VISFF Festival Info
The 20th annual Vancouver Island Film Festival happened May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 2025!
VISFF returned on May 1-3, 2025, in person at Nanaimo’s Malaspina Theatre and online. Our 2025 Selection Committee assembled an incredible lineup, showcasing a diverse mix of comedy, horror, documentaries, animation, and past Goldie Award winners from local and global filmmakers. Over 50 short films were screened over four programs to an enthralled audience.
See the 2025 short film lineup here.
See the 2025 Goldie Award winners here.
See the photos from the 2025 festival here.
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20th Anniversary Short Film Showcase (Thursday, May 1st)
Suspend your Disbelief (Graham Stark – BC, Canada)
Android 207 (Paul Whittington – BC, Canada)
Eyewitness Accounts (Graham Stark – BC, Canada)
What Suffers Inside Me (Jennifer Hardy – ON, Canada)
30 Minutes or Less: The Secret of the Sauce (Graham Stark – BC, Canada)
How to Get a Man to Love You Forever (Sara Homer – BC, Canada)
Close Your Eyes (Todd Jones – BC, Canada)
The Money Pet (Gary Hawes – BC, Canada)
Bone Gnomeski (Curtis L Wiebe – MB, Canada)
Crazy Love (Mathieu Charest and Helena Marie – BC, Canada)
Lost (Michael Chen – BC, Canada)
Ingrid & The Black Hole (Leah Johnston – NS, Canada)
Breakdown (Greg Tudela – France)
How to Hide a Dead Body (John Gardiner – BC, Canada)
Before the Beauty is Gone (Mackai Sharp – BC, Canada)
Are You My Mommy (Gavin Michael Booth – United States)
For Roy (Vivian Cheung – BC, Canada)
Chat Mort (Annie-Claude Caron, Danick Audet – QC, Canada)
Shorts Program 1 (Friday, May 2nd)
Répercuté (Lindsay Owen Pierre – ON, Canada)
Shoes and Hooves (Viktória Traub – Hungary)
Ya Hanouni (Lyna Tadount & Sofian Chouaib – France)
We Were (Jonah Haber – ON, Canada)
Chicken Broth Soup (Deniz Büyükkırlı – Turkey)
Helikopter (Jesper Sichlau – Denmark)
The Loving Couple (Mhairi Kerr – ON, Canada)
Our Table (Steve Sxwithul’txw – BC, Canada)
Holy Heavêness (Farnoosh Abedi Renani & Negah Khezre Fardyardad – Iran)
Youth Showcase (May 3rd, 2025, at 1 p.m.)
Read more about the Youth Showcase films here.
Tin God directed by River Soleil Desormeaux Schmidt
Beyond Words directed by Shuxian Li
How Bitter Is Lady Karma directed by Murray Montgomery and Alice Yu
A Twilight Heist directed by Anne English
The Interview directed by Madeline R. Babensee
Survive High directed by Kathy Chan
Disappearing directed by Mia Đurkan
Colo(u)r Control directed by Ash Butun & Skye Su
The Letting Go directed by Julian Ciumac
Tim’s Time Test directed by Matthew James
The Eyes of Kenny directed by Brook DeSchutter
Fading Footsteps directed by Camdyn Mclaughlin
Echoes of Westwood directed by Henry Girard and Finn English
28 Cents directed by Van Tougas
Rat King directed by Ayush Senanayake
Enemy of My Past directed by Lucas Breen and Liam Turchanski
Umbral Cloak directed by Cade Savage Schwartz
Chad & Brad’s Musical Adventure directed by Andrew Maxwell
Shorts Program 2 (Saturday, May 3rd)
Tiny (Ritchie Hemphill & Ryan Haché – BC, Canada)
The Bird in My Backyard (Ryan Wilkes – BC, Canada)
La Langue (Béla Baptiste – United States)
Zoé (Rémi St-Michel – QC, Canada)
The Death of James (Sam Chou – On, Canada)
Hatch (Alireza Kazemipour & Panta Mosleh – BC, Canada)
Lichtblick (Glimmer of Hope) (Sophia Tamaro – Germany)
Chandelle / Candle (Jérémi Roy – QC, Canada)
My Name is Arnold (Arnold Lim – BC, Canada)