VIFF’s First Business Hub Lineup Mixes It Up With a Vibrant Lineup

Expanding its industry ambitions this year, the Vancouver International Film Festival, as part of its newly established Institute for the Moving Image, has announced its slate of eight first-ever Works in Progress (WIP), alongside eight international co-productions. These initiatives are designed to connect filmmakers with domestic, U.S. and international financing, distribution opportunities and production partners needed to bring their projects to audiences.

The lineup spans genres and communities, including India’s Don Palathara with psychological drama “Monkeyplay,” Jeissy Tromplz Venezuelan documentary “Three Houses,” and Mexico’s José Luis Isoard Arrubarrena with magical-realist tale “Los Vivos y los Patos.” The lineup also includes Canadian filmmaker Janessa St. Pierre’s “Hair or No Hair,” a feature adaptation of her short about alopecia, and Jason Lapere’s “The Auschwitz Volunteer,” the true story of a Polish soldier who decided to enter Auschwitz to start a resistance movement within.

The selections highlight VIFF’s efforts to make its industry programming more international and project-driven. While the festival has supported artist development and international co-production in various forms throughout its more than four-decade history, the new initiatives represent a more focused approach to connecting filmmakers with financing, distribution and production partners.

Kyle Fostner, VIFF’s executive director, describes the model as intentionally small and hands-on, rather than a sprawling conference or traditional festival lab.

The goal, he says, is to create meaningful face-to-face opportunities for filmmakers and industry decision-makers, with meetings structured around the specific needs of each project, with the goal of fostering strong local and international IP and helping filmmakers get their projects completed.

“These are very hands-on applied models,” Fostner told Variety.

Fostner emphasizes that the world is moving toward international co-production, calling it “the new standard for international cinema,” particularly as it allows filmmakers to scale their projects.

With WIP, says Institute for the Moving Image program lead Rame Ibrahim, “We wanted to diversify the type of types of projects and the people that are coming to the festival,” citing selections spanning multiple regions, including Mexico and Spain, as well as a range of genres.

Under Institute director Ana Belén Asfura’s vision, projects were also evaluated for uniqueness of vision, subject-matter merit, market readiness, viability and support to date.

Ibrahim says the team focused on matching each project’s specific needs with the industry expertise available at the festival. The Works in Progress comprise projects at various stages of post-production, he says, with some filmmakers seeking additional completion funding, while others are looking to connect with distributors or broadcasters.

“The response to the application is indicative of the hunger there is in the market,” says Fostner. For decades, he says, filmmakers had voiced that the festival didn’t offer enough opportunities to get work made. The new initiatives are intended to address that gap, with the festival planning to build on the programs in coming years to “help foster a vehicle for project completion.”

The programs are also part of a broader strategy for VIFF’s Institute for the Moving Image, which aims to eventually extend the festival’s support for filmmakers seeking funding and industry connections to year-round.

Co-Productions:

“Galeo of the Seawalkers,” (“Galeo Anak Segara,” Andara Fembriarto, BetterHalf Films/Amarana, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore)

Based on graphic novel, animated family adventure set in an oceanic world, a timid boy named Galeo must leave the safety of his home in search of his missing father. “This world draws on Indonesian maritime cultures, giving the adventure a specific visual and emotional foundation never seen before,” producer Gursimran Dalta told Variety, “At its heart is a family learning to recognize one another beyond expectations and inherited roles.”

“The Auschwitz Volunteer,” (Jason Lapeyre, Osaka Sunset Pictures, Canada)

First-ever English-language retelling of the true story of Captain Witold Pilecki, a Polish soldier who volunteered to enter the infamous Nazi concentration camp and start a resistance movement from within. “This hybrid doc/drama approach will convey the horror of the Nazis’ terror campaign, describe the evolution of Auschwitz into the worst centre of the Holocaust, and jar audiences into asking if we are heading down the same road towards history repeating itself,” Jason Lapeyre told Variety.

“Restful Harbour” (Sheila Nortley, Igodo Films & Media Company, Dreammark Collective, Parkville Pictures, Nigeria, Ghana, UK)

Summoned back to Accra for a final family gathering as her grandfather nears death, a young British-Ghanaian woman returns home for the first time in a decade and is forced to confront the things that once drove her away “‘Restful Harbour’ is a film about memory, silence and the meaning of home. It’s about what happens when someone refuses to carry silence any longer. Ga folklore, especially the story of Anansi and Turtle, gives the film its emotional architecture, and Ghana itself is one of its central characters,” said Nortley.

“Los vivos y los patos,” (“The Living and the Ducks,” José Luis Isoard Arrubarrena. Huasteca Casa Cinematográfica, Sopa de Piedra, Mexico)

In a small town, several dead people are brought back to life through a strange ritual involving burning duck manure. But they return with the same old resentments, secrets and unresolved desires they had before they died—forcing the townspeople to reckon with a past they thought was six feet under. “This film takes place in a fictional town shaped by magical realism, allowing us to explore grief through a subtle shift in everyday reality,” said producer Paloma Petra.

“To the North” (Jean Parsons, Ceroma, Canada)

A female-led survival thriller set in desolate Canadian North (Yukon) on the verge of the climate apocalypse with an erotic twist. When an isolated homesteader’s husband disappears, she finds a mysterious man unconscious in the woods. As desire awakens, so does the fear that her new lover may be her husband’s killer. Rooted in Parsons’ experience embedding with northern homesteaders for a doc series. “‘To The North’ is a film about sex, nature, the messiness of desire, and how humans often pursue the things they want against all better judgment,” says Parsons.

“Hiding in My Cells,” (Ali Naqi, Spicy Alii Inc, Canada)

For more than two decades, Kasturi has created a home for children abandoned because of HIV. As they navigate life together– from shared meals and school days to celebrations and everyday chaos – Kasturi fights to secure permanent land and safeguard their future together. “We cannot wait for audiences to meet Kasturi and discover the home she has created for children living with HIV in Belgaum, India, a place built on courage, care and an extraordinary sense of family,” said Naqi.

“Afuera Todo Arde,” (“While Everything Falls,” Sami Hawka, FILMA+, Peru, Spain, Chile)

In Peru under dictatorship, two of three long-time lovers marry for appearances but flee from their conservative rural community for the capital after their secret is exposed by the third. There, they encounter two women in an open relationship leading the political resistance for the freedom to live and love freely. “‘Afuera Todo Arde’ is a political drama about a generation reinventing love, friendship and family as their country slides into authoritarianism. Queerness and non-monogamy become spaces to question inherited rules and experiment with other ways of living,” said Hawka.

“Al-Madeeneh 2008,” (Yousef Assabahi, Semasser Production, Yemen, France, Jordan)

In an old 2008 Yemeni town, Faud, the last practitioner of a dying construction craft, loses his job and is urged to leave the country. But after falling for a woman, a stolen phone (with her humber) sends him searching through the town’s daily life, myths, and politics over seven days. “[H]is daily journey opens onto the town and the people around him, creating a portrait and a time capsule of the community in the time before the eventual collapse,” said Assabahi.

Works in Progress

“Monkey Play,” (“Kurangukali,” Don Palathara, Artisan Films, Mankind Cinemas, Guardian Angel Films, India)

After the death of their daughter, grieving parents retreat to an isolated house in the hills of Idukki where they find and take in a feral child. The psychological thriller/drama explores the aftermath of loss and the ambiguity between reality and perception. “The film explores that psychological territory through grief, asking what happens when the mind tries to replace someone who is irretrievably gone,” said Palathara.

“My Friend Harry,” (Liz Cairns, Inis Duinn Film, Studio Cairs Films, Canada)

When filmmaker Liz Cairns cross paths with an eccentric senior named Harry, an unexpected friendship takes shape. After Harry is diagnoses with cancer, the unlikely duo teams up to make a film together as a way of confronting an uncertain future. The deeply personal doc weaves together observational footage with 16mm films created by Harry and Liz, to explore friendship, illness, and how film and creativity can bring two people closer. Follow up to her narrative debut, “India.”

“Si Ren,” (“寺人,” Longjie Chen, Obluda Films, U.S., China)

It’s been ten years since Si Ren, a man rumored to have no genitals, has left a military-style correctional camp. After reuniting with his former squad leader and the leader’s partner, a writer who becomes consumed by reconstructing conflicting versions of their past. “I think this is a very unique and audacious Chinese language film that talks about sexuality, desire and violence,” producer Ren Guang told Variety about his film, which is already in post.

”Hyena,” (“Hiena,” Manuel Rodríguez, Panda Rojo Media, Heretikarts, Terrier Films, Mexico)

After a terrible fight with her husband, a mother is left alone with her three children and voices no one else can her. The next morning a bloody scene unfolds and the children are found dead, prompting investigators to determine whether it’s society’s failure to recognize mental illness that’s actually blame. The particularly timely psychological thriller/horror is inspired by true events of the 1989 Claudia Mijangos case in Querétaro. “[W]e used them only as a starting point to explore what human beings are capable of, even when acting beyond their own free will,” said producer Alex Camargo, “Rather than placing the horror in the supernatural or in some inherent evil, the film reflects on the real, corrosive effects of untreated mental illness, compounded by an abusive marriage, religious fervor, and a forbidden love.”

“Futuro” (Alec Pronovost, Blusaris Films, Luxembourg Mobiles, Canada)

In this dark comedy that captures our anxiety about the future of technology, two entrepreneurs nearing bankruptcy unveil a VR device that uses personal data to predict its users’ future. Only on problem? When their biggest investor tried the device at a tech convention, she sees her imminent death. “‘Futuro’ has a unique blend of comedy, thrills and some sci-fi bits spread here and there. It’s funny, tense, singular and[…]a bit philosophical,” said Pronovost.

“Hair or No Hair” (Janessa St. Pierre, Honh Productions, Constant Departure Studios, Canada)

A feature-length adaptation of the short film by the same name, the film follows a young Black woman who has concealed her alopecia for years. When a new wig arrives at her doorstep, a sentient Hair Painting in her home comes alive, forcing her to confront beauty standards that have shaped her sense of self. “I hope people unlearn Hollywood’s programming on how to perceive ‘baldness,’ says St. Pierre, “I also think of all the little alopecian girlies that live in this superficial society and this is for them.”

“Rocket Fuel” (Jessie Posthumus, Edge Entertainment, Canada)

Based on Posthumus’ 2022 short of the same name, the film follows 13-year-old Nora through a hot Ontario summer in 2005, as she juggles her first job and caring for her younger siblings. A coming-of-age story about queer childhood, gender, and the moments that shape us. “Taking place in Canada in 2005, the film pushes back against the idea that genderqueer people are a fad sweeping the newest generation,” said Posthumus.

“Three Houses,” (“Tres casas,” Jeissy Tromplz, Alamar Films, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Spain)

In an especially timely documentary, the Venezuelan Afro-Indigenous filmmaker fuses spatial portraits, archival material, and character observation to create a video letter addressed to a friend. Tromplz maps the violence that oppresses Venezuelans and exposes the displacement of Venezuelan migrants. Filmed with support from the Doha Film Institute and Eurodoc Caribe. “Developing a politically sensitive, formally experimental project from Venezuela means working under financial instability, limited infrastructure, and constant uncertainty around production and distribution,” Tromplz told Variety.