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2025 Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) When & Where September 11 - 21, 2025 | Local supporting in-person theatres + online. For more more information, visit the VQFF website here. Reviewers Darren Cordeiro and Jason Martin Then. Now. Forever. (Opening Presentation) Date and Venue September 11, 2025 | Vancouver Playhouse, 600 Hamilton St., Vancouver, BC Reviewers: Darren Cordeiro & Jason Martin The opening gala for the 2025 Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) was a night to remember! With speeches from collaborators to amazing performances by Indigenous Peoples prior to the Shorts, the evening kicked off to a fabulous start. Then. Now. Forever., a collection of seven Shorts, was played for the sold-out audience, each one speaking to different topics and themes that entrench the Queer community.
Set in 1970s Los Angeles, Dandelion trails foster teen Margaret (Ava Lalezarzadeh) as she’s ferried across the city in a sputtering wood-paneled Pinto—both a metaphor of her inner struggle and an iconic relic of the era. With her social worker (Vic Michaelis), she scrambles to find her yet another placement before daybreak. As the night unfolds, the search for a new placement turns into something more: a glimpse of queer community, tenderness, and the possibility of belonging. Obertinca’s Short distills themes of abandonment and chosen family into 20 minutes that are as sharp as they are heartfelt.
Anita Louise, a Nova Scotian photographer, spent decades visually documenting local queer community events, especially the weekend retreat Wild Women Don’t Get The Blues which was an intimate camping getaway for lesbian and bisexual women in the 80s and 90s. Truly serving as a Canadian queer pioneer, she was noted in the interviews as somebody who would always be present but never in the spotlight as she was behind the scenes capturing the candid, blissful moments of her queer community. After her recent passing, she is still remembered as the warmth behind the camera’s eye. View all reviews
USA, 2025, Dir. Akiva Schaffer, 85 minutes When and Where Release date for Canada & U.S. is set for August 1, 2025 | Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas Reviewer John Anthony Jane Akiva Schaffer’s
2025 version of The Naked Gun is not a remake of David
Zucker’s original released back in 1988, but rather a
legacy sequel. Zucker’s version had Canadian actor Leslie
Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin, while Irish actor Liam Neeson takes
on the role of Frank Drebin Jr. Full
Review
2025 DOXA Documentary Film Festival When & Where May 1 - 11, 2025 | Vancouver Playhouse, VIFF Centre, The Cinematheque & SFU Goldcorp Centre + online
Canada, 2025, dir. Baljit Sangra, 79 minutes There’s perhaps no greater tragedy than talent unclaimed…It would seem that Judi Singh was born too early for the global acclaim that her talent deserved. Judi was the daughter of Sohan Singh Bhullar, a Punjabi Sikh and Effie Jones, whose father had been a slave in Mississippi. She began singing at Edmonton's famous jazz club the Yardbird Suite at the age of 17, and continued to perform in front of sold-out crowds at the venue throughout the fifties and sixties. Full Review
Mistress Dispeller China
& USA, 2024, Elizabeth Lo, 95 minutes Elizabeth
Lo’s strange documentary provides an intimate look at China’s
booming relationship industry, that has for the last decade indicated
an increase in adultery. Of course, China is hardly unique in
this very human problem. Full
Review
Reviewer John Anthony Jane In the making
of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Danish-based documentarian
Daniel Borenstein worked with educational videographer and student
events coordinator Pavel Talankin. Over a two year period Talankin
selectively documented the activities of students and staff
at the Karabash Primary School #1. Full
Review
Reviewer John Anthony Jane Montreal
based Kinga Michalska’s observational documentary investigates
Poland from the perspective of people living today on or near
sites that are identified with the horror of the Holocaust.
Sites, such as the labour camp at Starachowice and the Stutthof
concentration camp at Sztutowo where 65,000 people met their
fate. Full Review
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Dandelion
Anita
Louise and the Wild Women
Mr.
Nobody Against Putin 