Horror, realism and love: These B.C. films deserve a spot on your VIFF 2026 must-see list

The film has been described by the production as “a cross between Crazy Rich Asians and Flashdance” and we are totally there for that.

Directors: Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein
When and where: Oct. 3, 9:15 p.m., Rio Theatre, Oct. 4, 6:15 p.m., The Park Theatre

The Vancouver directing and writing duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, the guys behind 2025’s Final Destination: Bloodlines, have gone back to their original sci-fi horror film Freaks (2018) for this sequel.

In a world where cameras are trained on us from every angle, the Vancouver-shot Freaks II leans into the contemporary themes of fear, surveillance and persecution.

The story centres on Mary (Amanda Crew) and her daughter Chloe (Lorelei Olivia Mote) as they flee the Abnormal Defence Force (ADF), a government agency intent on exterminating people who possess extraordinary powers. As everyone around them is interrogated and detained, the mother and daughter evade scrutiny while they plot revenge against an evil ADF agent who committed a heinous crime.

Director:  Gloria Mercer
When and where: Oct. 5, 8:45 p.m., Rio Theatre

Vancouver director Gloria Mercer’s feature debut, A Safe Distance, comes into VIFF with plenty of positive chatter, most notably from the SXSW festival earlier in the year.

A psychological thriller, the film focuses on Alex (Bethany Brown), who has been ditched in the woods during a camping trip by her long-term boyfriend after she turns down his marriage proposal. Alex is rescued by Kianna and Matt (played by Tandia Mercedes and Cody Kearsley, respectively) a couple living off the grid who also happen to be criminals on the run.

Alex warms to the couple and, you guessed it, discovers that hanging out with weird strangers in the woods can get complicated — then scary.

Director: Marie Clements
When and where: Oct. 3,  6:15 p.m., Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island, Oct. 4, 3 p.m.,  Rio Theatre, Oct. 11, 3:15 p.m., Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island

Fresh off its world premiere at TIFF, Métis playwright, performer, director, producer, screenwriter and Galiano Island resident Marie Clements’ (Bones of Crows) new drama tells the story of Indigenous sisters whose lives are upended and shaped by racist government policies.

Based on Clements’ play Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, How We Stand begins in 1950s and follows a single mother (Cara Jade Myers) and her three young daughters who take a risk on the Native American relocation program and leave Oklahoma for Los Angeles.

After a traumatic event, the three girls are placed in different foster homes. Flash forward 20 years and the girls, now women (Amber Midthunder, Alyssa Wapanatâhk and Isabel DeRoy-Olson), have lived very different lives.

Inspired by true events, How We Stand blends historical drama, magical realism, and humour as it focuses on institutional violence and the effects of separation on a family.