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A Nerd’s Guide to the 2026 Victoria Film Festival

The 2026 Victoria Film Festival leans into ghosts, grief, food, memory, and absurdity. From haunted vacuum cleaners to intimate documentaries, this year’s lineup proves smaller festivals still take the biggest creative risks.

No new introduction is necessary for 2026 Victoria Film Festival as it continues to treat locals to a curated selection of films from around the world. Although the genre plate is not often full, there’s usually something curious worth checking out. This year, the focus is on tales of terror.

And padding out this list are other works of interest that should satisfy even a foodie. For those unable to make it to this corner of the world, keep an eye on your local arts theatres, many of these films are likely to travel. If I had to select only one must-see, it’s A Useful Ghost. Not for the romantic comedy angle or its Valentine’s Day slot, but because it sounds so absurd it demands to be witnessed.

The links below lead to additional information, spoilers possible, and ticket pages for those attending.

A Magnificent Life

The Vic / 12-Feb / 3:00 PM

Sylvain Chomet is a filmmaker who loves paying tribute, not just to people, but to entire creative worlds. From his affectionate portrait of Jacques Tati in The Illusionist to his fascination with artistic spaces, his films often feel like handwritten letters set in motion.

Here, Chomet turns his attention to Marcel Pagnol. Outside France, Pagnol may not be a household name, but his influence across literature and cinema is immense. There’s a question hovering over the film, does this echo It’s a Wonderful Life in spirit? Whether that lands will depend on how modern audiences connect with a figure so deeply rooted in French cultural memory.

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Black Jack Is No Bleak Phantom of the Opera, He Cuts for Compassion

Often mistaken for a cold, enigmatic figure, Black Jack is anything but heartless. This updated OVA release reveals a doctor driven by compassion, challenging rigid medical institutions and reminding us that empathy can matter as much as expertise.

Black Jack Blu-ray — **Available to purchase on Amazon USA**

Released Dec 16, 2025

MediaOCD has taken a careful, almost surgical approach in updating Black Jack, the OVA series, treating it less like a nostalgia item and more like an essential entry point for a classic manga series that many viewers may have missed reading. Alongside a revised song translation, this release restores the two episodes absent from earlier editions and makes a clear effort to remaster the material for modern digital viewing.

For anyone unfamiliar with the property, this set finally presents the series as a complete experience. I’ll also include a brief guide at the end to help newcomers understand how this fits into the wider world of Osamu Tezuka’s work and the many versions of his famously unconventional doctor, Kurō Hazama.

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Who is Worse? The Twits, Tweedledee, or Tweedledum?

Equal parts absurd and unsettling, Netflix’s The Twits brings Dahl’s world of gleeful cruelty to animated life with sharp humour and twisted heart.

Now Playing on Netflix

The Twits is one of those movies where viewers will either click with it or not. For fans familiar with Roald Dahl’s story, the titular couple remain delightfully vile yet oddly sympathetic. For newcomers, however, Mr. and Mrs. Twit (voiced by Johnny Vegas and Margo Martindale) appear as two humans at their worst—mean-spirited, petty, and oblivious to the flaws in their own partnership. They’re less a Gomez-and-Morticia duo and more like Wednesday and Pugsley without the sibling bond, united by mischief but lacking the familial charm.

Enter two orphans, Beesha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Bubsy (Ryan Anderson Lopez), whose immediate connection shows they care more for each other’s welfare than anything else. On the brink of adoption into separate families, the children are caught in the fallout of the Twits’ latest schemes. Bubsy’s potential parents withdraw after chaos literally spills all over them. And as the story unfolds, the orphanage itself risks closure. The cost of maintaining it is high, underscoring just how precarious life can be for children in such situations.

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On Earth, Don’t Scream When Xeno Comes Calling!

Jim Henson Company’s Creature Shop brings Croak to life with practical charm and heart. Xeno thrives on Lulu Wilson’s performance, though its predictable story keeps it from soaring.

Blue Fox Entertainment
Spoiler Alert

When Xeno features designs from Jim Henson Company’s Creature Shop, there’s every reason to check out this film. I couldn’t help but think of the Xenomorphs from Alien and even Marvel’s Venom. And what we see works best in shadow, where we’re not meant to see every detail. Parts of the body suggest something more amphibious than skeletal, slimy than decayed, and once you see its face, you’ll either be unsettled or charmed.

Even in the press, this film is labelled a darker riff on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and it’s easy to spot the Spielbergian tropes director Matthew Loren Oates is leaning on. The premise of a teen bonding with an alien is competently handled, but rarely feels new. What’s presented is less about Beauty and the Beast and the leanings towards How to Train Your Dragon are noticeable. I like my pets/companions to be more feral.

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Five Favourite Fantasia Short Films — Weird, Wild & Wonderful

We’re not done with this festival yet as there are five favourite Fantasia short films to put on the spotlight!

Fantasia 2025 Movie Poster and Five Favourite Fantasia Short Films The 29th annual Fantasia Film Festival has wrapped, and I’m already looking forward to what next year will bring. I’m still catching up on all the fantastic works showcased this year, especially the short films—and I’ve carefully taken the time to highlight the ones that truly stood out. This roundup features my five favourite Fantasia short films. Two were compelling enough to deserve their own dedicated posts: L’écrivain (The Writer) and Mother of Dawn—follow the links to read more about those.

Dreaming of a Whale

Premiered July 19, 2025

Dreaming of a Whale is a dreamlike short film written and directed by Shuzuku. This tale follows a young girl who hears a mysterious message on the radio—an emotional broadcast that is poetic and beckoning. Compelled by this cryptic signal, she sets out on a journey that leads her to the shoreline, where the truth behind the message and its narrator may finally surface.

Visually, the film is striking. The animation has a soft, textured quality reminiscent of early Studio Ghibli works. The colors and movement feel as though viewed by a soft lens, blurring the line between memory and imagination. Whether achieved through analog or digital techniques, this visual approach deepens the sense that we’re inside a waking dream.

The story itself feels intentionally minimal—more of a tone poem than a plotted narrative. We follow the girl not to get answers, but to feel what she feels. It reminded me of Queensrÿche’s “Silent Lucidity.” This song overlays perfectly with the film’s visuals because it delivers the yearning–that sense of needing to find that inner peace which exists in both works.

Ultimately, Dreaming of a Whale leaves you with a quiet hope—that both the girl and the disembodied voice on the radio find peace in their journey, whether it ends on land or beneath the waves.

Dreaming of Whale Short Film

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When Jia Zhangke’s Caught By The Tides is Sweeping Into Art House Screenings Nationwide….

… viewers interested in what life is like in China will find it rather maudlin. What people need to know about Caught by the Tides is that it’s made from bits and pieces of other films, and in what ties everything together is its focus on the leading lady.

Jia Zhangke's Caught By The Tides Movie Poster Caught by the Tides is a curious film that can be tough to deconstruct. When writer/director Jia Zhangke is assembling bits from his other works, the result can feel like a jumble. He either never had in mind a plan to create this latest movie, or he just wanted to play around. Even I had to check where the footage came from. The movies he pulled from are Unknown Pleasures, Still Life, and Ash is Purest White. I’ve only seen one, but the rest were a mystery.

I suspect the idea for this film comes from the idea that whatever random pieces of celluloid film are from the cutting room floor, he can collect into a tale. The film partially captivated me at times, but, like the receding tide, my interest waned. At least I can appreciate the moment where the protagonists are dancing to Butterfly on Dance Dance Revolution.

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