A scene from “Midnight’s Children”TIFF
The Vancouver International Film Festival will open with Deepa Mehta's Midnight's Children, adapted from Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name by Rushdie himself. (The film has its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Sunday.)
VIFF's gala films were announced at a news conference in Vancouver on Wednesday, along with other program details.
The Canadian Images program will open with Moving Day, described by the festival as a "raucous comedy" directed by Trailer Park Boys creator Mike Clattenburg. Other Canadian offerings include Andy Keen's Tragically Hip concert documentary Bobcaygeon and Nisha Pahuja's The World Before Her, which was named Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival and Best Canadian Feature documentary at Hot Docs this year.
French director Leos Carax's Holy Motors, which had its world premiere in competition at Cannes this year, will close the festival.
Other gala films include Lou Yi's Mystery, a China-France co-production, which will screen at the Dragons & Tigers Awards Gala; and Barnaby Southcombe's I, Anna, which will screen at the Sponsor Gala.
The festival, which runs Sept. 27 until Oct. 12, will include more than 380 films from 75 countries, over 235 of them feature-length.
Marsha Lederman