Vancouver International Film Festival Moves to Woodwards Building

Once again this fall the Vancouver International Film Festival(VIFF) will be moving. With the pending sale of  the Centre in Vancouver for the Performing arts to Vancouver’s Westside Church, the festival’s current home, the VIFF  is once again on the move, heading eastward to Gastown and the outer edges of downtown.

Simon Fraser University’s Woodwards campus opened in 2010 and houses the School for the Contemporary Arts. In addition to classrooms, it houses a theatre, cinema, soundstage, 2 black-box theatres, a studio for recitals and small dance performances. The centrepiece of the campus is the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, a large multi-purpose theatre space that could even be split into two theatres. The campus is expected to host several screenings for VIFF.

Festival organizers are still hopeful that a few screenings can be held at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, however, the venue’s owner has cancelled all fall bookings, including those with the Vancouver International Film Festival. Prior to the move to the Performing Arts Centre, the festival was a mainstay at the Granville 7 theatres, now closed, the theatre is slated to be converted into three large retail units.

Over 150,000 tickets and 300 films are screen over the film festival’s two week run.

This year’s Vancouver International Film Festival will run from September 26 to October 11, 2013.

Image: VIFF