Victoria Film Festival 2026

This month was the 32^nd occurrence of the Victoria Film Festival here in Victoria, British Columbia. It is likely the best-selling VFF in the history of the festival and featured ninety-one feature-length films from twenty-five countries. For a small city-like region like Greater Victoria, the festival operates at a higher level than we really deserve, despite the criticism that it’s “just” a “greatest hits” of other, larger 2025 film fests. It’s the best VFF that I’ve personally attended, and I think next year is probably gonna be even better.

Since I live and work in Victoria and was just living my normal life, I could only attend a handful of (ten) shows in the evenings, but I overheard others bragging about seeing twenty—and even thirty—movies over the course of the ten-day event. Do what you will with it: this article is just a rundown of the films I saw and how much I’d recommend them. We’re doing nebulous star ratings from between one and four stars (i.e. ★★★★) that take into account my enjoyment of the work and my enjoyment of the festival screening.

100 Sunset

Kunsang Kyirong, 2025, Canada

A Canadian immigrant story that I personally haven’t seen before, 100 Sunset is focused on the Tibetan diaspora in Parkdale, Toronto. Kyirong’s quiet directorial debut is bolstered by veteran (as far as I’m concerned) cinematographer Nikolay Michaylov’s effortless ability to make you feel like you’re in the subject’s head. It is full of challenging asshole characters and interesting story-decisions. ★★½

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Matt Johnson, 2025, Canada

I went in not having consumed any of the original web series or the television show. I was appeased, as were my friends who love the antecedent content. I really hope that the distributed cut of the movie will also include actual Back to the Future score samples. If you’re a sucker for time travel, gonzo filmmaking, or buddy comedies, you will have a good time. ★★★½

Beautiful and Neat Room

Maria Petschnig, 2025, United States

An unhinged tale about a working artist who can’t afford her Brooklyn apartment without short-term renting out her spare room to other people who can’t afford their own Brooklyn apartments. The principal actress, Charlotte Aubin, makes this work despite some of the dialogue (with a venti-sized cast of supporting actors) smelling slightly undercooked. You will leave hating every roommate you’ve ever had. This was the first, and only, film I saw at the makeshift thirtyish-seater cinema-venue Toaster Rocket located at Print Hole. I gotta say, this was a good venue. Maybe even better than the real cinema Screen 5 at the Capitol 6 where 100 Sunset screened.¹ ★★½

Pillion

Harry Lighton, 2025, United Kingdom & Ireland

The crowd loved it, and it was heartwarming. This is incredible considering the movie focuses on a BDSM relationship, which is an intense subculture that I’m positive ninety percent of the audience, including myself, know nothing about. A feat. Experiencing the narrative through the narrow, naive point of view of our protagonist, Harry, will remain burned into my long-term memory. ★★★

Blue Heron

Sophy Romvari, 2025, Canada & Hungary

Like 100 Sunset, this one is another feature-length debut by a Canadian woman-filmmaker. It amazingly, deservedly, has already been acquired for distribution by Janus Films. It’s a semi-autobiographical story about a Hungarian-Canadian family whose oldest child is struggling with mental illness. It brings a sharp, fresh perspective to the banal family tragedy movie we’ve seen many times over, and it incorporates both narrative and documentary elements in a surprisingly uncomplicated way. Despite the things I really didn’t like about it (millenial needle drops; [spoiler redacted]), it is probably my number one pick from the festival. ★★★★

Levers

Rhayne Vermette, 2025, Canada

I was excited and primed for this, having seen Vermette’s debut feature Ste. Anne a couple of years ago. This screening was in collaboration with local events promoter and zine-maker Destroyed Cinema. Destroyed programmed this screening to be followed by live music, which rocks. I think this complemented the film a lot. Levers kinda gives you a Guy Madden-high as you follow dozens of (almost a hundred?) extras in rural Manitoba during a mysterious pseudo-apocolyptic solar eclipse, leaving the town in darkness for seemingly a very long time. It was purportedly filmed on broken cameras, though I don’t think that stands out as much as it just having a bedroom-filmmaker, no-lighting, 1980s made-for-television look. There are also tarot cards involved. ★★★★

Rose of Nevada

Mark Jenkin, 2025, United Kingdom

A perfect follow-up to Levers, Rose of Nevada also looks like a cursed 1980s television show episode, albeit a bit more crackerjack. The gentility of the fishing village setting and warm, vintage look makes you forget that this is a hard The Twilight Zone episode. By “hard,” I mean good. ★★★★

The Blue Trail

Gabriel Mascaro, 2025, Brazil

A dystopian-future movie that’s more character than genre, and I appreciate that the character also happens to be a seventy-five year old woman. This premise alone gets at something we deserve more of in a time when nearly all of our genre movies are about rich people who are played by actors who are rich people who, at some point, have been in a Marvel movie. ★★★

A Useful Ghost

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke; 2025; Thailand, France, Singapore & Germany

Another directorial debut. I look forward to seeing more films from Boonbunchachoke, but unfortunately I gotta be mean about this one. It’s a black comedy that isn’t very funny and is probably an hour too long. It seems to me that there were too many cooks in the production-kitchen, which led to a lot of independently interesting story-ingredients being forced into an ambitious, professional, but ultimately unseasoned and conventional stew. ★★

A Poet

Simón Mesa Soto; 2025; Colombia, Germany & Sweden

To me, this feels like a 2000s indie comedy revival movie. It was revitalizing to see a two-hour movie about such a pathetic and misguided person with no jokes in it, but formally this movie has almost nothing going on. ★★