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VAFF21

Festival Information

We (VAFF) are pleased to announce the countdown to its much anticipated 21st Annual celebration of Asian diaspora and diversity in film, set for November 2nd to 5th, 2017 at the Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas in Vancouver 88 W. Pender St., in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown district.

Tickets and passes are available online from October 1 at www.vaff.org, or at the theatre box office from November 2 at 6:00 pm. For more information, please email info@vaff.org.

 

With this year’s theme “Visual Landscape,” we are proud to showcase and celebrate the Asian Canadian cinematic landscape. The perception of Canada, its people and culture is influenced by who makes our films; who/what is featured or left out in our films; whose stories we tell or ignore; and the context for these films and stories. How do Asian Canadian creatives feature in this cultural territory? Does the current Canadian cinematic landscape accurately mirror our diverse reality, or distort it?

Be sure to connect with us on  Instagram, Facebook, and  Twitter often to keep up with all the exciting updates!

For all inquiries before the festival, please email marketing@vaff.org

For all inquiries during the festival Nov 2 – 5, 2017 inclusive, please email Grace Chin, Festival Director: grace.chin@vaff.org.

 

Digital Version of VAFF 21 Program Guide – Coming Soon

About VAFF 21

The VAFF 21 lineup presents 13 film programs for 2017, including the public premiere of the “We Heart Canada” video project with the Vancouver Immigration Partnership, City of Vancouver, featuring Vancouver’s diversity and the experience of new Canadians; and 35 other feature-length and short films of all genres, with English dialogue and/or English subtitles, from the local and international Asian diaspora. Highlights from the features include:

  • our critically acclaimed Opening Night film, the “Columbus” (starring John Cho) from video essay auteur Kogonada;
  • the World premiere of the controversial Vancouver Chinatown documentary “Paint it Red” from director-activist Eva Cohen;
  • the World premiere of local filmmaker Rob Leickner’s bittersweet BC love letter, “The Lonely Light of Home”;
  • the Canadian premiere of Justin Chon’s “Gook,” a gut-punching look at the L.A. Riots from a very different family perspective;
  • Canadian filmmaker Ashley Duong’s intimate environmental documentary “A Time to Swim”; and,
  • our Closing Night presentation, the Western Canada premiere of Toronto-based Joyce Wong’s Slamdance sleeper hit (and shout-out to Scarborough, Ontario), the award-winning “Wexford Plaza.”

We continue to celebrate Canada 150 on Sunday November 5, 2017, showcasing a total 15 Canadian features and shorts in one day; and are proud to bring Vancouver audiences 20 Canadian or Western Canada premieres; five World premieres, five North American premieres, and an additional two films that are Vancouver premieres. Over thirty filmmakers and panelists, from Canada and internationally, are expected to attend. Organizers anticipate close to 4,000 audience and industry members over the four-day festival.

The Best Canadian Short Award will be presented to one of eight nominated eligible short films, and the Best Canadian Feature Award sponsored by the Directors Guild of Canada will be presented to one of four nominated eligible feature films. We will also be presenting various People’s Choice Awards during the closing night screening and awards ceremony the evening of Sunday, November 5th. The winner of the Canada 150-China Scriptwriting Competition, and our VAFF Diversity Award winner, will be announced at the opening gala the evening of Thursday, November 2nd. The Saturday, November 3rd afternoon VAFF Industry Insight (VAFF I²) Panel Series provides a forum for discussion of actionable items for filmmaking of social change, discussion of diversity in Canadian film and television.