The Official Selections for the 20th annual VISFF!
Join us for an exciting weekend celebrating some of the best short films from around the world!
May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 2025
Time: Doors at 6:30, Screening at 7:00.
Venue: in-person and online at Malaspina Theatre.
Tickets: Individual Program & Full Festival Passes available here.
20th Anniversary Short Film Showcase (Thursday, May 1st)
Suspend your Disbelief (Graham Stark – BC, Canada)
A musical that explores how ridiculous musicals really are.
Android 207 (Paul Whittington – BC, Canada)
A stop-motion animated film about an android trapped inside a large maze. The maze is vast and filled with many surprises.
Eyewitness Accounts (Graham Stark – BC, Canada)
An incident at the Twin Oaks Mall creates quite a stir in this quick-paced comedy as a cross-section of locals share their version of the event.
What Suffers Inside Me (Jennifer Hardy – ON, Canada)
The main character sees himself as an incomplete stick figure with a crossed line on his face. He visualizes simple figures wearing horizontal lines on their faces as unable to see his inner self. The feelings of loneliness, unhappiness and falling into darkness create clinical depression. Depression can be invisible to others.
30 Minutes or Less: The Secret of the Sauce (Graham Stark – BC, Canada)
Once again, Johnny gets pulled back into the dark world of pizza.
How to Get a Man to Love You Forever (Sara Homer – BC, Canada)
Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride? Martha shares her secrets.
Close Your Eyes (Todd Jones – BC, Canada)
For decades, scientists, governments, and everyone across the world has tried to learn more about a mysterious anomaly that appears randomly in the sky, “the Rapture.” All anyone knows for sure is to not look at it, to seek shelter, or just simply close your eyes.
The Money Pet (Gary Hawes – BC, Canada)
A slacker is bewildered when he discovers that the laundry money his mutt has accidentally eaten has been passed with compounded interest. Blending the theme of greed with the current setting of today’s economic climate, The Money Pet is a hilarious take on the age-old adage: don’t kill the Golden Goose.
Bone Gnomski (Curtis L Wiebe – MB, Canada)
A cautionary tale about a little tree who goes on a bender in the big city.
Crazy Love (Mathieu Charest and Helena Marie – BC, Canada)
Samantha has learned to get through most days by giving into her boyfriend Alan’s torturous, demented requests, no matter how painful or humiliating. Pushed to her breaking point, Samantha must make a decision: to allow the torture to continue, or to take control of her life.
Lost (Michael Chen – BC, Canada)
A little girl attempts to reunite a lost stuffed animal with its rightful owner.
Ingrid & The Black Hole (Leah Johnston – NS, Canada)
Ingrid experiences a lifetime of memories with her friend Conrad when they imagine what it would be like to travel through a black hole.
Breakdown (Greg Tudela – France)
Michel has just been fired. Desperate, he decides to rob the bar he goes to every day but nothing goes as planned.
How to Hide a Dead Body (John Gardiner – BC, Canada)
Two idiots try to hide a dead body before a local gangster finds out what they did.
New bodyguard Chow feels puzzled by a strange woman who shrugs her shoulders, shakes her head and smiles at him. He asks his colleague Mak, but both cannot figure out why. Mak finally knows the real meaning a little too late.
Before the Beauty is Gone (Mackai Sharp – BC, Canada)
An unfortunate reality: our fish are disappearing. Not our Salmon or our Halibut, but those will soon follow. Forage fish, a key segment of the marine food chain, is vanishing off the coast of British Columbia.
Are You My Mommy (Gavin Michael Booth – United States)
While filming his latest blockbuster, Hero, a famous action star, is badly wounded. To the rescue comes Heroine, but Hero is confused by this utterly average, late-40s woman. As she does everything in her power to save him, Hero struggles to relate to this…person. With the Bad Guys still in pursuit, Heroine tries to shut down his running commentary on her age and weight, to no avail. As her patience runs out, their attackers close in, revealing that Heroine – and the movie – aren’t quite what they seem to be.
For Roy (Vivian Cheung – BC, Canada)
Inspired by true events, an imaginative Asian-Canadian girl attempts to fold a thousand cranes as she learns to lose her father during his final days in the hospice.
Chat Mort (Annie-Claude Caron, Danick Audet – QC, Canada)
What were Catherine and Louis thinking when they chose a cat with distinctive white spots? It would have been much easier to replace if they had picked the all-back one! Now, they will have to tell their daughter Sophie that Nugget’s dead. Unless…
Shorts Program 1 (Friday, May 2nd)
Répercuté (Lindsay Owen Pierre – ON, Canada)
A man comes home to his lover on their anniversary expecting a romantic night of celebration only to find his lover has another plan in mind…revenge.
Shoes and Hooves (Viktória Traub – Hungary)
A pedicurist in a small-town, Paula the centaur-girl longs to have human feet. When she meets Arnold the crocodile-man, it is love at first sight. Can Paula take the first steps in her search for identity? What will be the price of her attempts to fit in and deny her true self?
Ya Hanouni (Lyna Tadount & Sofian Chouaib – France)
While the Mom and the Dad try to put their baby to sleep, a competition arises between them: who will manage to get the baby to say the first word?
We Were (Jonah Haber – ON, Canada)
“We Were” follows David from childhood to adulthood, tracing relationships and moments across three stages of his life. In 2007, a young David forms a sweet summer camp bond with Janelle, saving mementos from their camp days together in his memory box. As the years pass, David experiences first love with his high school sweetheart, Amy, and eventually navigates heartbreak and the complexities of adult relationships with Mia. Throughout, David adds to his memory box, collecting tokens from his past — symbols of how love, although fickle, will always find a way back into his life again.
Chicken Broth Soup (Deniz Büyükkırlı – Turkey)
The doctor comes across unusual symptoms at the man said to have died of a heart attack when he examined the corpse.He decides to refer the body to forensic medicine. Thereupon, the mans wife confesses; she said poisoned her husband, who constantly beat her. A big surprise awaits the doctor, who has to make a vital decision for the woman.
Helikopter (Jesper Sichlau – Denmark)
When Rikke brings home a guy she’s just met, her night takes an unexpected turn. Soon she finds herself facing a dilemma, that puts her body positive beliefs to the test, and forever changes her defying character.
The Loving Couple (Mhairi Kerr – ON, Canada)
A long-term relationship can seem picture-perfect on the outside, but as this couple celebrates their fortieth anniversary, we see that life isn’t always as rosy as it appears.
The Bird in My Backyard (Ryan Wilkes – BC, Canada)
In an urban backyard on Canada’s West Coast, a window salesman has created a living laboratory for investigating hummingbird behaviour. The Bird in My Backyard follows citizen scientist, Eric Pittman, as he documents the journeys of two female Anna’s hummingbirds as they attempt to raise their young in his urban garden. It’s a story about the childlike curiosity in all of us, the wonders it can reveal and the doors it can open if we just lean in a bit closer.
Holy Heavêness (Farnoosh Abedi Renani & Negah Khezre Fardyardad – Iran)
The unbearable lightness of the death of loved ones… There are wounds in life that eat away at you like leprosy…
The weight of the death of loved ones sometimes becomes so overwhelming that to get rid of this weight another birth is inevitable.
Shorts Program 2 (Saturday, May 3rd)
My Name is Arnold (Arnold Lim – BC, Canada)
A Korean-Canadian boy struggles adapting to his new life after moving with his single mother to a small, rural B.C. Community in the early 1990’s.
Our Table (Steve Sxwithul’txw – BC, Canada)
A First Nation works to educate others about the importance of protecting their beaches from outside polluters near Penelakut Island, BC Canada.
La Langue (Béla Baptiste – United States)
Picture this: you’re about to watch a video on YouTube, but first, you have to sit through a forced advertisement. This ad introduces La Langue – a fictional toothbrush that mimics the movements of a human tongue. This bizarre yet meticulously designed product is presented as an essential item for personal hygiene.
Zoé (Rémi St-Michel – QC, Canada)
The remaining shreds of Zoe’s mind desperately cling to her vague memories of better feelings.
The Death of James (Sam Chou – On, Canada)
Based on a true story, “The Death of James” tells the unique journey of two young friends grappling with mortality as they are confronted with the impending loss of a cherished pet ferret. Humorous, awkward, and deeply heartbreaking, the film takes an unflinching look at death, loss, euthanasia, and the uncertainties that may or may not follow, viewed through the eyes of two characters navigating these challenges for the first time.
Hatch (Alireza Kazemipour & Panta Mosleh – BC, Canada)
An Afghan refugee boy hides with his mother inside a moving water tanker trying to cross the border to safety. Losing his mother in the process, NAAJI forever tries to find a way to relive his last memory of her.
Tiny (Ritchie Hemphill & Ryan Haché – BC, Canada)
‘Nakwaxda’xw Elder Colleen Hemphill tells the story of her life as a youth growing up on a float house
Lichtblick (Glimmer of Hope) (Sophia Tamaro – Germany)
A cashier’s monotonous day is transformed when the women in the queue form an impromptu choir to soothe an unhappy baby.
Chandelle / Candle (Jérémi Roy – QC, Canada)
One autumn evening, a significant power outage occurs. Leonard is awaiting the arrival of David, his ex-boyfriend. For the duration of a candlelit evening, the former couple reunites.