The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) today unveiled the 2026 VIFF Live program, a bold lineup of 10 exclusive live experiences featuring internationally acclaimed composers, musicians, filmmakers, and multimedia artists. With multiple Canadian and North American premieres, rare artist appearances, and collaborations with leading cultural organizations, VIFF Live continues to redefine the intersection of cinema and live performance.
This year’s lineup spans avant electronica, experimental performance, Indigenous futurism, orchestral film music, and immersive audiovisual art. Audiences can experience VIFF’s first collaboration with renowned Montreal electronic music and digital arts festival MUTEK; the Canadian premiere of the immersive Arctic film TAKKUUK, featuring live performances by Inuit throat-singing duo Silla and Greenlandic rapper Tarrak; the Canadian debut of experimental music duo Los Thuthanaka; the North American debut of Derrick Gee’s Radio Hour; an intimate masterclass with Emmy and BAFTA-winning composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, and the North American premiere of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Cinematic Suites: The Denis Villeneuve Scores, performed with a full orchestra and presented in partnership with the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
Curated by Jarrett Martineau, the 2026 edition explores the theme of “reworlding,” inviting audiences into imaginative new ways of experiencing image and sound through artists who challenge conventions and push creative boundaries.
“VIFF Live is stretching the boundaries of time, space, form, and genre to make room for daring, unconventional, and singular creative voices who boldly challenge formal limits and histories,” says Martineau. “From avant electronica and Indigenous psychedelia to next-generation digital tastemakers and lavish orchestral film scores, this year’s program offers a wide-ranging series of unique events and experiences, including several notable Canadian and North American premieres.”
More highlights include a special 30th anniversary presentation of The Last Angel of History, featuring a live performance by Speaker Music and a conversation with DeForrest Brown Jr. and Otolith Group founders Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar; the North American premiere of The KLF: 23 Seconds to Eternity, a new compilation of the legendary electronic duo’s complete film and video archive; ERASERHEAD XIU XIU, the acclaimed band’s hallucinatory live reinterpretation of David Lynch’s cult masterpiece and a rare live audiovisual performance by acclaimed pianist Kelly Moran.
Read on for the complete VIFF Live 2026 lineup, featuring full event descriptions and the many musicians, filmmakers, composers, performers, and collaborators who bring these one-of-a-kind experiences to life.
Tickets for VIFF Live events are on sale now, with Early Bird pricing available for select events through August 26 at viff.org. Additional highlights from the 45th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival will be announced in early August, before the full festival lineup is unveiled on August 26.
VIFF LIVE 2026 LINEUP:
The Last Angel of History: 30th Anniversary Screening
with Speaker Music (Live) + Kodwo Eshun & Anjalika Sagar (The Otolith Group) and DeForrest Brown Jr. in conversation
Friday, Oct. 2, 5 pm
Venue: VIFF Centre
Tickets: $35
Co-presented with the Vancouver Art Gallery
A special 30th anniversary screening of the Black Audio Collective’s The Last Angel of History, which traces the musical legacy of Afrofuturism from its rhythmic origins during the Transatlantic Slave Trade through imaginary digital ‘future’ worlds conjured in techno and jungle music. Preceded by a live performance from Speaker Music and followed by a conversation between DeForrest Brown Jr. and Otolith Group founders Kodwo Eshun & Anjalika Sagar.
MUTEK x VIFF Live
with Dopplereffekt / Honeydrip / MIIIA + Guests
Friday, Oct. 2, 9:30 pm
Venue: SFU Fei & Milton Wong Theatre
Tickets: Early bird $50 / Regular $60
Co-presented with VIFF, MUTEK, CALQ, Chapel Sound
Montreal’s renowned digital arts festival MUTEK joins forces with VIFF for an unforgettable evening of live audiovisual performance and electronic music featuring legendary Detroit electro duo Dopplereffekt; Montreal-based DJ, producer, and soundsystem-builder Honeydrip; and Vancouver’s future mythologist MIIIA, in collaboration with visual artist MELT.
The KLF: 23 Seconds to Eternity
with CHXMERAS (Live AV)
Saturday, Oct. 3, 5 pm
Venue: VIFF Centre
Tickets: $35
Trip into the psychedelic world of one of the most enigmatic and iconoclastic electronic bands of the 90s. The KLF became the world’s top-selling singles act with a series of subversive international acid house anthems, and VIFF is honoured to present the North American premiere of 23 Seconds to Eternity, the first time all of The KLF’s films and music videos have been compiled and presented together, preceded by a live AV performance from Vancouver electronic duo CHXMERAS.
TAKKUUK
with Tarrak + Silla (Live)
Saturday, Oct. 3, 8:30 pm
Venue: SFU Fei & Milton Wong Theatre
Tickets: Early bird $40 / Regular $50
TAKKUUK, meaning ‘look closely’ in Inuktitut, was co-created with seven Indigenous collaborators across Greenland and Sápmi as part of the EarthSonic initiative. Breathtaking infrared cinematography and a hypnotic BICEP score pull audiences into the Arctic, where Indigenous artists reckon with culture, colonialism and a rapidly changing world. Preceded by live performances from Inuit throat-singing duo Silla and Greenlandic rapper Tarrak.
Note: This film contains strobing sequences
Kelly Moran
with Bahar Khazei + XEL
Sunday, Oct. 4, 8 pm
Venue: SFU Fei & Milton Wong Theatre
Tickets: Early Bird $45 / Regular $50
Experience a rare live AV performance by acclaimed pianist, producer, and composer Kelly Moran. Known for conjuring hypnotic textures and charting unconventional sonic pathways through classical, avant-garde, and electronic sound, Moran will perform material from her celebrated 2025 album Don’t Trust Mirrors. Vancouver-based electronic musician and composer Bahar Khazei opens the show, joined by visual artist XEL.
An Evening with Cristóbal Tapia de Veer
Monday, Oct. 5, 5:30 pm
Venue: VIFF Centre
Tickets: $35
Supported by SOCAN
Join multiple Emmy and BAFTA-winning composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer (Black Mirror, The White Lotus, Smile) for a rare masterclass and Q&A. During this intimate presentation, the multi-instrumentalist offers a behind-the-scenes look into his creative process and the genre-defying scores that have earned him iconic status among a new generation of composers.
Los Thuthanaka
Monday, Oct. 5, 8:30 pm
Venue: The Pearl
Tickets: $48 available at thepearlvancouver.com
Experience the Canadian debut of Los Thuthanaka — the acclaimed American-Bolivian experimental music duo formed by siblings Chuquimamani Condori and Joshu Chuquimia Crampton. Known for bridging the past, present, and future of their Aymara and Pakajaqi heritage, the duo’s spiraling rhythms, ceremonial textures, and psychedelic sounds combine into a transcendent live AV experience.
ERASERHEAD XIU XIU
Tuesday, Oct. 6, 8:30 pm
Venue: The Rio
Tickets: $48
VIFF presents the Canadian premiere of ERASERHEAD XIU XIU — American experimental rock band Xiu Xiu’s live exploration of the sonic and visual universe of David Lynch’s iconic cult film. Combining field recordings, homemade instruments, organ, modular synths, vocals, pocket torches, electrical static, and musique concrète, the group offers a personal, hallucinatory take on Lynch’s most singular of midnight masterpieces.
Derrick Gee’s Radio Hour
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 8 pm
Venue: Granville Island Stage
Tickets: $54
Fresh from sold-out tours across Europe and Australia, Derrick Gee brings his eclectic Radio Hour show to North America for the first time. Radio Hour is a one-of-a-kind show that invites audiences into Gee’s on-stage living room for a program filled with special guests, community conversations, and audience interactions. A nod to classic radio hours of the past, Gee’s newest stage show reimagines music entertainment for a new generation.
Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Cinematic Suites: The Denis Villeneuve Scores
Friday, Oct. 9, 7:30 pm
Venue: Chan Centre
Tickets: $30–129 available at chancentre.com
Co-presented with VIFF Live, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Experience the transformative power of music in film at the North American premiere of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Cinematic Suites, a remarkable tribute to the enduring legacy of the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. Realized with a full orchestra, the concert brings to life the evocative musical landscapes of three Denis Villeneuve films — Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival — as well as selections from James Marsh’s films The Theory of Everything and The Mercy.