The Vancouver International Film Festival, now marking its 45th edition (October 1–11, 2026), has built its reputation on curating “culturally engaged, progressively minded, and emotionally resonant storytelling,” in the words of Director of Programming Curtis Woloschuk. This year’s roster brings together more than 160 features and 90 shorts from 86 countries, balancing major international premieres with intimate documentary portraits and bold debut work — all in service of VIFF’s mission to champion cinema that challenges audiences while, as Woloschuk puts it, still making room for “the virtues of love and care, be it within family or community.”
For Vancouver’s German-speaking community, this year is especially rich: alongside the festival’s long-standing embrace of Swiss and Austrian cinema, VIFF 2026 introduces its Focus on New German Cinema: Extreme Tension, presented in partnership with German Films, and gives three major German-language works from Cannes and Berlinale a home in its Special Presentations series.
Swiss Cinema at VIFF 2026
- Frank & Louis — Dir. Petra Volpe
- Heat — Dir. Jacqueline Zünd
- A Bit of Light — Dir. Ali Asgari
- MODES 2
- Gabin — Dir. Maxence Voiseux
- Short Forum 9: Big Time Sensuality
- Short Forum 10: Are the Kids Alright?
Focus on New German Cinema: Extreme Tension
This year’s country spotlight, curated with German Films, showcases six debut features from rising German directors:
- Trial of Hein — Dir. Kai Stänicke. A man returns to his childhood fishing village after 14 years and finds himself unrecognized and on trial.
- I Understand Your Displeasure — Dir. Kilian Armando Friedrich. A stark portrait of an underpaid, overworked cleaning-crew manager in Berlin.
- The Ballad From Wednesday to Thursday — Dir. Christoph Otto. A night of loosening conversation in Cologne’s bars and clubs.
- Dear Future Self — Dir. Ella Cieslinski, Nina Wesemann. Two friends confront their own futures while teaching students to write letters to theirs.
- Prosecution — Dir. Faraz Shariat. A young German-Korean prosecutor investigates a suspected racist attack against the far right.
- Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party — Dir. Daniela Magnani Hüller. A filmmaker revisits the people connected to her own survival of an attempted femicide.
Special Presentations
Three award-winning German-language dramas from this year’s Cannes and Berlinale round out VIFF’s German-speaking lineup:
Rose
Dir. Markus Schleinzer | Austria/Germany | German with English subtitles | Drama | 93 min | Distributor: MUBI Canada
In the wake of the Thirty Years’ War, a taciturn, disfigured soldier (Sandra Hüller) arrives in a rural German community claiming to be the rightful heir to an expanse of untended farmland — concealing all the while that they were born a woman. Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Lead Performance at Berlinale 2026; Austria’s Oscar submission.
Screenings: Mon Oct 5, 6:00 PM, Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island · Wed Oct 7, 6:30 PM, The Park Theatre · Fri Oct 9, 3:00 PM, The Rio Theatre
Minotaur
Dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev | France/Germany/Latvia | Russian with English subtitles | Drama | 141 min | Distributor: MUBI Canada
A Russian transport-company CEO tries to insulate his home life from the fallout of the invasion of Ukraine, until his wife’s affair sets his carefully ordered world on a path to violence. A transposition of Chabrol’s The Unfaithful Wife to contemporary Russia. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes 2026.
Screenings: Sat Oct 3, 6:15 PM, The Park Theatre · Fri Oct 9, 8:30 PM, Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island · Sun Oct 11, 2:30 PM, Vancouver Playhouse
Fatherland
Dir. Paweł Pawlikowski | Italy/Poland/Germany/France | German, French, English, and Russian with subtitles | Drama | 82 min | Distributor: MUBI Canada
In summer 1949, Nobel laureate Thomas Mann returns to a divided, shattered Germany after 16 years in exile, escorted by his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller), who serves as driver, gatekeeper, and conscience. Pawlikowski won Best Director at Cannes 2026 for this black-and-white study of complicity and postwar reckoning.
Screenings: Sat Oct 3, 6:30 PM, Vancouver Playhouse · Tue Oct 6, 6:30 PM, The Park Theatre · Thu Oct 8, 9:30 PM, Vancouver Playhouse
Other German-Speaking Titles Across the Festival
Beyond the dedicated Focus, Swiss selections, and Special Presentations, three more Austrian titles are woven through VIFF’s Showcase and Panorama programs:
- Gentle Monster — Dir. Marie Kreutzer (Corsage). Léa Seydoux plays a wife and mother whose life unravels when her husband is investigated for child pornography. (Showcase)
- Everytime — Dir. Sandra Wollner. Winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard award, this drama follows a mother drawing closer to her surviving daughter after a shared tragedy. (Panorama)
- The Loneliest Man in Town — Dir. Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel. Vienna-based bluesman Al Cook plays a fictionalized version of himself. (Panorama)
A Festival Built Over 45 Years
VIFF traces back to 1982, when the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society was founded as a not-for-profit cultural charity. Over four and a half decades it has grown into one of Canada’s leading film organizations, expanding well beyond an annual autumn festival to operate the year-round VIFF Centre in downtown Vancouver and, more recently, the Institute for the Moving Image, which supports emerging filmmakers through artist development, industry labs, and professional programs.
This year’s edition, running under Executive Director Kyle Fostner, is being framed internally as “the beginning of a new chapter” — anchored by the Institute’s launch, VIFF’s largest-ever slate of Live performances, and a film program spanning 86 countries. Through it all, the throughline has stayed consistent: platforming bold, culturally engaged storytelling and giving Vancouver audiences a front-row seat to where world cinema — including German-language cinema — is headed next.
TAGS: #VIFF2026 #NewGermanCinema #GermanFilms #VancouverFilmFestival #DACHVancouver #WestcoastGermanNews