Another trip around the sun, the floodgates have opened, the cinema is returning and pretty soon we will be awash in glorious films from around the globe! VIFF 2021 will be another hybrid festival with both online and in-person screenings. I perused the program and wrote down some of my most anticipated films of the year that will be screening at this installment of VIFF. Here is a quick look at a half dozen In-Person Screened films that I’m excited about!

DRIVE MY CAR – RYUSUKE HAMAGUCHI

Hands down my most anticipated film of 2021 is the second feature of the year from Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who is quickly becoming one of my favourite filmmakers of the moment. An adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami that clocks in at nearly three hours. Hamaguchi is no stranger to films with long runtimes, his 2015 Happy Hour was a small scale epic that ran for over FIVE hours and not a moment was wasted. Happy Hour was one of my favourite films of the decade and I’ve now seen it three times! (I regretfully left it off my 2010s top 20, but it would easily slot into the top 5, if I were to revisit that list.) The combo of Hamaguchi and Murakami was more than enough to excite me, but once the film won Best Screenplay at Cannes, I knew it would be incredible. The Screenplay prize at Cannes is a strong indicator of great filmmaking that takes chances and hits hard. Hamaguchi’s earlier film from 2021, The Wheel of Fortune and Fate won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at Berlin and is probably my favourite film of the year, thus far. I’ve been counting down to the fest specifically in hopes of seeing this movie!

IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE – HONG SANG-SOO

Hong Sang-Soo. What more do I need to say? You don’t have to dig through my blog for very long to see that I absolutely worship the films of Hong and with every passing year, my anticipation for his next couple of films only seems to grow. A filmography that retreads and revisits itself with each new piece, In Front of Your Face looks to be a bit of a detour from what we can usually expect in the South Korean master’s films, though I’m sure there will be plenty of familiar touches, as is to be expected in a Hong Sang-Soo film. I honestly don’t know anything about the plot of this film, but as I have established, over the course of these reviews, I really don’t need to see it to know that I will love this movie.

MEMORIA – APITCHAPONG WEERASETHAKUL

The English-Language debut from Thailand’s greatest filmmaker. Apitchapong Weerasethakul has been mystifying audiences with his unique brand of cinema for over two decades, now. On top of having perhaps the most unapproachable name pronunciation in the modern art world, his work is equally regarded for its bewildering style and esoteric POV. To watch a Weerasethakul film is to have an experience. A visual, auditory, psychedelic, out-of-body type experience that depends as much on the lush sound design as it does its story and characters. Here we have Tilda Swinton (The actress of this generation, no doubt.) in a lead role that finds her in Columbia, a Scottish expat, farming Orchids. While visiting her sister in Bogota, she is awoken by a mysterious, loud bang, the unknown origin of which sets her on a quest to discover or explain the haunting sound. As is the case with all of the director’s films, things seem to progress in a mysterious and perplexing fashion that is to be expected. Co-Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, there’s no reason to miss seeing this singular cinematic experience in a theatre!