Year-in, year out, at the very heart of the Vancouver International Film Festival lies the always spectacular, phenomenally moving — and sometimes, downright funny — International Shorts programmes, as curated by VIFF’s International Shorts programmer, Sandy Gow.

In the past VanRamblings has written this about Sandy …

“Every now and then, we get to be our true selves, our best selves. Sandy, who like many of us is ‘of an age’, has come into his own in recent years — honest and forthright, humane and caring, employing wit and warmth and intelligence and an unparalleled love of cinema, in the job he has undertaken. As mentioned above, Sandy curates the International Shorts programme. How very, very fortunate we VIFF cinéastes are to have in place for us, a VIFF staff person of such unparalleled integrity, as well as an abiding warmth of spirit, an individual who prioritizes films not just as ‘craft’, but of immense heart and cinematic intelligence.”

Three notes should be made about the International Shorts programme …

• The International Shorts programme is too often overlooked by VIFF patrons who while striving to see the best in world cinema neglect to consider that the birth of the features that emerge as life-changing events at VIFF often occur within the realm of ‘the short’, a film in the truest sense (despite its abbreviated length) that garners the necessary attention to allow the novice filmmaker a film career;
• For years, Sandy Gow has curated International Shorts programmes, that offer VIFF patrons one surety: most, if not all, of the films in any given International Shorts programme will come to represent the best experience to be had inside a darkened theatre, or at home through VIFF Connect. Sandy’s heart, intellect and wisdom are poured into the decisions he makes in choosing from among the 1600 entries that culminate in the 29 shorts included in the four curated programmes at VIFF2021, a winsome combination of intimate, humane, thoughtful, provocative, revelatory, and heartbreaking chronicles of the human condition;
• Competition. Take a gander at your Facebook feed, or listen to the conversations in the lineups as passholders “discuss” how many films they’ve seen that day, and what their “count” of films screened is as of any given day — in some sense VIFF is, at times, a “competition” to see the most films (and why not? what a treat to see 100+ films!). Imagine the following: take in a screening of every one of the 29 shorts in the four IS programmes, and your number of films screened will burgeon! Although a gentle humility defines the approach of the VIFF veteran to her fellow Festival patrons, a bit of boastfulness from time to time surely cannot be out of place. Twenty-nine films added to your list of feature films seen at VIFF2021, and a glorious and transformative 465 minutes in the cinema! At VIFF, we call that bliss .

In a recent conversation with the slightly rumpled professorial-looking Sandy Gow, he told VanRamblings that over the past year he and his team have screened a record 1600 short films — 200 more entries than last year — while on the way to creating the curated and juried four International Shorts programmes that have found their way onto VIFF’s 2021 film schedule.

In these waning days of the 40th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, if you’re looking to be delighted, moved, informed and to be introduced to a ‘new’ filmmaker, who very well may become the next David Fincher, Kathryn Bigelow, Ava DuVernay or Pete Docter, Sandy’s International Shorts programme is the place to be, and the very best part of VIFF 2021 yet to be explored.

Mr. Gow discusses each of the 4 International Shorts programmes this year …
(click on each programme link to go to the VIFF page for the programme)

International Shorts: Animation
Available on VIFF Connect through October 11th

“The animation programme in 2021, we had so much good animation, so many great submissions. The programme last year was hugely successful, probably the most successful shorts programme in VIFF’s entire history. The animation programme this year is a little more mature, with more serious themes, in a wonderfully diverse programme, where every short is different: in style, in approach, in theme, ranging from the various serious to the humorous. I love animation, and never more so than this year. In 2021, this great animation programme is simply not to be missed.”

International Shorts: Life Labs
Available on VIFF Connect through October 11th

“This series is about choices people make in their lives, and how that affects other people. In each of the shorts in the Life Labs series, someone is making a choice that is going to have serious implications. Some of my favourites are included in this programme. I really loved MeTube: August Sings ‘Una Furtiva Lagrima’, which is so hilarious, a loud and crazy mash up of sci-fi and opera.”

International Shorts: Have We Ever Learned?
Available on VIFF Connect through October 11th

“We as human beings like to think of ourselves as intelligent and rational, as having accomplished so much during our time as a species on this Earth — and yet there are aspects of our behaviour as individuals and in society that causes us to continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. You’d think we’d  have learned by now, but clearly we haven’t. Those are the issues that are addressed this year in the Have We Ever Learned? Shorts programme. Topical, political, adventurous, serious, humourous — like A Roll in the Hay which, by the way, is also a great little thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time.”

International Shorts: Seniors Day
Available on VIFF Connect through October 11th

“The common theme in the Seniors Day programme is that the protagonists in every film are, essentially, older people. They’re not the lay down and die people, they’re a pretty feisty bunch. The Seniors Day programme, again, is a great collection of some really humourous films, as well as those tending to the more serious. My favourite film in all of the International Shorts programmes is Don vs Lightning — which is the best comedy I’ve screened in a long time, starring Peter Mullan (pictured above), a really established actor. In fact, that’s one of the common themes in the Seniors Day programme, three of the shorts — including Roy and Charon — have really established actors, who have lent their talent to young, up and coming filmmakers. It really pays off is all I can say.”

VIFF cinephiles: You’ve got your work cut out for you as this year’s glorious —  yet somewhat truncated —  40th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival draws to a close this upcoming Thanksgiving Monday, October 11th.