The 38th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) took place from September 26 to October 11, 2019.^[1] The opening film was Atom Egoyan's Guest of Honour, and the closing film was Nicolas Bedos's La Belle Époque.^[2]

Awards

The festival award winners were announced on October 15.^[3]

Films

Galas

• Guest of Honour — Atom Egoyan (Opening)
• La Belle Époque — Nicolas Bedos (Closing)

Special Presentations

• Ford v Ferrari — James Mangold
• Harriet — Kasi Lemmons
• A Hidden Life — Terrence Malick
• Jojo Rabbit — Taika Waititi
• Just Mercy — Destin Daniel Cretton
• The Laundromat — Steven Soderbergh
• The Lighthouse — Robert Eggers
• Marriage Story — Noah Baumbach
• Motherless Brooklyn — Edward Norton
• Mr. Jones — Agnieszka Holland
• No.7 Cherry Lane — Yonfan
• Pain and Glory — Pedro Almodóvar
• The Painted Bird — Václav Marhoul
• Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire — Céline Sciamma
• The Song of Names — François Girard
• Sorry We Missed You — Ken Loach
• The Two Popes — Fernando Meirelles
• Young Ahmed — Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Contemporary World Cinema

• Adam — Maryam Touzani
• And Then We Danced — Levan Akin
• Babysplitters — Sam Friedlander
• Bacurau — Kleber Mendonça Filho
• Beanpole — Kantemir Balagov
• Burning Cane — Phillip Youmans
• Castle of Dreams — Reza Mirkarimi
• Chained — Yaron Shani
• Checkered Ninja — Anders Matthesen
• Cherry Blossoms & Demons — Doris Dörrie
• The Day After I'm Gone — Nimrod Eldar
• Divine Love — Gabriel Mascaro
• A Dog and His Man — Siddharth Tripathy
• Dogs Don't Wear Pants — J-P Valkeapää
• Fourteen — Dan Sallitt
• Frankie — Ira Sachs
• I Was at Home, But — Angela Schanelec
• The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão — Karim Aïnouz
• It Must Be Heaven — Elia Suleiman
• Joel — Carlos Sorín
• Koko-di Koko-da — Johannes Nyholm
• Lara — Jan-Ole Gerster
• The Last to See Them — Sara Summa
• Little Joe — Jessica Hausner
• Noah Land — Cenk Ertürk
• Once in Trubchevsk — Larisa Sadilova
• Out of Tune — Frederikke Aspöck
• Port Authority — Danielle Lessovitz
• Queen of Hearts — May el-Toukhy
• The Realm — Rodrigo Sorogoyen
• Retrospekt — Esther Rots
• Scarborough — Barnaby Southcombe
• Sometimes Always Never — Carl Hunter
• Song Without a Name — Melina León
• Spider — Andrés Wood
• Staff Only — Neus Ballús
• Stitches — Miroslav Terzić
• Synonyms — Nadav Lapid
• Tehran: City of Love — Ali Jaberansari
• Temblores — Jayro Bustamante
• Those Who Remained — Barnabás Tóth
• Vai — Nicole Whippy, Becs Arahanga, Amberley Jo Aumua, Matasila Freshwater, Dianna Fuemana, Mīria George, 'Ofa-ki Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Marina Alofagia McCartney
• A Voluntary Year — Ulrich Köhler, Henner Winkler
• The Whistlers — Corneliu Porumboiu
• A White, White Day (Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur) — Hlynur Pálmason
• Yuli — Icíar Bollaín

Spotlight on France

• Amanda — Mikhaël Hers
• By the Grace of God — François Ozon
• Deerskin — Quentin Dupieux
• I Lost My Body — Jérémy Clapin
• Joan of Arc — Bruno Dumont
• Les Misérables — Ladj Ly
• Oh Mercy! — Arnaud Desplechin
• The Specials — Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache
• Who You Think I Am — Safy Nebbou

Focus on Italy

• Amare Amaro — Julien Paolini
• Dafne — Federico Bondi
• The Disappearance of My Mother — Beniamino Barrese
• Dolce Fine Giornata — Jacek Borcuch
• Marghe and Her Mother — Mohsen Makhmalbaf
• Santiago, Italia — Nanni Moretti
• Sole — Carlo Sironi

Vanguard

• Bait — Mark Jenkin
• Belonging — Burak Çevik
• I, Wretched Man — Bastian Wilplinger
• Miel-Emile — Peter van Houten
• My Window — Rodrigo John
• Off Season — Henning Beckhoff
• One Man Dies a Million Times — Jessica Oreck
• Ridge — John Skoog
• Subject to Review — Theo Anthony
• Vitalina Varela — Pedro Costa

Sea to Sky

• Ash — Andrew Huculiak
• The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open — Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn
• Daughter — Anthony Shim
• Haida Modern — Charles Wilkinson
• My Dads, My Moms and Me — Julia Ivanova
• Raf — Harry Cepka
• Red Snow — Marie Clements
• Water Over Glass — Kellen Jackson, Zoe Kirk-Gushawaty, Amanda Thomson, Jimi Pantalon
• The World Is Bright — Ying Wang

True North

• The Acrobat (L'Acrobate) — Rodrigue Jean
• American Woman — Semi Chellas
• And the Birds Rained Down (Il pleuvait des oiseaux) — Louise Archambault
• Assholes: A Theory — John Walker
• A Brother's Love (La femme de mon frère) — Monia Chokri
• Castle in the Ground — Joey Klein
• Clifton Hill — Albert Shin
• Conviction — Ariella Pahlke, Teresa MacInnes, Nance Ackerman
• Cranks — Ryan McKenna
• Easy Land — Sanja Zivkovic
• Jordan River Anderson, the Messenger — Alanis Obomsawin
• Kuessipan — Myriam Verreault
• L.A. Tea Time — Sophie Bédard Marcotte
• One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk — Zacharias Kunuk
• Rustic Oracle — Sonia Boileau
• Symphony in Aquamarine — Dan Popa
• Three Feathers — Carla Ulrich
• To Live to Sing — Johnny Ma
• When We Walk — Jason DaSilva
• White Lie — Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas

Future//Present

• Anne at 13,000 Ft. — Kazik Radwanski
• Danny — Aaron Zeghers, Lewis Bennett
• Killer Queen — Ramin Fahrenheit
• MS Slavic 7 — Sofia Bohdanowicz
• Murmur — Heather Young
• Tapeworm — Fabián Velasco, Miloš Mitrovič
• Tito — Grace Glowicki
• The Twentieth Century — Matthew Rankin

Impact

• 63 Up — Michael Apted
• Buddha in Africa — Nicole Schafer
• Coup 53 — Taghi Amirani
• The Euphoria of Being — Reka Szabo
• Gateways to New York — Martin Witz
• The Great Green Wall — Jared P. Scott
• Human Nature — Adam Bolt
• The Men's Room — Petter Sommer, Jo Vemund Svendsen
• Midnight Family — Luke Lorentzen
• My Father and Me — Nick Broomfield
• The Pollinators — Peter Nelson
• The Rabbi Goes West — Amy Geller, Gerald Peary
• Reason — Anand Patwardhan
• Resistance Fighters — Michael Wech
• Scheme Birds — Ellen Fiske, Ellinor Hallin
• Sea of Shadows — Richard Ladkani
• A Seat at the Table — David Nash, Simon Mark-Brown
• Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire — Henrik Georgsson
• Talking About Trees — Suhaib Gasmelbari
• Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain — Alex Winter
• We Are Not Princesses — Bridgette Auger, Itab Azzam
• The Whale and the Raven — Miriam Leuze
• Wildland — Alex Jablonski, Kahlil Hudson

Gateway

• Another Child — Kim Yoon-seok
• Balloon — Pema Tseden
• Birthday — Lee Jong-un
• Boluomi — Lau Kek-Huat, Vera Chen
• The Cave — Tom Waller
• Children of the Sea — Ayumu Watanabe
• Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains — Gu Xiaogang
• Every Day a Good Day — Tatsushi Ōmori
• Hard-Core — Nobuhiro Yamashita
• Krabi, 2562 — Ben Rivers, Anocha Suwichakornpong
• Lost Course — Jill Li
• Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom — Pawo Choyning Dorji
• Melancholic — Seiji Tanaka
• No Longer Human — Mika Ninagawa
• Present. Perfect. — Shengze Zhu
• Samsara — Moon Jeong-yun
• The Shadow Play — Lou Ye
• Spring Tide — Yang Lina
• Still Human — Oliver Siu Kuen Chan
• Vanishing Days — Zhu Xin
• Wet Season — Anthony Chen
• White Snake — Amp Wong, Zhao Ji
• The Wild Goose Lake — Diao Yinan
• Wild Sparrow — Shih Li

M/A/D

• Architecture of Infinity — Christoph Schaub
• Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint — Halyna Dyrschka
• Cunningham — Alla Kovgan
• Devil's Pie: D'Angelo — Carine Bulsma
• Edo Avant-Garde — Linda Hoaglund
• Eliades Ochoa: From Cuba to the World — Cynthia Biestek
• Escher: Journey Into Infinity — Robin Lutz
• It Was All So Wonderful: The Everyday Magic of Mary Pratt — Kenneth J. Harvey
• Leonardo: The Works — Phil Grabsky
• Martha: A Picture Story — Selina Miles
• Neutra: Survival Through Design — Pi Letofsky
• Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin — Werner Herzog
• Other Music — Puloma Basu, Rob Hatch-Miller
• Our Time Machine — Yang Sun, S. Leo Chiang
• Stuffed — Erin Derham
• System K — Renaud Barret
• Ursula Von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own — Daniel Traub
• Varda by Agnès — Agnès Varda
• What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael — Rob Garver
• Years of Construction — Heinz Emigholz

ALT

• Blood Quantum — Jeff Barnaby
• Boyz in the Wood — Ninian Doff
• Come to Daddy — Ant Timpson
• The Death of Dick Long — Daniel Scheinert
• Extra Ordinary — Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman
• Greener Grass — Jocelyn DeBoer, Dawn Luebbe
• In the Tall Grass — Vincenzo Natali
• Judy and Punch — Mirrah Foulkes
• Knives and Skin — Jennifer Reeder
• The Lodge — Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala
• Paradise Hills — Alice Waddington

Canadian Shorts

• At the Bottom of the Sea — Caroline So Jung Lee
• The Beach Raiders — Tyson Breuer
• Bumblebee — Adam Beck
• Canaan — Wang Weibin
• Chubby — Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli
• The Cut (La Coupure) — Chloé Cinq-Mars
• Days of Rage — Eli Jean Tahchi
• Deady Freddy — Alicia Eisen
• Delphine — Chloé Robichaud
• Finding Uranus — Ivan Li
• Flood — Joseph Amenta
• Ghoulish Galactic Grievances — Josh Owen
• Grandma's House — Sophy Romvari
• Hand Job — Kara Hornland
• Heart Bomb (Une bombe au cœur) — Rémi St-Michel
• Highway to Heaven: A Mosaic in One Mile — Sandra Ignagni
• I Am in the World as Free and Slender as a Deer on a Plain — Sofia Banzhaf
• I'll End Up in Jail (Je finirai en prison) — Alexandre Dostie
• In Which Life Continues Without Time — Sheridan Tamayo-Henderson
• Jarvik — Émilie Mannering
• Labour/Leisure — Jessica Johnson, Ryan Ermacora
• Main Squeeze — Brendan Prost
• My Heart Is Walking Around Outside of My Body — Matthew Taylor Blais
• No Crying at the Dinner Table — Carol Nguyen
• Now Is the Time — Christopher Auchter
• The Physics of Sorrow — Theodore Ushev
• Pick — Alicia K. Harris
• Pinch — Diego Maclean
• Pools — Seth Fluker
• The Procession (Le Cortège) — Pascal Blanchet, Rodolphe Saint-Gelais
• Shadow Trap — Damian Gillis, Michael Bourquin
• Solastalgia — Millefiore Clarkes
• The Spirit Keepers of Makuta'ay — Yen-Chao Lin
• Standard of Care — James Rathbone
• This Ink Runs Deep — Asia Youngman
• Unkept — Michael P. Vidler
• Venusian — Cameron Mackenzie, Suzanne Friesen
• A Winter Morning — Manny Mahal

International Shorts

• Amparo's Offerings — Leonel Chee
• Call Connect — Indianna Bell, Josiah Allen
• A Disappearance — Laura Spini, Laurence Brook
• Disrepute — Stephane Mounkassa, Stefan Sundin
• Diversion — Mathieu Mégemont
• Family Hour — Maria Ponomarova
• First Disco — Helen O'Reilly
• Flush — Sheridan O'Donnell
• Forgiveness — Marcello Cotugno
• Grandpa — Clifford Miu
• I Signed the Petition — Mahdi Fleifel
• In the Shadow of the Guacari — Greg Mendez
• The Interview — Ivan Sosnin
• Itohime — Nao Izumi
• Kill the Boy — Juan Pablo Villavicencio Borges
• Lee Ann Womack's "Hollywood" — Chris Ullens
• The Legend — Manon Eyriey
• Liminaali & Communitas — Laura Rantanen
• Long-Legged Nuria — Frank Vera Jimenez
• Masmelos — Duvan Duque
• Mortis — Xindi Lou
• My Generation — Ludovic Houplain
• Nurtured — Ben Pearce
• O Holy Ghost — Mark Bradshaw
• Pearl — Yuchao Feng
• Romantica.com — Shay Fellner
• The Sea — Cameron Richards
• Song Sparrow — Farzaneh Omidvarnia
• Taboo — Olivia Altavilla
• Tangle — Malihe Ghloamzadeh
• Tender — Anthony Lucido
• Tolerance — Shaunoh
• Vaca — Marta Bayarri
• Way Back Home — Diego Freitas

Reel Youth

• 2:00 — Maxence Pupillo
• AMO — Hana Huang
• Better Off — Jules Brown
• Body Love — Grace Larey
• Bottle — Yegor Bondarenko
• Eyedentity — Yoo Jung Hong
• Falling Deeper — Ryan Chow
• Freedom of Breath — Yasin Farrokhi
• Frozen in Place — Sasha Argirov
• G.P.S. Girl Positioning System — Devin Johnson
• Home Sweet Home — Sarah Andrews
• Human Box — Tsai Chia-Jen
• Jericho — Sarah Andrews
• Marlene Heavyshields (Glowing in the Dark Woman) — Jubei Quesnelle, Jayna Creighton-Fox
• Qirqqut — Kadence Kikoak
• Sekani Dekelth — Jacoby Macdonald
• Super Grandma — Isabella Spadone
• To You — Amanda Blake, Maira Gimenes, Jin Lee, Emma Watson
• Tracks — Alicia Holownia, Caitlin Mungall, Jessica Lau, Joud Shawwa, Paige Ingram, Sophie McLean
• u really hurt me — Callahan Bracken
• Wamin (The Apple) — Katherine Nequado

Shorts screened with features

• Acadiana — Guillaume Fournier, Samuel Matteau and Yannick Nolin
• Elvis: Strung Out — Mark Oliver
• Forest on Fire — Reed Harkness
• Happytime Social Club — David Rodden Shortt
• Here and There (Aquí y allá) — Lina Rodriguez
• I'm Not Next — Tristin Greyeyes
• Lily — Adrienne Gruben
• Memoirs — Aaron Zeghers
• Names for Snow — Rebecca Thomassie
• Preface to a History — Devan Scott, Will Ross
• Question Period — Ann Marie Fleming
• Sofia — Nikolay Michaylov
• Throat Singing in Kangirsuk — Eva Kaukai, Manon Chamberland
• Turns — Mariano Sosa
• When the Children Left — Charlene Moore
• Wildfire — Bretten Hannam

Modes

• Amusement Ride — Tomonari Nishikawa
• Cavalcade — Johann Lurf
• L'Étoile de mer (The Starfish) — Maya Schweizer
• Hard On — Joanna Rytel
• Interbeing — Martina Hoogland Ivanow
• Kasiterit — Riar Rizaldi
• New Acid — Basim Magdy
• Stay Awake, Be Ready — Pham Thien An
• The Stroker - Pilvi Takala
• Swatted — Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis
• Swinguerra — Barbara Wagner, Benjamin De Burca
• Umbra — Florian Fischer, Johannes Krell