Vancouver International Film Festival
Vancouver (Canada), September 21 - October 5, 2000

The 19th Annual Vancouver International Film Festival, began September 25 as a leaner, tighter and more dynamic festival than in previous years. Opening with Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and is scheduled to close with the Canadian premiere of Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark. This year the Festival has scaled back it's traditional 17 day run by three days, allowing for a more intense program to unfold on its eight screens.

Festival Director Alan Franey, whose sharp-eyed programming and constant support of both emerging and established filmmakers continues to be well reputed, has once again fashioned a keen Festival schedule revolving around embracing global themes and crashing filmic traditions.

Among the sections headlining under the banner "Same Planet, Different Worlds" at this year's Festival are: Dragons & Tigers, The Cinemas of East Asia; New World Order!; Korean Skew!; One Piece! Vancouver Challenge; Canadian Images; Nonfiction Features of 2000; Walk on the Wild Side; Cinema of our Time, and the Special Spotlights on Iranian and French Film.

Dragons & Tigers, The Cinemas of East Asia, also includes those films in competition for the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema to be awarded for the most creative and innovative first or second feature-length film by a new director from Pacific Asia. The films in competition are: Barking Dogs Never Bite (South Korea, Director Bong Jun-Ho); Body Drop Asphalt (Japan, Director Wada Junko); Bundled (Taiwan, Director Singing Chen); Die Bad (South Korea, Director Ryoo Seung-Wan); Fah Talai Jone (Thailand, Director Wisit Satsanatieng); Love/Juice (Japan, Director Shindo Kaze); Memento Mori (South Korea, Directors Min Jyu-Dong, Kim Tae-Yong); Mysterious Object at Noon (Thailand, Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul); Not Forgotten (Japan, Director Shinozaki Makoto).

Indeed, VIFF stands as the strongest (and longest) Canadian film festival, screening 200 features and 102 shorts from nearly 50 countries throughout its two weeks. The Festival also encompasses the annual Trade Forum and New Filmmakers' Day; clearly positioning itself as the premiere Canadian festival for filmmakers in stark contrast to its glitzy Toronto cousin (presumably the 'business festival' mentioned above). With an annual audience of 135,000, VIFF also boasts strong audience support, as evidenced by the dynamic question & answer sessions following director-attended films.

Additionally, VIFF has long embraced the new digital-wave of filmmaking by accepting and projecting digital films in their original format. "The Festival and Trade Forum of the year 2000 has been invigorated by the rapid emergence of digital video and the freedom that it entails," Franey has been quoted as saying.



The Vancouver International Film Festival runs until October 5, 2000. The Trade Forum and New Filmmaker Day runs September 27-29, 2000.

Kathleen McInnis

Vancouver