Blog by Beebe Cline, PREC*

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film fest cheat sheet

The Vancouver International Film Festival runs September 28 to October 13. We asked film fest insiders (i.e. the people who picked the films) for their ultimate must-see short-list.

Almost Heaven

Local actor Joely Collins (Phil Collins' daughter) is the executive producer of this film set in Scotland about love, loss and a TV fishing show.

Away from Her

Actor Sarah Polley’s directorial debut based on the Alice Munro short story about Alzheimers in which she famously doesn’t disguise the Canadian locations (and vows to make it one of her signatures).

Change of Address

The best of the French comedies to be shown at the Fest, Variety called the comedy of manners “Parisian to its fingertips.”

Collosal Youth

Called “the standout of this year’s Cannes,” the young slum-dwellers of Portugal star in a film that’s been described as “a masterpiece.”

Everything’s Gone Green

Douglas Coupland’s much-lauded first screenplay (starring the feisty Asian actor Steph Song) in which a slacker working for a lottery magazine gets tempted into money laundering.

In Between Days

Named for the Cure song, this Toronto-shot film captures the sense of what it is to grow up as a young Korean female immigrant, and won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance.

La Coupure

A moving, dark, Quebec film in which a married woman must cut off ties with her brother, with whom she’s had a secret, incestuous relationship with since their youth.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Kid and The Boy Inside

A pair of 45-minute Canadian films running together, the first is about an 11-year-old guitar whiz, the second is a true story of a Vancouver 12-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome.

Volver

Director Pedro Almodovar returns, with star Penelope Cruz (whom he says he’s in love with, even if he’s gay) in the Spanish film that is touted to be the sexiest ticket of the entire festival.

The Yacoubian Building

A Cairo apartment building is a microcosm of Egyptian society in this, the country’s biggest budget film ever. Under threat of censure, it’s the festival’s most controversial entry.

Order tickets and see schedules www.viff.org. Check out all the new remote features at www.viff.org/mobile.

past picks

Don’t want to fight the crowds? Pull up our last Film Fest Cheat Sheet, and rent them on video.

 

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