Pender PR

10/04/2025

One of the best things about what we do is discovering amazing emerging talent; seeing the work of directors and teams who we know are going to break out with fantastic first features very soon. We have so many talented creatives in BC and it is such an honour to catch these filmmakers on their rise. We wanted to honour the work of just a few exceptional filmmakers who are bringing their amazing work home to VIFF this year. Here is a small selection of short films that we hope you get to experience on the big screen.

Natalie Murao’s TEARS BURN TO ASH
VIFF World Premiere / Short Film
An encounter with a doppelganger in Japan cracks open the edges of reality, as a return to the homeland becomes a search through memory, absence, and the ghosts of identity.
🎟️ October 7 + 8
📍International Village

Solara Thanh Bình Đặng’s ripe (chín)
In the Mekong Delta, a young woman must decide if she will enter an arranged marriage in order to support her family of durian farmers — all while the land and the spirit realm weave mysterious influence over her choice.
🎟️ October 6 +7
📍International Village

John Hollands’ LE TOUR DE CANADA
Get set, ready, BANG! Two Canadian cyclists, one anglophone and the other francophone, face off in a fierce race across the country! From St John’s to Vancouver, who will win? Through a playful mix of archival footage, animation, rear projection, and decapitated fish, LE TOUR DE CANADA showcases a rivalry for the ages! Who will you bet on?
🎟️ Oct 3 + 4
📍International Village

10/01/2025

THE ART OF ADVENTURE debuts to audiences for the first time at this weekend. Check out this first-look clip, featured in , with beautiful archival footage, the wonders of the natural world and a friendship that has lasted a lifetime.

About the film:
Between 1957 and 1958, Robert Bateman and Bristol Foster undertook the adventure of a lifetime — driving a Land Rover dubbed “the Grizzly Torque” 14,000 kilometres across Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Australia. More than just an adrenaline-pumping adventure story of two young men crossing half the planet, The Art of Adventure maps out how Bateman and Foster’s trip inspired a love of nature that would last a lifetime. The film interweaves an account of their travels with a look at their lives through the decades that followed: Bateman became a beloved Canadian wildlife painter and Foster a prominent biologist and the first director of BC’s Ecological Reserves program.

Through in-depth interviews with friends and family and the original 16mm film footage of their incredible journey, director Alison Reid (The Woman Who Loves Giraffes) shows how the trip expanded the pair’s knowledge of the physical world while deepening their spiritual and emotional connection to it. A heartwarming, inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.

The film features Robert Bateman, Bristol Foster, David Suzuki, Guujaaw and many more. Robert, Bristol, Alison and some of the team will be in Vancouver for a special Q&A this weekend. We hope to see you at the world premiere!

THE ART OF ADVENTURE plays at VIFF on:
🎟️Sunday Oct 5 3pm
📍Vancouver Playhouse

🎟️Tuesday Oct 7 6pm
📍Granville Island Stage

🎟️Sunday Oct 12 11am (Sold Out)
📍VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

With screenings at the and to come.

The film is presented by The Audain Foundation () with support from media partners , and community partners .ca and

05/30/2025

As we look back with fond memories from past Canadian Screen Awards, we would like to say a huge congratulations and best of luck to all of the nominees for 2025. We have such an incredibly talented community of creatives in this industry and we are thrilled they are being recognized for their work. We have so many wonderful friends and colleagues to acknowledge, but we wanted to give a special mention to some of our amazing clients who are nominated for CSA’s this year!

film
Deaner ‘89
for her work on

05/30/2025

05/02/2025

The compelling feature documentary HAVE YOU HEARD JUDI SINGH? from award-winning Vancouver filmmaker Baljit Sangra will have its world premiere at the on Sunday, May 4th, 5:00 pm at the VIFF Centre in downtown Vancouver. delves into the life of Punjabi-Black mid-century jazz musician Judi Singh in a story that mirrors the forgotten legacies of many artists and women of colour.

Originally from Edmonton, gifted jazz singer Judi Singh defied expectations as a Punjabi-Black artist stepping onto the stage in the late 1950s. Though her ethereal voice captivated musicians and audiences, the music industry failed to give her the recognition she deserved—an all-too-familiar story for women and artists of colour. In this lively and deeply felt portrait, Singh’s daughter Emily Hughes and director Baljit Sangra retrace Singh’s life and music through archival recordings, intimate recollections, and the bohemian spaces she once inhabited. Weaving together moments of brilliance, struggle, and resilience, the film reintroduces a forgotten artist to the spotlight she always deserved.

The premiere is now sold out, but you can also buy tickets for May 6th at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch or May 8th at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at SFU. This captivating film will be wonderful to see on the big screen!

04/06/2025

We are thrilled for the team behind WILD GOAT SURF, the debut feature film from director, writer, and actor Caitlyn Sponheimer (The Boys) who launched the film last night at Look Dine-In Cinemas across the US.

The film is receiving great reviews in the US including a 9/10 from Film Threat just in:

“Then a casually masterful work of art by a first time film-maker comes along like Wild Goat Surf and your faith is restored. Films like this one are why we keep going.” - Bradley Gibson,

Set in the sweltering summer of 2003, Wild Goat Surf unfolds in a fading RV park in Penticton, deep in the heart of the Okanagan Valley. Thirteen-year-old Goat, a skateboarding misfit with an all-consuming dream of becoming a surfer, roams the long, unstructured days of youth with reckless energy. As her mother juggles two jobs and sublets their rental to make ends meet, Goat is left to her own devices, channeling her grief into wild, boundary-pushing antics that spiral beyond her control. A raw and nostalgic coming-of-age story, Wild Goat Surf has been capturing audiences’ hearts and leaving a lasting impression wherever it travels.

The Canadian indie film stars Shayelin Martin (American Gods) as Goat, Leandro Guedes (A Million Little Things), Caitlyn Sponheimer (Transplant), and Dyllón Burnside (Pose, Thoughts of a Colored Man). The film was recently acquired by Tribeca Films, the distribution arm of Tribeca Enterprises and Giant Pictures for the US Market, and will be released on May 20th, 2025, on digital platforms including Amazon Prime and Apple TV in the US. If you’re in the US checkout this great Canadian film in LA & New York.

02/27/2025

The compelling feature film ONE MUST WASH EYES by Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Sepideh Yadegar is the opening night film at GEMFest on Wednesday, March 5th at the VIFF Centre with the filmmakers in attendance. GEMFest runs from March 5th to 9th featuring a diverse selection of screenings, industry events and panels.

ONE MUST WASH EYES stars Pegah Ghafoori (From) as Sahar; an international Iranian student whose life changes dramatically after she’s photographed at a Women, Life, Freedom protest in Vancouver. A simple photograph leads to severe consequences from the Iranian Government for herself and her family in Iran. The film captures the helplessness of watching your homeland suffer from a distance and highlights the losses that extend far beyond just the precious lives taken. .yadegar

Congratulations to the talented team behind this important film! We hope to see you at the screening on opening night!

📷 Michele Bygodt

02/14/2025

The award-winning feature film MONGRELS, from Korean Canadian director, Jerome Yoo, will begin its Vancouver theatrical run starting today at the VIFF Centre in downtown Vancouver.

MONGRELS had its international premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival where it picked up both the FIPRESCI prize and a special jury mention for its cast in the First Feature competition. Yoo took home the Director’s Guild Horizon Award for an emerging Canadian director for MONGRELS at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2024.

Gorgeous and brilliantly structured, Jerome Yoo’s first feature film is a lyrical and gut-wrenching tale of immigrant survival and resilience in Canada. Dreamlike, surreal, and filled with raw emotion, MONGRELS is a remarkable study of family, loss and hope in the midst of profound uprooting. .film

MONGRELS will also be screening on February 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th at the VIFF Centre. There will be a Q&A with producer Nach Dudsdeemaytha and select cast and crew after the February 16th screening. Visit the link in our bio for more details.

12/19/2024

Thanks so much to Popternative for releasing this exclusive clip of CBC Gem series ALTER BOYS. A great watch for the holidays. 🔥

07/10/2024

In the shadow of St. Joseph’s Mission, a segregated church-run school for Indigenous children, a reckoning is unfolding on the nearby Sugarcane reserve. From directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, the Sundance award-winning film follows a groundbreaking investigation at an Indian Residential school in Canada. In select theaters August 9.

“Enlightening and infuriating” (Variety), the Sundance award-winning is an epic, nuanced and sensitive cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning.

The only way forward is to confront the truth. From National Geographic Documentary Films, the Sundance award-winning from Films We Like follows a groundbreaking investigation at an Indian residential school in Canada. Hailed as “Powerful” (The Hollywood Reporter) and “Stunning” (Indiewire).

An investigation into abuse and missing children at a native residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.Explore the World with Na...

06/21/2024

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day with 9 Indigenous filmmakers who were kind enough to share their favourite Indigenous films with us 🧡

The late Maori filmmaker Barry Barclay introduced the term Fourth Cinema in the early aughts, right around the time Indigenous filmmakers in North America started setting out to make their own movies en masse. Where First Cinema denotes the classics, Second Cinema signifies art films, and Third Cinema the political works from the Global South, Fourth Cinema named the next evolution in the medium: Indigenous Cinema. This new wave would prize not only non-colonial stories, but non-colonial production and distribution methods.

Two decades later and the world is witnessing the bloom of Fourth Cinema from every corner. In honour of this watershed moment and National Indigenous History Month, nine contemporary Indigenous visual storytellers have shared their favourite Indigenous films and how they influenced their practice. Loretta Todd selected a film by Barry Barclay, and Janine Windolph picked a film by Loretta Todd. Lucy Tulugarjuk chose Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner by Zacharius Kunuk, a landmark film in which she starred, made entirely in the Inuktitut language by Isuma, the first ever Inuit-owned media company, that produced her debut feature this year. These filmmakers and the films that inspired them demonstrate that the power of Indigenous cinema goes beyond the screen, towards strengthening community, revitalising languages, and decolonizing communication infrastructures.

Read the full list online now at readrange.com 🍿

06/06/2024

Thank you Nicola Pender of Pender PR for the wonderful endorsement. Everything is possible if we work together. Some recent credits for Pender PR are: Riceboy Sleeps, Seagrass, In Flames, Bones of Crows. The Sundar Prize is approaching a 80% sell out! Get you're tickets soon! www.sundarprize.com