Film Series at The Cinematheque

Current and Upcoming Series

  • Ozu 1
  • Ozu 121
  • December 12, 2024–January 6, 2025
  • “Ozu 121” invites you to experience Ozu anew. This series takes its curatorial cues from Hasumi Shiguéhiko’s newly translated book and a string of high-profile restorations—both of which focus on the auteur’s postwar period.

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  • 3 Women 8
  • Essential Big Screen 2024
  • December 19, 2024–January 5, 2025
  • To anyone who enjoyed a movie at The Cinematheque in 2024, thank you for supporting us and the work we do. Happy holidays and even happier film viewing.

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  • Clara Law
  • Clara Law: Drifting Petals, Floating Lives
  • January 16–February 5, 2025
  • The Cinematheque and the UBC Asian Independent Cinema Showcase are pleased to present a select retrospective surveying the remarkable, decades-spanning oeuvre of Clara Law.

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  • Before Sunrise 6
  • Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy
  • February 6–15, 2025
  • On the occasion of Before Sunrise’s 30th anniversary, The Cinematheque presents an opportunity to revisit these three unforgettable films.

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  • United States Of America 2
  • Bette Gordon, USA
  • February 21, 2025
  • Six experimental shorts and an engrossing feature by American filmmaker Bette Gordon screen in this program, a tie-in to critic and curator Saffron Maeve’s extensive profile on Gordon for MUBI Notebook.

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  • Museum Hours 3
  • DIM Cinema
  • Ongoing Series
  • Moving-image art in dialogue with cinema.

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  • Dita At The Post Office
  • Film Club
  • Ongoing Series
  • A movie matinee series for kids and their families.

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  • Agent Of Happiness 3
  • Frames of Mind
  • Ongoing Series
  • A mental health film series presented by The Cinematheque and the Institute of Mental Health, UBC Department of Psychiatry.

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  • The Body Remembers web6
  • Our Stories to Tell
  • Ongoing Series
  • Our Stories to Tell is a monthly series dedicated to showcasing the new wave of inspired Indigenous storytelling in film, as well as spotlighting up-and-coming Indigenous artists across Turtle Island and beyond.

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  • Alborz 3
  • PELAN Presents
  • Ongoing Series
  • A bimonthly series organized in partnership with PELAN, a nonprofit and nonpartisan media organization spotlighting independent documentaries by Iranian and non-Iranian directors about Iranian people.

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Past Film Series

  • Hours For Jerome 4
  • 7 Reasons Why: Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler
  • December 9–16, 2024
  • The Cinematheque is excited to offer a rare opportunity to see these 16mm films by Dorsky and Hiler, which will be projected, as intended, at the silent speed of 18 frames per second.

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  • Godard5 1
  • JLG Forever
  • January 12–December 15, 2024
  • In 2024, The Cinematheque pays tribute to the singular Franco-Swiss auteur with a yearlong retrospective traversing the gamut of his voluminous, endlessly explorable corpus.

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  • Some Birds 2
  • European Union Film Festival 2024
  • November 14–28, 2024
  • Sample the latest in Europe’s cinematic achievements at the annual European Union Film Festival, celebrating its 27th edition at The Cinematheque this fall.

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  • Inferno 3
  • Watch Out, That Woman Has Evil Eyes: Celluloid Witches
  • October 24–31, 2024
  • This series represents a small path through variations on the theme of witches, featuring works by celebrated auteurs, as well as cult classics, each adding their singular twist on the lore.

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  • Angel 1
  • Only Lubitsch Could Have Made It
  • October 12–20, 2024
  • For this series, The Cinematheque has chosen to go slightly outside the canon of regularly screened Lubitsch films, paying special attention to works that attest to the full range of the director’s skill.

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  • SFMF
  • Small File Media Festival 2024
  • October 18–19, 2024
  • It’s the Small File Media Festival’s fifth anniversary! We’re partnering with The Cinematheque once again to raise awareness about the environmental impact of streaming media.

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  • Expose Scenarios 2
  • JLG Forever: Fabrice Aragno
  • October 10–11, 2024
  • With the support of Swiss Films and the Consulate General of Switzerland in Vancouver, The Cinematheque is honoured to welcome Fabrice Aragno for a two-night engagement as the culmination to our year-spanning “JLG Forever” series.

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  • Gilda 1
  • Film Noir 2024
  • August 1–September 5, 2024
  • Film noir returns to The Cinematheque this summer for another lucifugous season of hard-bitten American crime fiction from arguably Hollywood’s most distinctive—and inarguably most misanthropic—chapter of moviemaking.

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  • Catherine Breillat 1
  • All True Artists Are Hated: The Transgressions of Catherine Breillat
  • July 11–September 4, 2024
  • Occasioned by the theatrical release of Last Summer (2023), Breillat’s first picture in a decade, “All True Artists Are Hated” surveys a feather-ruffling career, including new restorations, as well as 35mm presentations, of rarely screened works.

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  • Le Samourai 1
  • A Shadow Is Haunting the World: International Noir
  • August 1–September 2, 2024
  • While film noir is often considered an American phenomenon, it never would have existed without the émigré directors that entered Hollywood during that classic period. This noir sidebar explores the way that influence can run both ways.

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  • Disintegration 2
  • Pagbalik sa Takipsilim: Kidlat Tahimik and Miko Revereza
  • July 25, 2024
  • Part of the exhibition HOHOL (Hang Out Hang Out Lang) at grunt gallery. Curated by Patrick Cruz and Christian Vistan.

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  • Jon Jost 3
  • Jon Jost in the PNW
  • July 5, 2024
  • With Jost passing through the Pacific Northwest, we take the opportunity to screen two of his finest features made in the region: The Bed You Sleep In (1993) and Blue Strait (2014). Jost will join us for both films in the evening’s double bill.

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  • Hole 1
  • “Who Will Sing Folk Songs?”: The Film Musical in Nine Variations
  • May 23–July 3, 2024
  • This series is a showcase of works where filmmakers have not only dealt with the extreme possibilities of foregrounded music, but taken seriously film’s capacity to connect with traditions that, in some cases, predate cinema itself.

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  • Edward Yang 1
  • Are You Lonesome Tonight? The Films of Edward Yang
  • March 28–July 2, 2024
  • “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” marks The Cinematheque’s first Edward Yang retrospective in 25 years, and comprises all seven theatrical features made by the director, including the long unavailable A Confucian Confusion (1994) and Mahjong (1996).

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  • VGFF
  • Third Annual Vancouver Greek Film Festival
  • June 6–27, 2024
  • This year’s edition includes a spotlight on Yorgos Lanthimos, new restorations from the Greek Film Archive and American Genre Film Archive, and standout works by Costa-Gavras, John Cassavetes, and Sofia Exarchou.

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  • Shimizu
  • Four Postwar Films by Shimizu Hiroshi
  • June 14–23, 2024
  • The Cinematheque has plucked four gems from this year’s historic touring exhibition, each produced during Shimizu’s brilliant (and neglected) postwar career after he left Shochiku and formed his own independent studio, Hachinosu Eiga.

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  • Triet c Yann Rabanier
  • Before the Fall: Justine Triet × 3
  • May 17–27, 2024
  • The Cinematheque is proud to present the genesis of Triet’s fiction filmmaking career, with all three films screening in Vancouver for the first time.

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  • Bitter Ash 2
  • Larry Kent’s Vancouver Trilogy
  • May 16–20, 2024
  • Following their world premieres in Montreal last year, The Cinematheque presents new digital restorations of Larry Kent’s three groundbreaking made-in-Vancouver movies.

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  • Bertrand Bonello
  • Bertrand Bonello × 2
  • April 19–May 1, 2024
  • The Cinematheque is excited to present the simultaneous theatrical runs of Coma and The Beast as Vancouver premieres.

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  • Rivette 1
  • Dangerous Games: Jacques Rivette × 4
  • March 4–April 1, 2024
  • The Cinematheque presents a selection showcasing Jacques Rivette’s key collaborations with the actor Bulle Ogier, from her film acting debut in L’amour fou (1969) to perhaps her finest moments in The Gang of Four (1989).

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  • My Thoughts Are Silent 2
  • Witnessing Change: Ukrainian Cinema in a Time of Turmoil
  • February 1–22, 2024
  • Spanning nearly a century of cinema, the films in this series touch on issues that continue to shape Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora: technology, demographic generations, political revolution, and war.

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  • Lila Aviles 1
  • Lila Avilés × 2
  • February 2–17, 2024
  • The Cinematheque is proud to present the theatrical first run of Aviles’s Tótem, and the overdue Vancouver presentation of her debut feature The Chambermaid.

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  • Sara Gomez
  • Sara Gómez × 4
  • February 8, 2024
  • In celebration of Black History Month, The Cinematheque is partnering with the Vulnerable Media Lab and the Department of Latin American Studies at UBC to present an evening of newly restored films by Sara Gómez.

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  • All That Heaven Allows 3
  • Essential Big Screen 2023
  • December 8, 2023–January 3, 2024
  • For this year’s “Essential Big Screen” lineup, we’ve decided to sprinkle in three patrons’ picks too good to delay any longer. A medley of must-see classics—featuring works by Malick, Ozu, Hu, and Sirk—round out the remaining program.

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  • Tarkovsky 1
  • Tarkovsky
  • December 1, 2023–January 2, 2024
  • This Tarkovsky retrospective, our first since 2012, showcases all seven features made by the visionary artist.

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  • Michael Snow
  • Snow in December
  • December 4–18, 2023
  • This three-week engagement with Michael Snow's films presents his epochal Wavelength, followed by a selection of more rarely screened but no less revelatory works.

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  • Ramona 1
  • European Union Film Festival 2023
  • November 16–30, 2023
  • Our perennial showcase of contemporary European cinema returns this fall for another best-of-both-worlds hybrid edition!

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  • Somai 33
  • Somai Shinji × 3
  • November 4–13, 2023
  • The Cinematheque is excited to present three masterful films by Somai following their re-introduction to North American audiences at Japan Society’s retrospective in New York earlier this year.

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  • Godzilla illustration Chris Ayers
  • Godzilla: King of Kaiju
  • October 26–31, 2023
  • This Halloween season, The Cinematheque salutes the epic reign of the kaiju king with a monster-sized, all-ages Godzilla marathon drawn from the earliest and most influential chapter of the indomitable (and delightfully eccentric) movie franchise.

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  • Ousmane Sembene 1
  • Sembène 100
  • October 12–24, 2023
  • The groundbreaking films of Senegalese writer and director Ousmane Sembène (1923–2007) form a body of work that stands in grand opposition to conformity, unafraid of contradictions, censors, or the scandals of colonialism.

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  • SFMF 2023
  • Small File Media Festival 2023
  • October 20–21, 2023
  • The Small File Media Festival returns for its fourth iteration! We are delighted to partner with The Cinematheque to present over sixty jewel-like works from across the globe.

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  • 1 poetics of liveliness 1 from Charlie Cooper s Series
  • Small File Media Retrospective
  • September 18–October 19, 2023
  • A prelude to the upcoming 2023 Small-File Media Festival, this retrospective explores the affective power of experimental ecomedia through a curated selection of green and artful small films.

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  • Arabesques On The Theme Of Pirosmani 7
  • Georgian Cinema: Dreaming at the Crossroads
  • September 18–26, 2023
  • Georgia has certainly more than made its mark on world cinema, as seen in this series of ten programs that starts at the end of the silent era and culminates with two 2022 releases.

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  • Maltese falcon steve wynn
  • Film Noir 2023
  • August 3–September 4, 2023
  • This August, wrap yourself in the nocturnal embrace of The Cinematheque’s annual film noir season, our routine deep-dive into that deliriously dark and fertile period of hardboiled, high-body-count American cinema.

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  • Suzuki 1
  • Suzuki Seijun 100
  • August 17–September 4, 2023
  • William Carroll has selected six representative films across Suzuki’s career. We’ve added six more. Only three overlap with our previous retrospective, all the better to appreciate how Suzuki could reconfigure his modernism across genres and eras.

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  • Double Happiness 2
  • The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia – The Finale
  • January 11–August 30, 2023
  • To answer the question, “What is the image or what are the images before us?,” we need the opportunity to actually see them, to show films—our films, our films from our community—that are hard to see, except at an institution like The Cinematheque.

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  • Werckmeister Harmonies 1
  • I See a Darkness: Béla Tarr & György Fehér
  • July 21–August 1, 2023
  • “I See a Darkness” presents György Fehér’s tremendous first film, never before released in North America, alongside Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies, one of the milestones of modern cinema. Both arrive in stunning new restorations.

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  • Eustache 2
  • When the Camera Is On, Cinema Is Happening: The Complete Works of Jean Eustache
  • July 13–31, 2023
  • Following Les Films du losange’s historic acquisition and remastering of the director’s entire library, The Cinematheque is honoured to present the complete works of Jean Eustache, a miracle by any measure.

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  • Dardennes2
  • A Film That Is Also a Handshake: Dardenne Brothers × 3
  • July 7–18, 2023
  • The Cinematheque is delighted to present Rosetta and The Son, newly restored, in a series-addendum program that also includes the brothers’ much-lauded latest, Tori and Lokita.

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  • S01e03 2
  • A Summer Long Since Passed: Three Films by Kurt Walker
  • July 6, 2023
  • Walker’s films are acts of transformative re-creation informed by the time spent behind cameras and within games, knowing that from both these positions a small and nimble cinema can chart its own course.

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  • Lee 1
  • Fearful Symmetry: The Films of Lee Changdong
  • June 8–July 2, 2023
  • Lee is a director of generous yet uncompromising films and a politically and intellectually fearless figure in Korean culture. The Cinematheque is proud to present a complete retrospective of Lee’s feature films.

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  • Colour Of Pomegranates 4
  • Moving Mountains: The Centenary of Armenian Cinema
  • June 15–22, 2023
  • Comprising eight features and two shorts, “Moving Mountains” is the first Canadian retrospective of Armenian cinema’s volatile trajectory from the ideologically oriented silent period to the post-Soviet era of creative diversity and experimentation.

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  • America America 2
  • Second Annual Vancouver Greek Film Festival
  • June 1–4, 2023
  • Highlights of this year include a 35mm presentation of Elia Kazan’s epic America America; a new restoration of Theo Angelopoulos's Reconstruction; several award-winners from last year's Hellenic Film Awards; and a tribute to Olympia Dukakis.

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  • Ermacora Johnson Headshot Michael
  • Unsettled Settings: Ryan Ermacora & Jessica Johnson
  • May 18–22, 2023
  • The Cinematheque is delighted to bring this retrospective, which showcases all of Ermacora and Johnson’s solo and collaborative documentary shorts, as well as their 2022 feature Anyox, home.

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  • Lemonade 6
  • Cinema Thinks the World
  • June 2, 2022–February 27, 2023
  • Through a series of public screenings, panel talks, and discussions, “Cinema Thinks the World” aims to explore the ways in which global cinema represents and helps us to think about the world. Presented with the Public Humanities Hub at UBC.

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  • Neptune Frost 2
  • Chan Centre Connects
  • February 7, 2018–February 23, 2023
  • Chan Centre Connects film screenings at The Cinematheque are curated to accompany performances in the Chan Centre Presents series at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC.

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  • Guy Maddin 1
  • Celluloid Dreamland: The Cinema of Guy Maddin
  • January 26–February 20, 2023
  • Cinephilic Vancouverites, heed our call! Guy Maddin, legendary Winnipeg auteur and the world’s foremost reanimator of cinema’s dead and buried past, is coming to The Cinematheque in the twilight days of January.

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  • Suwa Nobuhiro 2
  • Suwa Nobuhiro × 3
  • February 9–17, 2023
  • The Cinematheque is proud to present a rare three-film primer on Suwa's incisive (and woefully underseen) cinema, featuring a sampling of his seminal early works made in Japan.

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  • Michael Roemer Headshot
  • Michael Roemer × 3
  • January 13–23, 2023
  • Finally available in new restorations, Roemer’s films are the kind of cinema rare in any age: alive to the historical moments in which they were made, but built out of the elemental material that lasts.

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  • Infernal Affairs 2
  • The Infernal Affairs Trilogy
  • January 5–12, 2023
  • “The Hong Kong crime drama was jolted to new life with the release of the Infernal Affairs trilogy, a bracing, explosively stylish critical and commercial triumph that introduced a dazzling level of narrative and thematic complexity to the genre.”

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  • Last Year At Marienbad 1 Courtesy Rialto Pictures Studiocanal
  • Resnais 100
  • December 16, 2022–January 4, 2023
  • “Resnais 100” showcases films from the first and most influential chapter of the iconic director’s career, including brand-new restorations of his formative documentaries and his scarcely screened, politically piercing La guerre est finie.

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  • High Hopes 1
  • Tragically Human: The Films of Mike Leigh
  • December 8, 2022–January 2, 2023
  • By turns sad, funny, tender, and agonizingly true to life—yet always sympathetic to the Sisyphean struggles of its ordinary heroes—the bittersweet cinema of writer-director Mike Leigh is showcased in this retrospective.

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  • Landless 2
  • Contemporary Iranian Cinema
  • September 14, 2017–December 18, 2022
  • Acclaimed and accomplished new films from Iran are in the spotlight in this showcase presented by The Cinematheque in partnership with the Phoenix Cultural Centre of Toronto and Pacific United Productions.

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  • Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant 1
  • Fifty / Fifty
  • September 15–December 5, 2022
  • While the bulk of our birthday cake was served in August (our month of incorporation), some of the best pieces were saved for this “Fifty / Fifty” series.

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  • EUFF2022 Series Image
  • European Union Film Festival 2022
  • November 17–December 1, 2022
  • Europe without the jet lag! After a two-year hiatus as an in-theatre festival, the European Union Film Festival returns for a special hybrid edition that brings the latest in European cinema to your screen and, at last, ours too!

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  • Crimes of the Future 04
  • Take the Skin and Peel It Back: Halloween by Cronenberg
  • October 27–November 2, 2022
  • This Halloween season, hold onto your guts as The Cinematheque serves up four body-horror classics by the godfather of the subgenre, plus a pay-nothing screening of his newest “new flesh” think piece, Crimes of the Future (2022).

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  • Life Is Cheap 1
  • Wayne Wang × 3
  • October 13–17, 2022
  • Wayne Wang is having a moment. Again.

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  • VIFF2022
  • Vancouver International Film Festival 2022
  • September 29–October 9, 2022
  • VIFF 2022's spectacular roster includes some of the best cinema from around the globe.

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  • Mala Noche 2
  • Pioneers of Queer Cinema
  • September 8–26, 2022
  • “Pioneers of Queer Cinema” is an attempt to recover some American queer films that are now little-known, and many rarely ever seen at all, and put them in conversation with works now deemed classics.

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  • Alaska 1
  • 50 Years of Essential Cinema
  • August 4–25, 2022
  • As we look back on a half-century of “essential cinema”—a fluid, shapeshifting term if ever there was—we wish to celebrate those Cinematheque programmers of yore who nourished generations of cinephiles still tumbling through our doors.

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  • Portraits From A Fire 1
  • The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia – Take 6
  • March 2–August 24, 2022
  • After a two-year COVID-era hiatus, we are pleased to reboot our series “The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia” with a sixth season.

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  • Big Sleep 1
  • Film Noir 2022
  • August 3–22, 2022
  • This year marks The Cinematheque’s 50th lap around the sun. What better way to celebrate our joyous jubilee than by plummeting mug-first into the nihilistic, nocturnal underworld of film noir!

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  • Completely Cuckoo 2
  • Celebrating 20 Years of Frames of Mind
  • August 14–15, 2022
  • Although it’s come and gone, September 2021 marked the beginning of the 20th year of Frames of Mind as a monthly event at The Cinematheque.

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  • Hookerson Davie web2
  • Janis Cole & Holly Dale: Empathy in Action
  • July 28–August 1, 2022
  • The empathetic, fiercely independent film practice of partners Janis Cole and Holly Dale, iconic figures in the pantheon of Canadian documentary, is celebrated in this program of newly restored feminist landmarks by the Genie Award-winning duo.

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  • Blue web3
  • Blue, White, and Red: The Three Colours Trilogy
  • July 21–31, 2022
  • Polish master Krzysztof Kieślowski's celebrated “Three Colours Trilogy,” based on the three colours of the French flag and their symbolic representation of the French Revolution’s ideals, screens here in brilliant new digital restorations.

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  • Perfect Blue web5
  • King Kon: The Anime of Kon Satoshi
  • July 14–25, 2022
  • This summer, bow down to “King” Kon Satoshi at our mind-bending retrospective devoted to his awesome anime films.

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  • Before Tomorrow web2
  • Isuma ᐃᓱᒪ: To Think, To See
  • June 21–30, 2022
  • In conjunction with National Indigenous Peoples Day 2022, The Cinematheque is proud to present an exhibition of Inuktitut-language film works by Isuma, the trailblazing studio and media arts collective that introduced Inuit cinema to the world.

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  • Wandering Princess web4
  • Tanaka Kinuyo, Director
  • May 20–June 20, 2022
  • The formidable acting career of Tanaka Kinuyo (1909–1973) has long overshadowed her pioneering status as a film director—Japan’s first (and for a long time, only) female filmmaker of the postwar period.

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  • Attenberg web3
  • Vancouver Greek Film Festival
  • June 16–19, 2022
  • The Hellenic Canadian Congress of B.C. and The Cinematheque present the first Vancouver Greek Film Festival, an in-person event hosted at The Cinematheque.

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  • Monica Vitti web1
  • Remembering Monica Vitti (1931–2022)
  • April 28–May 3, 2022
  • This spring, The Cinematheque remembers Monica Vitti with a tribute program of canonical Antonioni masterworks, each featuring an indelible lead performance by the late, beloved arthouse icon.

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  • Adoption web1
  • The Films of Márta Mészáros
  • March 4–April 14, 2022
  • One of Hungary’s preeminent filmmakers, Márta Mészáros has created a distinctive body of deeply personal, deeply political works in a trailblazing career spanning more than six decades.

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  • Devi web9
  • Satyajit Ray (1921–1992): The Music Room and Devi
  • March 5–20, 2022
  • In December, The Cinematheque marked the centennial of Satyajit Ray with a presentation of his acclaimed Apu Trilogy. We continue our tribute to master Ray with two more celebrated works, both among his very finest achievements.

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  • A Pigeon Sat web6
  • It’s Not Easy Being Human: The Films of Roy Andersson
  • February 12–27, 2022
  • A meticulous, perfectionist film artist whose funny-sad visionary work has been described as “slapstick Ingmar Bergman” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice), Swedish director Roy Andersson is one of the 21st century’s most revered filmmakers.

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  • Ratcatcher web1
  • Cracks in the Rearview Mirror: The Cinema of Lynne Ramsay
  • January 6–February 4, 2022
  • This series collects Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay's four extraordinary feature-length films to date, as well as a number of essential award-winning Ramsay shorts we would be remiss (if not irresponsible) to exclude.

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  • Apu Trilogy web1
  • Satyajit Ray (1921–1992): The Apu Trilogy
  • December 26, 2021–January 5, 2022
  • 2021 marked the centennial of the birth of Satyajit Ray, the great Bengali writer-director who introduced Indian cinema to the world. To celebrate, the three films in Ray's Apu Trilogy screen here in their 2015 restorations.

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  • Burdenof Dreams web1
  • Werner Herzog: Lessons of Darkness
  • September 8, 2021–January 4, 2022
  • A major retrospective featuring many of the German titan’s most iconic, enigmatic, and ecstatic feats of narrative and documentary filmmaking. Welcome, one and all, to Herzog season.

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  • Setsuko Hara web2
  • Hara Setsuko Centenary: The Noriko Trilogy
  • December 23, 2021–January 3, 2022
  • In celebration of the 100th birthday of beloved Japanese actress Hara Setsuko, The Cinematheque and the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre present Ozu Yasujiro's cycle of immortal masterworks informally named after Hara's onscreen counterparts.

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  • Our Little Sister web1
  • Family Matters: The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu
  • October 16–December 9, 2021
  • “Family Matters,” The Cinematheque’s first-ever retrospective honouring Japanese eminence Kore-eda Hirokazu, showcases the finest of the filmmaker’s signature family portraits.

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  • Melvin Van Peebles web1
  • Melvin Van Peebles (1932–2021)
  • November 25–December 8, 2021
  • New restorations of the first three features from trailblazing African-American filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles are showcased in our tribute to this important pioneer.

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  • EUFF2021 web
  • European Union Film Festival 2021
  • November 12–28, 2021
  • Europe without the jet lag! Experience films from across the European Union in this second online edition of the EUFF.

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  • Possession web2
  • Arthouse Horror
  • October 22–31, 2021
  • A curated confection of high-art horror films for Halloween to satiate your cinephilic sweet teeth and, oh heck, scare the living bejesus out of you too! ’Tis the season of terror, no?

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  • VIFF2021 web1
  • Vancouver International Film Festival 2021
  • October 1–11, 2021
  • With over 110 feature films, 75+ shorts, talks and conferences there is a lot to discover at VIFF 2021.

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  • Criss Cross web1
  • Film Noir 2021
  • August 5–26, 2021
  • Vancouver’s most popular (and pessimistic) summer film series is back! Join us for 17 nights of downbeat, doom-laden, deliriously stylish cinema, as The Cinematheque once again celebrates the sleazy, sordid glories of classic American film noir.

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  • Fellini web2
  • Fellini 100
  • June 17–August 3, 2021
  • The Cinematheque celebrates the centennial of one of cinema’s boldest and most beloved maestros with an extensive retrospective, featuring many new restorations.

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  • SENSORY ETHNOGRAPHY LAB web1
  • Fieldwork: Three Documentaries from Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab
  • July 15–28, 2021
  • Occasioned by a digital restoration of Sweetgrass, the film that first signaled the Ivy League collective’s arthouse ambitions, The Cinematheque presents a trio of the Sensory Ethnography Lab’s most indispensable and acclaimed documentaries.

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  • WKW web1
  • World of Wong Kar-Wai
  • June 17–July 24, 2021
  • The Cinematheque marks the 20th anniversary of In the Mood for Love with a career-spanning retrospective devoted to Hong Kong’s best-loved auteur, featuring many brand-new 4K restorations.

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  • You Are On Indian Land web2
  • National Indigenous Peoples Day: The NFB’s Indian Film Crew
  • June 21–July 4, 2021
  • Free virtual program! To mark the 2021 edition of NIPD, The Cinematheque has partnered with the National Film Board of Canada to present a free virtual program dedicated to the trailblazing work of the NFB’s first all-Indigenous film unit.

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  • Solaris1972 web4
  • Lem 2021: Stanisław Lem on Film
  • June 4–July 1, 2021
  • The Cinematheque and the Polish Cultural Institute New York mark the centennial of Polish literary icon and science-fiction master Stanisław Lem (1921–2006).

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  • ITMFL web4
  • In the Mood for Cinema?
  • June 17–21, 2021
  • The Cinematheque reopens for in-person screenings with a trio of cinema’s greatest masterworks!

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  • SPIRITFILM web1
  • Monographs: Video Essays on Asian Cinema
  • May 14–27, 2021
  • Free virtual series! Conceived in 2020 as a means of engaging with the wider film community during the COVID-19 pandemic, “Monographs” is a series of video essays on Asian cinema, commissioned by the Asian Film Archive (AFA) in Singapore.

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  • Rohmer Four Seasons web1
  • Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons
  • April 9–May 6, 2021
  • Prolific French writer-director Eric Rohmer, at perhaps his most engaging and exploratory, spins delicately crafted tales of chance encounters and romantic roundelays in this quartet of seasonally-set comedies.

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  • Heater web6
  • National Canadian Film Day 2021
  • April 21–May 4, 2021
  • The Cinematheque is pleased to mark National Canadian Film Day 2021 with two free virtual programs of exceptional Canadian cinema.

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  • MDFF Anne web1
  • Modern Construction: An MDFF Retrospective
  • March 5–April 1, 2021
  • Toronto-based production and distribution company Medium Density Fibreboard Films — better known by its acronym MDFF — is at the crest of a new wave in English-Canadian cinema.

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  • Germany All About Me
  • European Union Film Festival 2020
  • November 13–29, 2020
  • From November 13 to 29, join us (virtually) for the first-ever Canada-wide European Union Film Festival, featuring 27 recent films from 27 EU member states.

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  • J Horror web1
  • J-Horror!
  • October 23–31, 2020
  • There’ll be nightmare fuel aplenty, dear scream seekers, as The Cinematheque serves up a J-horror primer this Halloween featuring five benchmark blood-curdlers from the land of high-art horror, Japan.

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  • Penny Slinger Out of the Shadows Richard Kovitch Front Follow Psychological Strategy Board Time Attendant Maybury 5 WEB
  • Penny Slinger: Exorcisms
  • October 20–31, 2020
  • Fillip and The Cinematheque are pleased to present “Penny Slinger: Exorcisms,” a weeklong virtual series focusing on the film work of visionary British artist Penny Slinger.

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  • Lanthimos web1
  • Yorgos Lanthimos × 3
  • October 15–22, 2020
  • Occasioned by the North American release of Greek Weird Wave flag-bearer Yorgos Lanthimos’s first solo feature, the scarcely seen Kinetta, The Cinematheque presents a trio of the Oscar-nominated director’s earliest homegrown efforts.

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  • Chytilova Vera web1
  • The Anarchic Cinema of Věra Chytilová
  • September 6–October 22, 2020
  • A formal innovator, feminist, film surrealist, and political gadfly, Věra Chytilová (1929–2014) was a central and singular figure in Czech cinema.

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  • Bros web1
  • A Film That Is Also a Handshake: The Cinema of the Dardenne Brothers
  • September 8–October 12, 2020
  • To accompany the Vancouver release of Young Ahmed, The Cinematheque proudly presents a retrospective dedicated to the films of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, cinema’s high priests of social realism.

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  • VIFF Web Headers Contemporary Balloons
  • Vancouver International Film Festival 2020
  • September 25–October 4, 2020
  • From September 24 – October 7, film lovers province-wide will enjoy over 100 feature films and events showcasing exciting, groundbreaking and provocative cinema and creators from around the globe.

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  • Film Noir2020
  • Film Noir 2020
  • July 31–August 27, 2020
  • This cruel COVID summer got you down in the dumps? Well, doll, we’ve got the antidote! Join us as the sordid, sleazy, cynical world of Film Noir comes crawling out from under a dirty rock for its annual place in The Cinematheque sun!

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  • Burning Bright
  • Burning Bright: New French Filmmakers 2020
  • August 7–27, 2020
  • “Burning Bright: New French Filmmakers 2020” is a celebration of emerging French and Francophone voices in cinema, organized by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) in New York.

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  • Gameof Death web7
  • Enter the Dragon: Bruce Lee × 5
  • August 6–26, 2020
  • Man, myth, legend, dragon — Bruce Lee is the greatest action star that ever was. This summer, feast your eyes on a fistful of the kung-fu king's most iconic films at The Cinematheque!

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  • Herz web1
  • Juraj Herz: In & Out of the Czechoslovak New Wave
  • July 9–30, 2020
  • The singular career of the prolific director and occasional actor Juraj Herz, a master of the offbeat and the macabre, is without parallel in the context of the cinema emerging from Czechoslovakia starting in the mid-1960s.

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  • BRATS web1
  • UCLA Festival of Preservation Tour 2020
  • March 5–July 23, 2020
  • Renowned preservation work is spotlighted in this biennial festival, featuring superb new restorations of time-honoured classics, nearly lost masterworks, neglected treasures, and rediscovered rarities spanning more than a century of film history.

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  • We Will Stand Up web7
  • National Indigenous Peoples Day: Tasha Hubbard
  • June 19–25, 2020
  • As part of the (at-home) 2020 edition of NIPD, The Cinematheque has partnered with the National Film Board of Canada to present a trio of vital works by Cree filmmaker and educator Tasha Hubbard.

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  • The grey fox web2
  • National Canadian Film Day 2020
  • April 22–30, 2020
  • The Cinematheque is pleased to mark National Canadian Film Day, a one-day, coast-to-coast-to-coast celebration designed to bring Canadians together to watch Canadian films.

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  • Szabo web1
  • István Szabó × 3
  • April 10–16, 2020
  • Perhaps the most acclaimed Hungarian director of his generation, István Szabó became a major international filmmaker in the 1980s with a series of elaborate, ambitious, and accessible historical works.

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  • Agnes Website 1
  • Viva Varda! The Films of Agnès Varda
  • December 12, 2019–March 4, 2020
  • The Cinematheque is pleased to present a major retrospective — career-spanning and near-complete — devoted to the films of Agnès Varda, one of cinema's paramount female artists.

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  • Best Decade 1
  • Best of the Decade
  • January 8–February 17, 2020
  • The top films of the 2010s, as selected by The Cinematheque’s film curators.

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  • Marlon David web1
  • The Rage to Live: Queer Film Legacies and the Work of David Wojnarowicz and Marlon Riggs
  • January 31–February 2, 2020
  • The Cinematheque joins with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and Griffin Art Projects in presenting this film and lecture series organized in conjunction with two current art exhibitions.

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  • The Red Shoes Website
  • Essential Big Screen 2019
  • December 21–30, 2019
  • The Cinematheque wishes you the very best of the festive season with a special selection of must-see, much-loved film classics, all best enjoyed on the big screen.

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  • Florida Project 8 Website
  • Sean Baker: Peripheries
  • December 5–9, 2019
  • The Cinematheque is delighted to welcome acclaimed American independent filmmaker Sean Baker in person for a program celebrating his three most recent features.

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  • Kiarostami_web1
  • And Life Goes On: The Films of Abbas Kiarostami
  • October 18–December 4, 2019
  • The singular cinema of the Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami (1940–2016), one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the past three decades, is celebrated with this near-comprehensive retrospective.

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  • Winter Brothers 1 Website
  • 22nd Annual European Union Film Festival
  • November 22–December 2, 2019
  • Europe without the jet lag! The Cinematheque’s annual European Union Film Festival spotlights acclaimed new and recent films from across greater Europe.

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  • Symphony website 2
  • Crave Hot Docs Showcase
  • November 15–17, 2019
  • Outstanding titles from Hot Docs screen in the Crave Hot Docs Showcase.

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  • British Folk Horror
  • It’s in the Trees! It’s Coming! British Folk Horror!
  • October 25–31, 2019
  • This Samhain season, till the fields of British folk horror with a program exploring the lineage and enduring legacy of this most unholy horror subgenre.

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  • Elainemay_web
  • Elaine May × 2
  • September 13–15, 2019
  • Elaine May, a gifted comic performer, successful screenwriter, and perfectionist filmmaker, was one of the only women directing features in Hollywood in the 1970s and ’80s.

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  • Detour 1
  • Film Noir 2019
  • August 1–22, 2019
  • This year’s celebration of classic American cinema’s most depraved and downbeat film movement showcases ten hard-boiled treasures, each an important noir essential or a ripe-for-rediscovery rarity.

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  • Jean Pierre Melville
  • Jean-Pierre Melville: Master of French Noir
  • August 1–21, 2019
  • Running in parallel with Film Noir 2019, The Cinematheque presents its first ever retrospective on Jean-Pierre Melville, master of French noir.

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  • 5370 2001a Space Odessy
  • A Spaced-Out July
  • July 3–28, 2019
  • From Lem (Stanisław) to LEM (Lunar Excursion Module, Apollo’s moon lander), things get a little spacey at The Cinematheque this July!

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  • Point Blank 1
  • High and Low: From Pulp to Poetry
  • May 30–July 22, 2019
  • Superior cinematic poetry is conjured out of lowly pulp dreams in this eclectic program of masterful films.

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  • 5373 For All Mankind
  • Fly Me to the Moon: Apollo 11’s 50th Anniversary
  • July 20–21, 2019
  • These fifty years on, let us be moonstruck anew at an accomplishment as daringly difficult and dangerous as it was dauntingly expensive.

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  • Hyenas 1
  • Djibril Diop Mambéty × 2
  • July 12–15, 2019
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  • As In Heaven 1
  • Wayward Heroes: A Survey of Modern Icelandic Cinema
  • June 13–28, 2019
  • The ten films in this series—ranging from magic-realist fables to bloody Viking epics, sardonic deadpan comedies to hard-boiled Nordic noirs—offer a snapshot survey of the Icelandic film industry's remarkable evolution from the ’80s to today.

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  • Claire Denis Edit
  • Claire Denis: Trouble Every Day
  • June 6–25, 2019
  • Featuring five imported 35mm prints on loan from the Institut Français in Paris, this select Claire Denis retrospective is the largest presented by The Cinematheque to date.

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  • Elle Máijá Tailfeathers
  • National Indigenous Peoples Day: Two Films by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
  • June 21, 2019
  • To mark the 2019 edition of NIPD, The Cinematheque is delighted to showcase two exceptional documentaries by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, an award-winning, Vancouver-based filmmaker/actor of Blackfoot and Sámi heritage.

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  • Winnipeg Film Group 1
  • Meanwhile, in Winnipeg...
  • June 18, 2019
  • More...
  • EUSFF 2019
  • European Union Short Film Festival
  • May 23–25, 2019
  • The EUSFF features three lively programs of short films from European Union member states, each showcasing works in a variety of genres and styles, including drama, documentary, and animation.

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  • Sin Of Nora Moran 1
  • Down and Dirty in Gower Gulch: Poverty Row Films Preserved by UCLA
  • April 11–29, 2019
  • Lurid, low-budget treasures from the fringes of the Dream Factory are on display in this program of newly restored features, most dating from Hollywood’s more permissive pre-Code era, and all produced on Hollywood’s so-called Poverty Row.

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  • Police Story 1
  • Jackie Chan × 2
  • April 19–21, 2019
  • More...
  • Bujalski
  • Andrew Bujalski × 2
  • April 12–14, 2019
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  • CMYK
  • The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia – Take 5
  • January 14–April 8, 2019
  • At year five, we recognize that a history of the “images before us” is in a constant state of revision. While we continue to honour important local legacies, our cinema culture continues to evolve.

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  • Truffaut
  • François Truffaut × 2
  • March 15–29, 2019
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  • General 1
  • Buster Keaton × 3
  • March 6–10, 2019
  • More...
  • Andrey Zyvagintsev
  • From Russia with Love: The Cinema of Andrey Zvyagintsev
  • January 17–30, 2019
  • More...
  • Creation Of Meaning 1
  • The Spirit of Place: Simone Rapisarda Casanova
  • January 24–25, 2019
  • A nomadic film artist whose work evades easy classification, Italian-Canadian director (and SFU instructor) Simone Rapisarda Casanova has received international plaudits for his poetic and principled brand of “meta-documentary.”

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  • Mystery Of Picasso 1
  • Essential Big Screen 2018
  • December 20, 2018–January 2, 2019
  • Join us for a special selection of much-loved classics, all films of sensational beauty, all best appreciated on the big screen. Happy holidays and happy viewing!

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  • Ingmar Bergman
  • Bergman 100
  • March 8–December 28, 2018
  • The Cinematheque joins film institutions around the world in celebrating the 2018 centenary of Ingmar Bergman, one of the cinema’s pantheon talents and, arguably, one of the 20th century’s most important artists.

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  • Jean Vigo
  • The Complete Jean Vigo
  • December 6–15, 2018
  • These works are lasting testaments to Vigo’s status as a film artist of rare genius, and have inspired generations of filmmakers in France and elsewhere—including, significantly, the major talents of French poetic realism and the French New Wave.

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  • Drummer And The Keeper 1
  • 21st Annual European Union Film Festival
  • November 23–December 4, 2018
  • The Cinematheque’s annual celebration of new cinema from the European Union is proudly presented; this year’s festival showcases entries from 26 EU members.

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  • Harmony Korine Edit
  • HARM: A Harmony Korine Retrospective
  • November 8–15, 2018
  • With Korine’s long-awaited The Beach Bum finally set for release in 2019, The Cinematheque is proud to present a complete retrospective of Harmony Korine’s corrosive, cult-adored cinema, the first of its kind in Canada.

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  • Suspiria 10
  • Don’t Lose Your Head! Dario Argento for Halloween
  • October 26–31, 2018
  • This Halloween, feast your eyeballs—and, with scores by Ennio Morricone and prog-rockers Goblin, eardrums!—on a trio of lurid 1970s “spaghetti slashers” from the maestro of by-the-bucket blood spillage, all screening in brilliant 4K restorations.

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  • Out Of The Past 111
  • Film Noir 2018
  • August 3–23, 2018
  • There are blonde dames and soft-headed saps galore in The Cinematheque’s annual season of Film Noir, a celebration of one of the American cinema’s richest and most creative (and most jaded and cynical) periods.

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  • It Rains On Our Love 1
  • Bergman Noir
  • August 16–22, 2018
  • The stylish methods and fatalistic moods of noir, and of German Expressionism, noir’s stylistic antecedent, are much in evidence in early Bergman movies such as It Rains on Our Love and A Ship to India—and, before that, in Torment.

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  • Midsummer Nights Dream 1
  • The Puppet Master: The Films of Jiří Trnka
  • July 19–August 2, 2018
  • The Cinematheque is pleased to present a major retrospective (the first ever offered in Vancouver) of the works of Czech animation master Jiří Trnka (1912-1969).

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  • Philippe Garrel
  • Philippe Garrel: Definitions of Love
  • July 12–30, 2018
  • On the heels of major career surveys in New York and Toronto, The Cinematheque presents a select retrospective of Philippe Garrel’s sublime, scandalously-underseen cinema.

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  • Trouble In Paradise 2
  • UCLA Festival of Preservation Tour 2018
  • June 7–21, 2018
  • Highlights from the most recent edition of the festival, featuring glorious new 35mm restorations of important classics, nearly-lost masterworks, neglected treasures, and rediscovered rarities, now make their sole Canadian stop at The Cinematheque.

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  • Zama 11
  • I Feel You: The Films of Lucrecia Martel
  • June 1–10, 2018
  • To coincide with the Vancouver premiere of Zama, Martel’s first long-form film in nearly a decade, The Cinematheque presents a mid-career retrospective of the director’s fiercely original body of work.

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  • Brief Excursion 2
  • Contemporary Croatian Cinema
  • May 14–31, 2018
  • The cinema of Croatia is spotlighted in series of three films, two by female directors.

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  • Stormy Man 2
  • Inoue Umetsugu: Japan’s Music Man
  • May 19–27, 2018
  • This mini-retrospective features four shot-in-colour gems: three newly-subtitled classics starring acting-and-singing heartthrob Ishihara Yujiro and a restored 35mm print of a film Inoue made using the rare Konicolor process.

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  • Loyalties 1
  • National Canadian Film Day 2018
  • April 18–19, 2018
  • The Cinematheque is pleased to mark National Canadian Film Day, a one-day, coast-to-coast-to-coast celebration designed to bring Canadians together to watch Canadian films.

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  • Backbone 1
  • The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia – Take 4
  • January 15–April 16, 2018
  • Our fourth season of “The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia” continues to draw inspiration from The Image Before Us (1986), written and directed by poet, scholar, and filmmaker Colin Browne.

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  • Heaven Will Wait 1
  • Young French Cinema
  • April 5–15, 2018
  • Contemporary French directors have consistently been singled out for praise by the international press in the last few years. The Young French Cinema program is one of the most convenient entry points to their works.

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  • Trinh T Minhha
  • Two Films and a Talk with Trinh T. Minh-ha
  • March 15–16, 2018
  • Centre A and The Cinematheque, with support from SFU David Lam Centre and SFU Department of Humanities, welcome renowned Vietnamese-born artist, writer, and scholar Trinh T. Minh-ha for a special two-night program of her acclaimed film work.

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  • Man Who Fell To Earth 1
  • Out There: The Visionary Cinema of Nicolas Roeg
  • February 17–March 4, 2018
  • On the occasion of his 90th birthday this year (salut, Nic!), The Cinematheque presents a select retrospective of Roeg’s daring, dangerous, censors-be-damned films.

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  • Canada Top Ten 2017 1
  • Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival
  • January 12–21, 2018
  • The year’s best Canadian films are in the spotlight in The Cinematheque’s annual presentation of the Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival.

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  • Days Of Heaven 1
  • Essential Big Screen 2017
  • December 22–30, 2017
  • The Cinematheque celebrates the festival season with a special selection of much-loved classics, all works of affecting beauty, all must-sees on the big screen! Happy holidays and happy viewing!

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  • Perceval 1
  • Eric Rohmer: Ancient and Modern
  • December 9–18, 2017
  • This program of four series outliers features three of Rohmer’s dazzling and daring historical literary adaptations, plus a playful, oft-neglected comedy about modern life.

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  • Christmas Story 1
  • Cinema Sunday
  • February 10, 2008–December 17, 2017
  • An afternoon film program for children and their families.

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  • End Of St Petersburg 1
  • The Revolution in 16mm
  • November 20–21, 2017
  • This Soviet Film Vanguard sidebar is comprised of 16mm prints from The Cinematheque Archive.

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  • Man With A Movie Camera 1
  • Revolutionary Rising: The Soviet Film Vanguard
  • November 2–19, 2017
  • This 100th anniversary program is built around the opportunity to view lesser-known but important titles that, in the aggregate, demonstrate the breadth of this influential and transformative cinematic movement.

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