Victoria Film Festival will feature conversation with Bill Nighy and 12 Canadian premieres

Victoria Film Festival will feature conversation with Bill Nighy and 12 Canadian premieres
Pacific Northwest Pictures
A still from Sometimes Always Never, starring Bill Nighy.

There’s some good news for fans of Love Actually and Pirates of the Carribean.

The Victoria Film Festival (VFF) is kicking off its 26th year on Feb. 7 and one of the highlights of the event will be a conversation with Bill Nighy, who became widely known for his performance in Love Actually. The award-winning British actor will be at the movie screening of Hope Gap, starring Nighy, Josh O’Connor and Annette Bening.

Nighy will join movie critic and CTV’s Pop Life host Richard Crouse for an onstage interview before the movie screens on Feb. 8.

The festival starts with French director Nicolas Bedo’s comedy, La Belle Époque, about a rejected husband who tries time travel-style fantasy to relive the best time of his life.

Also on Feb. 7 is the VFF’s opening night gala. This year’s theme is the Glamourama of Deception, an alluring evening dedicated to artifice and the delightfully unexpected.

Other highlights include:

  • Valentine’s Day at the Vic Theatre with SIZZLE X, an evening of erotic short films, cocktails, burlesque and more with host Missie Peters, starting at 7:45 p.m.
  • Two films shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards: Director Theodore Ushev’s The Physics of Sorrow, narrated by Donald Sutherland and Rossif Sutherland
    (Short Film, animated) and Polish director Jan Komasa’s drama Corpus Christi (Best International Feature Film).
  • New student rush tickets for $6, which will go on sale 10 minutes before the film’s start time, subject to availability. Student rush tickets are available to students ages 19 to 27, with a valid student card.
  • An expanded Nordic program slate, with films from Denmark, Finland Iceland and Sweden
  • Sips N’ Cinemas: Director Filippo Meneghetti’s romance, Two of Us, about a clandestine same-sex relationship, screens Feb. 15 at 2:45 p.m. at The Mint restaurant, followed by a discussion with host Tony Ruffalo.

The festival runs Feb. 7-16, with 82 feature films and 20 shorts selected by international programmers, including 12 Canadian premieres and the world premiere of Canadian director
Greg Crompton’s documentary, Eddy’s Kingdom.

For the first time ever, CHEK is partnering with the Victoria Film Festival.

“This is a perfect fit. It’s a terrific partnership, for the Island’s independent news station and the VFF. [I’m] really looking forward to this season with so many films coming to Victoria, including several shot and produced here in our province,” Scott Fee, CHEK’s news director and host of the VFF PreFest Event, said.

Tickets for the Victoria Film Festival are available Jan. 10 at 12:01 a.m.

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