Don't miss the Vancouver Italian Film Festival 2021! Out now!

The Vancouver Italian Film Festival migrates online this year for its eighth annual celebration of the best in new Italian cinema - a co-presentation between VIFF, Il Centro-Italian Cultural Centre, and the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver.

Featuring four-films from a live-action animation to a spaghetti Western, the festival is now available to stream on VIFF Connect until January 21.

The festival features a new, acclaimed, live-action version of Pinocchio, with Roberto Benigni as Geppetto, and directed by the versatile Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah; Dogman; Tale of Tales). Described by critics as “a landmark adaptation”, and a big hit in Italy last Christmas, Pinocchio is enchanting viewing for all ages.

Hot from opening the Venice Film Festival in the fall, we have the new film from the director of Our Lives (La nostra vita), Daniele Luchetti. The Ties (Lacci) is a piercing study of adultery and betrayal with superb performances from Alba Rohrwacher and Luigi Lo Cascio as the couple in focus.

Also highlighted this year is Sin (Il peccato). Directed by Andrei Konchalovski comes a profound and unsettling historical drama starring Alberto Testone as the XVI century artist Michelangelo. It was the closing night film at the Rome Film Festival.

As extra content for anyone who purchases a Festival Pass ($25), VIFF presents viewers with a tribute to the late, great composer Ennio Morricone, who passed away in summer 2020.

Content includes a Film Studies lecture by Will Ross on Morricone, and a chance to enjoy Sergio Corbucci’s extraordinary spaghetti western, The Great Silence (Il grande silenzio), which Morricone scored, and which was an indelible influence on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful 8.

For more details and to purchase tickets, visit http://goviff.org/2021-iff