Vancouver closes with McDonagh as eight smaller films steal attention
Martin McDonagh's black comedy Wild Horse Nine closed the 45th Vancouver International Film Festival.
The film stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell and took the closing-night slot, the final gala screening of the festival. The edition also featured Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut starring Julianne Moore, with a lineup that spanned 76 countries, according to Variety.
Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky won the Audience Award in the Special Presentations category, the section for high-profile premieres and festival favourites. The result was reported by Variety on 16 October. Two other audience winners were Banchi Hanuse's Ceremony in Showcase and Louis Clichy's Iron Boy in Panorama, according to festival listings.
Variety picked out eight narrative and documentary titles as deserving a closer look. One is The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, directed by Noah Segan from the United States. It screened in Special Presentations and stars John Turturro as an ageing pickpocket.
Another is School for Defectors, directed by Jeremy Workman from South Korea and the United States. It screened in Showcase and follows teenagers at Jangdaehyun School in Busan, a school for children of North Korean defectors. Short and direct. Human scale.
The list also reaches into Canada. Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney was directed by Matthew Rankin and screened in Showcase. The Loneliest Man in Town was directed by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, from Austria, and screened in Panorama.
Then there is Minotaur, directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev from France, Germany and Latvia. It screened in Special Presentations and centres on Gleb, the chief executive of a Russian transport company.
The wider 2026 programme included La Bola Negra, directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo from Spain and France, and A Long Winter, directed by Andrew Haigh, alongside Farrelly's I Play Rocky, according to an August festival announcement.
For fans following the festival circuit, this means Vancouver worked on two levels. Big names filled the opening and closing slots. Smaller films from Austria to Busan found room beside them.
