Victoria Film Festival Archives

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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(Re)introducing Casey Walker. From A Little Bit Zombie to Ithaqua, What Can We Expect?

Although there isn’t a lot of new updates on Hammer Films’ upcoming horror feature Ithaqua, directed by Casey Walker, this work is still labelled currently in production, and we revisit this filmmaker’s past work in A Little Bit Zombie.

Casey Walker Filmmaker When websites I’ve contributed to in the past go offline, it’s time to resurrect and update some of those favourite pieces here. More than 10 years ago, I discovered A Little Bit Zombie (ALBZ) by an up-and-coming filmmaker, Casey Walker. Since then, he produced The Void, an excellent Lovecraftian-style movie, and directed a few episodes of The Hardy Boys.

In his latest work, he’s reworking a tale based on the Ithaqua indigenous legend. This film stars Luke Hemsworth, Kevin Durand, and Michael Pitt. A lot has changed since it was first announced. The website Upcoming Horror Movies suggests it may debut late 2025 or next year. At the time of writing, all we know is that Hammer Films picked up the rights.

According to HollywoodNorthbuzz.com, the story is as follows:

Cole Franklin, an American mercenary, is recruited as a hired gun and guide at the remote outpost of Fort William, which is struggling to survive the decline of the fur trade. With dwindling supplies, the keepers of the Fort blackmail Cole into leading a trading party to a nearby Indigenous village where they discover a massacre and encounter the remaining half-crazed inhabitants for the bloodshed.

Though the trading party survives with minimal losses and returns to the Fort with a bonanza of food and furs, the supernatural force responsible for the carnage follows them back. As the casualties stack up, it becomes evident that something unnatural is driving the residents insane with murderous hunger. The rag-tag band of survivors forces Cole to put his military expertise to use in organizing their last stand against what can only be described as some kind of madness.

Although I haven’t found further updates since this announcement, I’ll share more information as it becomes available. In the meantime, please enjoy this interview I conducted when he and the cast came to town! This film made its worldwide debut at the Victoria Film Festival. Interview follows:

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A Nerd’s Guide to the 2025 Victoria Film Festival

Runs Feb 7 to 17, 2025

After celebrating their thirtieth last year, the Victoria Film Festival is still going strong. Although this local event has changed somewhat over time, some choices are for the better, and others–it’s honestly hard to judge. Back when virtual reality was the hottest thing to change cinema, I noticed that after an attempt one year to showcase its potential, nothing has done ever since.

Although some trends are just that, I see a potential with this alternate movie telling format. And while it’s tough to create a choose-your-own-adventure style cinematic experience, that’s because the technology is not advanced enough, and storytellers have to get back to basics to learn what hyper-fiction is. I believe that until home entertainment fully adopts this medium, advancements will stall. But I digress.

This year, I offer my selection of the top ten films to check out. There’s three I’ve already looked at, and highly recommend. This includes movie review links and the interview with the filmmaker(s) where possible, as they made their debut earlier last year.

I offer this selection of films to check out if you are visiting the Garden City. Tickets can be purchased by clicking on the title and for those who just want to see this movie, please check with your local film festival or art house theatre to see if these works will play there too.

The Penguin Lessons

The Penguin Lessons Based on a true story, Steve Coogan plays Tom Michell, an English professor who arrives in Buenos Aires to teach at a private school on the eve of the coup d’état that plunged Argentina into turmoil in 1976. Tom is cynical, sarcastic and disillusioned, and the circumstances of his employment and the situation around him does nothing to improve his attitude. Jonathan Pryce, as the admonishing headmaster advising all to keep out of the chaos, is on point.

During a brief escape to Uruguay, Tom rescues a penguin from an oil slick to impress a woman he has just met. Tom tries to convince the penguin to return to the ocean, but the penguin has other ideas and insists on staying close to his rescuer. And so begins the relationship between Tom and the charmingly named Juan Salvador.

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Inkwo for When the Starving Return. When Indigenous Rights Matters in this Amazing Stop-Motion Epic!

Inkwo for When the Starving Return is a brilliant short film that’s more about survival in the arctic! When confronting the self is just as important as dealing with the supernatural, is Dove Ready?

National Film Board of Canada
Available Light Film Festival (Feb 7-16)
Victoria Film Festival (Feb 7-16)

After debuting at Sundance Film Festival, the short film, Inkwo, is headed to the Victoria Film Festival! It’s a beautiful film by Amanda Strong who has nicely integrated some folk tales into a battle about humanity versus self, and also nature! There’s some mention of industry, but it’s only implied than openly said out loud.

Not only will this work mesmerise not only its technical achievement as a stop-motion animated piece but also in telling folks it’s okay to be gender-fluid. Although this is not the primary message, that’s what I first recognized. When Dove (voiced by Paulina Alexis) is introduced as female, I’ll stick to this pronoun. During her excursions outside, she must face various arctic dangers. While some encounters are real, it is the ones she must face about herself that’s the most telling.

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Ranking The Caped Crusader’s Best Films Ahead of The Vic Theatre’s Batman Marathon

Batman is getting ready to shroud over Victoria, BC thjis coming weekend with this local mini movie marathon celebrating his best works than all!

November 9-10, 2024
The Vic Theatre
808 Douglas St. Victoria, BC

For tickets, please visit here.

Just how many Batman movies exist depends on whom you ask, and the people who run The Vic Theatre in Victoria, BC say it’s nine films. Their Batman Marathon is their way to celebrate the coming of autumn and perhaps posthumously “The Longest Night” (technically, the title is The Longest Halloween in published form). For those who are counting all appearances, it’s fifteen; and for every animated film made to date, those alone stand at thirty-two! But for anyone able to last through the films the Victoria Film Festival crew was able to licence to screen, the winner will get bragging rights to say they’ve lasted the weekend, and also free movies for a year!

The Batman Marathon Includes:

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The Best Five Genre Films to See at the Victoria Film Festival’s 30th Anniversary

Not every milestone year can be perfect, but I try to be fair about what the Victoria Film Festival offers, especially when the 25th didn’t live up to my expectations.

While there aren’t enough movies to make a top ten picks of nerdy films playing at the Victoria Film Festival‘s 30th year, that’s only because I’m selecting works that I haven’t seen before and am truly interested in. My expectations after experiencing their 20th are hard to top and what I’ve witnessed over the decade is like a sine wave. Their 25th showed them trying to include new venues and making sure there’s works that’ll appeal to non film buffs.

I’m surprised that even now, they and Tsukino Con (the Uvic Anime Club) haven’t decided to partner up. This anime event takes place after the festival, and to work together to offer up the latest Japanese animated film feels like a missed opportunity to help each other out.

It’s tough to offer an movie event celebration that has a bit of everything to cater to all levels of tastes and genres. There was even a year where the organisers experimented with the next wave–with the use of virtual reality–but now there’s little interest in choosing your own adventure storytelling; at least this show is adaptive. As for being a place to find niche genre works, it’s tough to call dibs not to get those films that matter–which I’ve seen elsewhere.

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