Turns out, maybe colonialism isn’t so great after all. And Ena Sendijarevic’s magnificent Sweet Dreams, one of the best films of 2023, “captures the putrefaction of colonial rule with a morbid sense of humor” (Slant). Set in the Dutch East Indies at the dawn of the 20th century, Sweet Dreams focuses on the aftermath of […]

Believe it or not, The Old Oak is Ken Loach’s final film. After a career of more than 60 years, the British director — a two-time Palme d’Or winner whose works include such masterpieces as Kes, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Land and Freedom, and My Name is Joe — is calling it a […]

An absolutely astonishing and hugely important film from 1931, Madchen in Uniform was written and directed by women, and features an all-female cast. A hit in several countries upon its release, it was suppressed by the Nazis, who attempted to destroy all copies of the film (stupid Nazis!), but it lives on and, indeed, retains […]

Comedian Adison Eyring presents this over-the-top satire of beauty-pageant life, in which an annual contest in small-town Minnesota turns ridiculously and hilariously competitive. She’ll tell us why this particular comedy connected with her. I bet the cast had something to do with it. Who’s in it, you ask? Well, how about Ellen Barkin, Kirsten Dunst, […]

More than 40 years before RuPaul’s Drag Race, this ground-breaking documentary about the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant introduced audiences to the world of competitive drag. The film takes us backstage to kiki with the contestants as they rehearse, throw shade, and transform into their drag personas in the lead-up to the big event. […]

An ‘80s-comedy, college-coming-of-age flick that’s more interested in cerebral matters than ways of the flesh is interesting enough. Then when you cross the outstanding director Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl, Rambling Rose) with the guys who wrote Police Academy, you get….Real Genius. Vermont comedian Max Higgins loves this movie, and he’ll tell us why. Maybe it’s […]

One of the most searing romances of the 1990s, Happy Together, Wong Kar Wai’s emotionally raw, lushly stylized portrait of a relationship in breakdown, casts Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung as a couple traveling through Argentina and locked in a turbulent cycle of infatuation and destructive jealousy as they break up, make […]

A brilliant example of all that we lost when the Hays Code landed on Hollywood and prevented anything funny from happening from 1934 to 1968 (with exceptions, sure), Design for Living is a sexy comedy for adults…what’s not to love? Writer/director and funny guy Seth Jarvis presents this stone-cold masterpiece of early American talkie comedy. […]

This audacious film consists of nine scenes, all single-takes from a static camera, yet it is utterly riveting. In the vignettes, all set in Tehran, nine ordinary Iranians from a variety of backgrounds face off against an unseen, uncaring and frequently hostile bureaucrat. The absurdity and horror of authoritarian control is ultimately laid bare. A […]

In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so-called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa are lured by government propaganda promising easy passage to the European Union. Unable to cross in Europe and unable to turn back, they find themselves trapped in a rapidly escalating geopolitical […]

There aren’t too many movies like Med Hondo’s West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty. From 1979, this musical dramatizes 400 years of French colonialism in Africa through song and dance. Though the story traverses oceans, the film was shot entirely on a massive replica of a slave ship built in an abandoned factory in […]

It’s Ingmar Bergman’s Birthday!! Since we’ve been highlighting comedians and comedies in recent weeks, it seemed like a good idea to throw in a movie that has not one single laugh or moment of levity in it anywhere. Plus, it’s Ingmar Bergman’s birthday, so…Cries & Whispers! And while it may not have laughs, it’s one […]

Two funeral-crashers – a teenaged boy and an elderly woman (Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon, respectively, both utterly fabulous) – develop a deep relationship in this classic ‘70s comedy from Hal Ashby. The humor is dark-dark-dark – there’s death everywhere, and much of guffaw-humor comes from Harold’s increasingly elaborate and hysterical fake-suicide attempts – but […]

Presented by drag artist Rhedd Rhumm as part of the ongoing “Queer Coming-Out Stories,” Paris Is Burning chronicles NYC’s ball culture, and addresses some pressing questions, such as: Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York […]

From acclaimed director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced), Crossing is a moving and tender tale of identity, acceptance, and unlikely connection that transcends borders and generations. Lia, a retired school teacher living in Georgia, hears from a young neighbor Achi that her long lost niece, Tekla, a transgender woman, has crossed the border into […]

The great Lily Tomlin does her thing in this comedy, written by Tomlin’s longtime creative partner Jane Wagner. This creative mix of physical comedy, satire, sci-fi and social commentary baffled critics when it came out in 1981, but has achieved cult status in the intervening decades. Tomlin plays Pat Kramer, a suburban California housewife who […]

“An Elvis movie? Really?!” Yes, absolutely. It’s true that, as a rule, Elvis movies are terrible. Who’d argue with that? They tend to be lazy enterprises with cookie-cutter scripts, embarrassing songs, mediocre production values, baked-in misogyny, and deeply uninspired – and often utterly indifferent – performances from Big El himself. But King Creole, his fourth […]

As part of VTIFF’s ongoing “Queer Coming-Out Stories,” Emoji Nightmare presents this 2004 comedy, which offers a set-up along the lines of: what if Heathers or Mean Girls took place a Christian school? When Mary (Jena Malone), a Christian high-school student, attempts to ‘cure’ her friend of his homosexuality, it backfires and she ends up […]

This screening of Sugarcane is sold out.  A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life, Sugarcane, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning. In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on […]

VTIFF remembers the great Gena Rowlands with this film, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. A Woman Under the Influence is not only Rowlands’ finest performance in a career filled with A-list efforts, but one of the greatest, most daring performances ever committed to screen by any actor, anywhere, ever.  Rowlands died on August […]