VanRamblings’ Top 27
Best Bet Picks | VIFF 2025

October 1, 2025A & E, Cinema, Film Festivals, Vancouver, VanRamblings, VIFF 2025100 sunset, it was just an accident, la grazia, orphan, rental family, sentimental value, the secret agent, two prosecutors, vancouver international film festival, viff 2025, young mothersRaymond Tomlin

The 44th annual Vancouver International Film Festival gets underway tomorrow!

Simply click on the underlined title of any one of the films below to be taken to the VIFF webpage for the film, where you can read more about the film, perhaps watch a trailer for the film (if it’s available) and, if you are of a mind, purchase tickets for the film(s) of your choice. Many of the films you’ll see listed below are available only on a standby basis, although VIFF may add screenings, if distributors let them.

Listed below, VanRamblings choices for the 27 best bets at VIFF 2025.

Father Mother Sister Brother

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

It Was Just an Accident

Jay Kelly

La Grazia

Landmarks

The Last One for the Road

Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband)

What Does That Nature Say To You

Young Mothers

VIFF 2025 About to Get Underway in Just Days From Now – 44th Edition

September 30, 2025A & E, Cinema, Film Festivals, Pop Culture, VIFF 2025BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, dracula, father mother sister brother, george clooney, jay kelly, jim jarmusch, Kahlil Joseph, lav diaz, magellan, no other choice, noah baumbach, park chan-wook, radu jude, the last one for the roadRaymond Tomlin

The 44th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) kicks off later this week, on Thursday, October 2nd and is set to run through Sunday, October 12th

A somewhat truncated, but still well juried, film festival as compared to pre-pandemic festivals of yesteryear, in 2025 VIFF will screen 170 films from 74 countries, spanning the globe.

As we wrote last month, commencing in late August, when the fall film festival season gets underway, movie stars, studio executives, journalists and cinephiles begin their annual trek to Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York, crisscrossing continents to watch the latest films. Then there’s those of us who live in Vancouver, movie lovers who only need to travel short distances to experience new worlds.

The flagship event of the film year, our Vancouver International Film Festival incorporates a mix of best films the world has to offer, feature length and short, from across the globe. There are dramas, biopics, horror movies and selections that defy easy classification, like Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, a heady exploration of Black life that leaps across time, space and genres. Other selections that will light up screens and minds include Sentimental Value, a tender, tough family story from Joachim Trier (last here with The Worst Person in the World); and the giddy thriller No Other Choice, from Park Chan-wook.

In addition, among this year’s 170 features are two from the always unexpected Romanian director Radu Jude (Dracula); a shambling lark from the Italian filmmaker Francesco Sossai (The Last One for the Road); and a sui generis chronicle of the bloodstained life and times of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan from the Filipino auteur Lav Diaz (Magellan). You may need to recalibrate your bodily rhythms for Diaz’s epic, which moves more leisurely than a Hollywood movie. Yet changing things up, including your ideas about what movies can and should do, is a reason festivals like this exist.

A number of selections in the lineup have made splashes at earlier festivals.

Among these is Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, which recently won top honours at Venice. With calm, delicacy, a steady eye and Jarmusch’s characteristic deadpan, the movie charts the inner and outer lives of different families, creating distinct pointillist group portraits through smiles, gestures, silences, ritualistic pleasantries and stinging asides. In one, a sly cool cat of a father (Tom Waits) receives a visit from his normie twins (the equally bespectacled Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik); in another, an aloof mother (Charlotte Rampling) serves tea to her nervously needy daughters (Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps); in the third, twins (Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat) mourn what they’ve lost.

Noah Baumbach is back in the festival with Jay Kelly, about a movie star who, ta-da, is played by George Clooney.

Established in 1981, the Vancouver International Film Festival has been an essential part of the city’s film scene since its founding and its importance has only grown.

Like other arts events, it has weathered doubts about its purpose, political storms, religious controversy, economic pressures and internal strife. It’s also emerged from the pandemic with renewed vigour because of new and younger audiences.

Nearly a third of the audience in 2024 were first-time attendees, explained the festival’s director of programming, Curtis Woloschuk. Equally notable, 62% of all the festival attendees were between 21 and 44 of age, a crucial demographic for any organization, especially one that relies as heavily on its patrons as VIFF does.

As stated above, the Vancouver International Film Festival runs October 2nd thru October 12. For more information, go to https://viff.org/festival/viff-2025/.

Here are a few columns VanRamblings has published about VIFF 2025 to date. You can look for a fresh new VIFF column on VanRamblings each day this week.

Toronto International Film Festival award winning films that will screen at VIFF

VIFF 2025 Galas and Special Presentations, Part 4

VIFF 2025 Galas and Special Presentations, Part 3

VIFF 2025 Galas and Special Presentations, Part 2

VIFF 2025 Galas and Special Presentations, Part 1

Vancouver Liberals, Building a Civic Party Destined to Govern

September 24, 2025#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, canadian politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2026#vanelxn, #vanpoli, 2026 vancouver civic election, catherine evans, kareem allam, vancouver liberalsRaymond Tomlin

Ken Sim’s plan to get rid of industrial lands means more people have to travel to Richmond and Surrey for work.

We’ll create the first Industrial Land Reserve to help keep good jobs here in Vancouver. pic.twitter.com/jpuaTZv0y3

— Kareem Allam (@42kareemallam) September 23, 2025

Yesterday, VanRamblings received the following e-mail from our friend and neighbour Catherine Evans — founding member and soon-to-be Vice-President of the Vancouver Liberals, multi-year Chairperson of the Vancouver Public Library Board of Directors, dedicated Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, David Eby’s appointed liaison with Vancouver City Hall on Mayor Ken Sim’s proposal to dissolve an elected Vancouver Park Board (a hateful job she told VanRamblings, also telling us she’d lost a number of friends arising from her appointment by David, to whom she is loyal), and multi-year senior constituency assistant in federal Liberal Minister of the Crown Joyce Murray’s office (where she did much good for many many people) and now, as we say above, a founding member, and soon-to-be Vice-President of, Kareem Allam’s upstart Vancouver Liberals municipal party, as the party — VanRamblings predicts — rolls to victory at the polls next year.

Here’s what Catherine wrote to us — and many many others — yesterday …

This week we learned that Vancouver City Hall will pay out $800,000 in severance to the separated former City Manager, Paul Mochrie.

This is simply OUTRAGEOUS. An $800,000 payment on Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver’s watch is unacceptable.

We have to put an end to these golden parachutes at Vancouver City Hall.

Did Ken Sim and ABC make the decision to fire the city manager? We don’t know.

Did they approve this $800,000 payment to bring in a new city manager who will follow their directions? Again – unclear.

But one thing is for sure: this is $800,000 that is being taken away from front-line programmes like cleaning up our streets, cracking down on money laundering, and enhancing community centre programmes.

It’s not surprising Ken Sim didn’t bat an eye at an $800,000 severance payment. After all, he tried to fire the city Integrity Commissioner while he was under investigation.

This culture of entitlement at Vancouver City Hall must end.

When you elect a Vancouver Liberal council in 2026, you can be sure it will.

We need to fix City Hall — and that starts with defeating Ken Sim and his ABC Council, when voters go to the polls next year for Vancouver’s 42nd civic election.

Join the Vancouver Liberals team today.

Thank you,

Catherine Evans
Founding Member, Vancouver Liberals

Human Compassion. Caring for Our Most Vulnerable in the City of Vancouver.

September 19, 2025#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2026compassion, equity, health, meeting our obligations, seniors, social justice, supportive housing, unhoused, veterans, vulnerable citizensRaymond Tomlin

Homelessness in Vancouver has increased 12% under ABC. On day one, the Vancouver Liberals will reverse ABC’s cruel ban on supportive housing for seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and people with low-barrier needs. In my Vancouver, we don’t ban any kind of housing! pic.twitter.com/vWfkdsnTHn

— Kareem Allam (@42kareemallam) September 18, 2025

A truly compassionate and caring city is measured not by the prosperity of its wealthiest citizens, but by how it treats its most vulnerable.

In Vancouver, the obligation to provide supportive housing and shelter for those without a home, for seniors, for veterans, and for persons with disabilities is not a matter of charity — it is a moral and civic responsibility. No one should be left to struggle on the streets or in unsafe, unstable conditions when we have the collective capacity to do better.

Supportive housing is more than just a roof over someone’s head. It is the foundation of dignity, stability, and health. For people living with mental illness, addictions, or physical disabilities, housing linked with services can be the difference between despair and recovery.

For seniors and veterans, many of whom have given so much to our communities, supportive housing ensures they are not left behind in their later years, but instead live with safety, respect, and connection.

The crisis of homelessness in Vancouver has reached levels that demand urgent action. Yet, municipalities cannot solve this challenge alone. That is why partnership with provincial and federal governments is critical.

The City of Vancouver must continue to press senior levels of government for sustainable investments in housing, shelter, and wraparound supports. With co-ordinated effort, resources, and political will, we can build more non-market housing, expand emergency shelter capacity, and provide permanent solutions that end the cycle of homelessness rather than simply managing it.

This obligation is not just about bricks and mortar; it is about values. If we claim to be a city defined by compassion, equity, and justice, then our policies must reflect that claim. The measure of a city’s greatness lies in how it uplifts its most vulnerable residents. Vancouver has the opportunity — and the responsibility — to lead the way in showing that no one is disposable, that everyone deserves a home, and that together, across all levels of government, we can create a city where compassion is more than a slogan, but a lived reality.