Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) presents its 44th edition this week. The 2025 festival will feature more than 435 screenings, singular VIFF Live performances, VIFF Talks with top international creatives, a robust Artist & Industry program, and many more celebrations of film culture. 
VIFF will officially open with acclaimed director Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, a rousing dramatization of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, one of the first films marking the start of the French New Wave. Linklater’s comedy-drama follows Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) as he embarks on the production of this classic film with American starlet Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch) and boxer Jean Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin). 
The festival will close with Ido Fluk’s Köln 75, which follows 16-year-old music promoter Vera Brandes’s (Mala Emde) rebellious determination to organize the now famous 1975 concert that later became Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert, the best-selling solo jazz recording and piano album of all time. VIFF’s closing gala will feature a live performance by the versatile pianist and composer Chris Gestrin. 
The South Asian Post and The Filipino Post are proud to present "Treasure of the Rice Terraces" at VIFF 2025. Filipino Canadian filmmaker Kent Donguines travels back to the Philippines to reconnect with his roots. In a nation with over 134,000 years of history and centuries of colonization — under Spanish, American, and Japanese rule — Donguines notes a shared feeling of weakened traditional identity among many Filipinos he knows and meets. A vital part of their heritage, the centuries-old practice of tattooing, was banned by colonizers and even shunned by Filipinos.
Donguines travels to Buscalan, a secluded mountain community, to discover more about the revival of Indigenous Kalinga tattoos. Guided by 107-year-old master artist Apo Whang-od, Donguines learns the deep history and symbolism behind the tattoos. The revival of this Indigenous body art tradition offers a powerful way to preserve culture, spark pride, and strengthen identity, and  Treasure of the Rice Terraces  shows how traditions can survive, evolve, and inspire both local communities and cultural identity worldwide.
This year’s program also features several notable initiatives. A special Spotlight on Korea will feature new films by Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice) and Hong Sangsoo (the Canadian premiere of What Does That Nature Say to You), as well as seven films from directors to watch, including three world premieres. Deepening the long tradition of Korean cinema as a cornerstone of VIFF programming, the Spotlight program will welcome the seven emerging directors to Vancouver. 
As his WTF Podcast winds down, VIFF will feature An Evening with Marc Maron, for a special screening of Are We Good? with an extended Q&A with the internationally acclaimed comedian and podcast host. 
Acclaimed Canadian director Matthew Rankin (Universal Language) serves as guest curator for this year’s Leading Lights section. Rankin’s selection of international films that influenced his career include works by Chantal Akerman, Aki Kaurismäki, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Elia Suleiman. 
The lineup will also feature a number of significant premieres of some of the fall’s buzziest titles, including the Canadian premieres of Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, and Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia. The festival will also showcase every major award-winner from the Cannes competition, including Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident; Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value; and the North American premiere of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Young Mothers.

For more information
Ticket Link for the Treasure of the Rice Terraces 
Ticket details at viff.org/ticket-info. 
To explore VIFF’s complete 2025 programming, visit viff.org.