For a long time, the Vietnamese narrative at international film festivals was largely defined by what the West expected us to talk about. This year, the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) tells a different story. The Vietnamese and diaspora filmmakers featured in the 2026 lineup are not answering old questions; they are asking new ones, exploring metaphysical grief, sonic isolation, surrealism and inherited memory.
These are the films defining the next generation of our cinema.
The architecture of grief in Still night, burning house
Following its world premiere at TIFF Docs, Carol Nguyen’s highly anticipated feature documentary debut, Still Night, Burning House arrives in Vancouver carrying the weight of a conversation many immigrant families avoid having.
Over a decade after her uncle’s mysterious passing, Nguyen returns with her family to Vietnam. Yet, rather than merely guiding us through a scenic itinerary, the film warmly invites the audience to step right into an intimate journey of collective healing. There are no heavy, pretentious philosophical lines here. Instead, it is the raw admissions, the weary sighs, and the sorrowful shakes of a head that made me realize the profound importance of truly understanding and sharing our loved ones’ unspoken burdens. Nguyen lays bare generational trauma, mental health, and the silent remorse etched into her father’s posture as decades of guarded family silence gradually begin to fracture.
What makes Nguyen’s film extraordinary is her refusal to rely purely on traditional documentary formats. She introduces metaphysical elements, a constructed “ghost world”, to give her father a border to the afterlife, a space for hope that reality could not provide. The film asks a profound question about the Vietnamese diaspora: Do our traditional rituals of burning joss paper and incense help us heal or do they allow us to grieve without ever actually having to speak to one another?
Still Night, Burning House is a metaphysical poem for complex mourning and a necessary watch for any Vietnamese-Canadian navigating the silence of their own family history.
Where to watch:
Oct 6 – 6:30 p.m. | International Village 8;
Oct 7 – 4:00 p.m. | VIFF Centre.
Vanguard: The isolated frequency of Hearing
If Still Night, Burning House explores the noise of family history, Bảo Lê’s Hearing is an exploration of deafening, modern silence.
Fresh from its nomination for the prestigious Golden Leopard (Best Film) at the Locarno Film Festival, Lê makes his North American debut as the sole Vietnamese representative in VIFF’s Vanguard program, a category reserved for bold, boundary-pushing cinema.
The film follows Ninh, a mechanic whose daily life consists of installing decibel metres in public spaces. As the physical noise levels rise around him in his work, they become a warning system for the rising turmoil in matters of his own heart, while at home, he anticipates the deafening silence of his mother’s passing.
Hearing is built on a brilliant sensory metaphor. Lê folds audio parameters directly into the narrative, using the soundscape as an emotional regulator. The film rides the extremes of modern Vietnamese life, from the pulsing bass of village raves to moments of profound stillness in beautiful, deep forests. Unfolding as a series of lush, meticulously composed visual tableaux, scenes glide into one another like visual poems. It is a masterful piece of contemporary Vietnamese fiction and slow cinema at its finest register, proving the country’s independent filmmakers are operating at the absolute forefront of global art-house cinema.
Where to watch:
Oct 3 – 8:30 p.m. | VIFF Centre;
Oct 4 – 3:00 p.m. | VIFF Centre.
Editorial mentions: Voices to watch
Beyond the headline features, two other projects highlight the expanding scope and prestige of Vietnamese storytelling at the festival.
The Dream Is a Snail (Ân Thiên Nguyễn) Featured in the international Shorts Program, Ân Thiên Nguyễn brings a deeply surreal, highly original perspective to VIFF. The film arrives with major international pedigree, having had its world premiere in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, marking the first Vietnamese selection for the Short Film Palme d’Or, as well as securing a Best Film nomination at the São Paulo International Short Film Festival. Driven by a unique conceptual premise and a distinctly experimental visual language, The Dream Is a Snail marks Ân Thiên Nguyễn as an imaginative young voice capable of competing on the world’s most demanding stages.
Ba’s Book (Ashley Duong) Winner of the Cannes Docs-in-Progress award and arriving fresh from its TIFF Docs premiere, Ba’s Book follows Vietnamese-Canadian filmmaker Ashley Duong as she brings her father’s written memoir back to Vietnam. The film spans his reflections on the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution, blending traditional documentary techniques with staged, recreated scenes involving her family. Ultimately, it is a film about the transfer of memory, exploring not just a father’s history, but the impact those memories have on the children who inherit them.