forget — all VIFF attendees must become members of the Festival, which allows the Festival to screen unrated films. Plus, membership gives you a vote at the VIFF annual general meeting.
C’mon back tomorrow for the first of three columns on VIFF films which, early on — based on a surfeit of reviews garnered for these films at other Festivals, including Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Venice, among others, and arising from early buzz from Festival staff — will offer you insight into can’t miss films to place on your viewing schedule (we’re usually right about 80% of the time in our early predictions, based on buzz and reviews).
We look forward to seeing you in a darkened Festival screening room at some point between Thursday, September 26th and Friday, October 11th.
