The 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 39th event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from September 24 to October 7, 2020.Dana Gee, "Adaptation of a favourite Canadian novel lands opening spot at VIFF". Vancouver Sun, September 3, 2020. On September 3, organizers announced a lineup of 180 films; due to the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia and the associated social distancing restrictions remaining in place at movie theatres and other public venues, the festival took place primarily on the online VIFF Connect platform.Janet Smith, "Vancouver International Film Festival unveils its online and in-cinema 2020 lineup". The Georgia Straight, September 3, 2020.
Most films were geoblocked so that they were available for streaming only to viewers in British Columbia, although some of the festival's other programming, including its VIFF Talks series, was made available to viewers across Canada and internationally.
Awards Audience-voted awards were announced at the end of the festival on October 7; however, some of the juried award winners were announced during the festival, beginning with the announcement of the British Columbia film categories on September 27, as a technique to help publicize and promote the winning films.Craig Takeuchi, "VIFF 2020: Vancouver's Karen Lam and Capilano University grad Jessie Anthony win B.C. film awards". The Georgia Straight, September 27, 2020.
Award Film Filmmaker Most Popular Canadian Narrative Beans Tracey Deer Most Popular Canadian Documentary Inconvenient Indian Michelle Latimer Most Popular International Narrative My Wonderful Wanda (Wanda, mein Wunder) Most Popular International Documentary The Reason I Jump Jerry Rothwell Best Canadian Film Beans Tracey Deer Best Canadian Documentary Call Me Human (Je m'appelle humain) Kim O'Bomsawin Best Canadian Short Film Bad Omen Salar Pashtoonyar Best Canadian Short Film, Honorable Mention Moon (Lune) Zoé Pelchat Emerging Canadian Director Violation Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli Best BC Film The Curse of Willow Song Karen Lam Best BC Short Film Cake Day Phillip Thomas Sea to Sky Award Nuxalk Radio Banchi Hanuse BC Emerging Filmmaker Brother, I Cry Jessie Anthony VIFF Impact Award The Reason I Jump Jerry Rothwell Rob Stewart Eco Warrior Award The Hidden Life of Trees (Das geheime Leben der Bäume) Peter Wohlleben (subject), Jörg Adolph (filmmaker) Immersed (Virtual Reality Program), Best Cinematic Live Action Kowloon Forest Alexey Marfin Immersed, Best Documentary By the Waters of Babylon Kristen Lauth Shaeffer, Andrew Halasz Immersed, Best Animation The Book of Distance Randall Okita Immersed, Honorable Mention in Animation In the Land of the Flabby Schnook (Au pays du cancre mou) Francis Gélinas Immersed, Audience Award Ecosphere: Raja Ampat Joseph Purdam
Films
Contemporary World Cinema Another Round (Druk) — Thomas Vinterberg Bad Tales — Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo Black Bear — Lawrence Michael Levine Falling — Viggo Mortensen Father — Srdan Golubović Hammamet — Gianni Amelio Here We Are — Nir Bergman In the Name of the Land (Au nom de la terre) — Édouard Bergeon Kala azar — Janis Rafa Last and First Men — Jóhann Jóhannsson (Die Getriebenen) - A Metamorphosis of the Birds (A metamorfose dos pássaros) — Catarina Vasconcelos Mogul Mowgli — Bassam Tariq My Donkey, My Lover & I (Antoinette dans les Cévennes) — My Mexican Bretzel — Nuria Giménez My Wonderful Wanda (Wanda, mein Wunder) — On the Quiet — Zoltán Nagy The Pencil (Prostoi Karandash) — Natalya Nazarova The Restoration (La Restauración) — Alonso Llosa Sarita (Dimmi chi sono) — Sergio Basso Servants (Sluzobnici) — Ivan Ostrochovsky The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs (Laila aur satt geet) — Pushpendra Singh Siberia — Abel Ferrara Summer of 85 (Été 85) — François Ozon Tales of the Lockdown (Relatos confinados) — Fernando Colomo, Álvaro Fernández Armero, David Marqués, Miguel Bardem, Juan Diego Botto There Is No Evil (Sheytan vojud nadarad) — Mohammad Rasoulof This Is My Desire (Eyimofe) — Arie & Chuko Esiri Uncle (Onkel) — Frelle Petersen Undine — Christian Petzold Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness — Massoud Bakhshi Yellow Sunglasses (Gafas amarillas) — Iván Mora Manzano
True North Akilla's Escape — Charles Officer An Awkward Balance — David Milchard Beans — Tracey Deer Brother, I Cry — Jessie Anthony Call Me Human (Je m'appelle humain) — Kim O'Bomsawin Chained — Titus Heckel Events Transpiring Before, During and After a High School Basketball Game — Ted Stenson First We Eat — Suzanne Crocker Flowers of the Field — Andrew Stanley Happy Place — Helen Shaver Inconvenient Indian — Michelle Latimer John Ware Reclaimed — Cheryl Foggo The Magnitude of All Things — Jennifer Abbott Monkey Beach — Loretta Todd My Salinger Year — Philippe Falardeau Nadia, Butterfly — Pascal Plante No Ordinary Man — Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel — Joel Bakan, Jennifer Abbott No Visible Trauma — Marc Serpa Francoeur, Robinder Uppal Pink Lake — Emily Gan, Daniel Schachter Prayer for a Lost Mitten (Prière pour une mitaine perdue) — Jean-François Lesage Saint-Narcisse — Bruce LaBruce
Gateway A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad's an Alcoholic — Kenji Katagiri Beauty Water — Cho Kyung-hun Dancing Mary — Sabu Memories to Choke on, Drinks to Wash Them Down — Leung Ming-kai, Kate Reilly Mickey on the Road — Lu Mian Mian Moving On — Yoon Dan-bi My Prince Edward — Norris Wong Shanghai Swings — Yang Mingteng The Town of Headcounts — Shinji Araki Twilight's Kiss (Suk Suk) — Ray Yeung
Altered States The Curse of Willow Song — Karen Lam Jumbo — Lapsis — Noah Hutton Sanzaru — Xia Magnus Special Actors — Shin'ichirô Ueda Violation — Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli
Impact Caught in the Net — Barbora Chalupová, Vít Klusák Citizen Penn — Don Hardy Cured — Bennett Singer, Patrick Sammon The Forum — Marcus Vetter The Hidden Life of Trees (Das geheime Leben der Bäume) — Jörg Adolph I Am Not a Hero — Pablo Crutzen, Robin Smit, Stijn Deconinck The Reason I Jump — Jerry Rothwell Women in Blue — Deirdre Fishel
Insights Anerca, Breath of Life — Johannes Lehmuskallio, Markku Lehmuskallio Into the Storm — Adam Brown Journey to Utopia — Erlend E. Mo My Voice Will Be With You — Bruno Tracq Once Upon a Time in Venezuela — Anabel Rodríguez Ríos The Race to Alaska — Zach Carver Super Frenchie — Chase Ogden Time — Garrett Bradley —
International Shorts À la carte — Jay Do The Book of Ruth — Becca Roth Destructors — Otis Tree Empty Places — Geoffroy de Crécy Flawless — Nathan Franck Flush — Diego Freitas Home — Alex von Hofmann Homeless Home — Alberto Vázquez The Hunter — Sam McConnell I Want to Make a Film About Women — Karen Pearlman Illusione — Lorenzo Quagliozzi Imelda and Luis — Leonel Chee In This Land We're Briefly Ghosts — Chen-Wen Lo Jane — Kathryn Prescott Little Chief — Erica Tremblay Malakout — Farnoosh Abedi Not a Word — Élodie Wallace Now, Daphne — Johann G. Louis Of Memories and Madness — Maria Isabel de la Ossa The Parrot Lady — Michalis Kalopaidis The Roses of Damascus — Gabriel Gonzalez Guirola, Yasmina Touzani She — Matt Greenhalgh Sheep, Wolf and a Cup of Tea — Marion Lacourt Sin Cielo — Jianna Maarten To: Gerard — Taylor Meacham To the Dusty Sea — Héloïse Ferlay The Twins — Cru Bannon, Douglas Ho, Yuriz Joe Union County — Adam Meeks Wade — Upamanyu Bhattacharyya, Kalp Sanghvi White Eye — Tomer Shushan Widowers — Julian Tuna The Winter — Xin Li A Woman — Tahmina Rafaella
M/A/D Frida Kahlo — Ali Ray In the Tracks of - Special Edition — Pascale Cuenot Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President — Mary Wharton Maguy Marin: Time to Act — David Mambouch Marcel Duchamp: The Art of the Possible — Matthew Taylor My Rembrandt — Oeke Hoogendijk Paris Calligrammes — Ulrike Ottinger
Modes All, or Nothing at All — Persijn Broersen, Margit Lukács Becoming Alluvium — Thảo Nguyên Phan Bittersweet — Sohrab Hura A Demonstration — Sasha Litvintseva, Beny Wagner Digital Funeral: Beta Version — Sorayos Prapapan The End of Suffering (a proposal) — Jacqueline Lentzou (e)scape goat — Sid Iandovka In Times of Deception — Michael Heindl A Month of Single Frames — Lynne Sachs, Barbara Hammer Playback — Agustina Comedi
Short Forum Aniksha — Vincent Toi The Archivists — Igor Drljaca As Spring Comes (Comme la neige au printemps) — Marie-Ève Juste August 22, This Year — Graham Foy Bad Omen — Salar Pashtoonyar Benny's Best Birthday — Benjamin Schuetze Black Forest Sanatorium — Diana Thorneycroft Boredom — Mashie Alam Breaking up for the Modern Girl — Sydney Nicole Herauf Cake Day — Phillip Thomas Canucks Riot II — Lewis Bennett Cosmic — Meredith Hama-Brown Deeper I Go — Michael P. Vidler êmîcêtôcêt: Many Bloodlines — Theola Ross Even in the Silence — Jonathan Elliott Every Day's Like This — Lev Lewis The Fake Calendar — Meky Ottawa First Person Shooter — Cole Kush Foam (Écume) — Omar Elhamy The Fourfold — Alisi Telengut Girls Shouldn't Walk Alone at Night (Les filles ne marchent pas seules la nuit) — Katerine Martineau The Great Malaise (Le Mal du siècle) — Catherine Lepage Into Water — Cole Forrest Laura — Kaayla Whachell Moon (Lune) — Zoé Pelchat A New Leash on Life — Daniel Jeffery Nuxalk Radio — Banchi Hanuse Parlour Palm — Rebeccah Love Rag Doll — Leon Lee Spring Tide — Jean Parsons Strong Son — Ian Bawa Succor — Hannah Cheesman Sunken Cave and a Migrating Bird — Qiuli Wu This Bright Flash — Rylan Friday Toward You — Meysam Motazedi The Train Station — Lyana Patrick The Trip — Mikizi Migona Papatie tu — Suzanne Friesen Vaivén — Nisha Platzer Zoo — Will Niava
References
External links Official website (from Internet Archive Wayback Machine, archived during the 2020 festival) VIFF 2020 Fast Facts (from official site) Closing release including statistics and official list of award winners