VTIFF Program Guide 2025 - Flipbook - Page 2
WELCOME TO VTIFF 2025!
CELEBRATING VTIFF’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY 1985-2025
Crazy year, 1985.
Reagan is president. Dallas is the #1
show on television. The first Blockbuster
video store opens. Coca-Cola releases New Coke.
And George and Sonia Cullinen present the first Vermont
International Film Festival, drawing 100 curious
moviegoers to Marlboro.
VTIFF to be entering its fifth decade. Throughout the
festival, we’ll be welcoming them to introduce films and
offer their perspective on VTIFF’s rich history, its
development, and their part in it.
and I’m proud to have been
• Edgy
late-night
a part of it for 14 years.”
movies with
offbeat titles
Orly Yadin,
by young
former VTIFF executive director
auteurs who
(2012-2022)
wrote, directed,
and starred in their
films—Grace
Glowicki’s Dead Lover
and Annapurna
Sriram’s Fucktoys.
Forty years down the road, Reagan, Dallas, New Coke,
and Blockbuster are all gone, but the Vermont International
Film Festival is still here, turning 40 and going stronger
than ever.
The Cullinens created VTIFF to
reflect their values. George was a
filmmaker (Washington to Moscow)
focused on anti-nuclear issues,
and the first festival offered three
categories for filmmakers
submitting work: peace and
justice, human rights, and the
environment.
“A cultural
treasure which
brings the world
to the state.”
Lorna Kay Peal,
board member emeritus
VTIFF still reflects those values,
though it embraces all kinds of films from
all parts of the world. People’s movie-viewing
habits and tastes have changed, but VTIFF remains
constant, bringing the world to Vermont, sharing the work
of the world’s great filmmakers with our community.
This marks our first festival as the go-to
cinema experience in Burlington following the
closure of the city’s only first-run theater.
How have we responded?
• We’ve quadrupled our monthly offerings
in the Main Street Landing Film House,
screening 27 movies to 4,000+ people this
year, as opposed to 8 screenings in the same
period last year.
• In The Screening Room, our 34-seat gem, we’ve
screened 78 films for 2,320 people, creating a unique
showcase for current and repertory cinema in
Chittenden County.
• As a fiscal sponsor, we’re assisting 8 local filmmakers in
the creation of new films.
“Happy
birthday!
VTIFF creates an
essential space for
community dialogue.”
Doreen Kraft, executive
2director of Burlington
City Arts
• Vermont filmmakers,
including Heidi Levitt,
Angelo Madsen, Ben
Ayers, Myles and
Alexandra Jewell,
Meredith Holch,
Samuel LaPointe,
and more.
And so, as I raise my
glass of New Coke and
insert a worn VHS of
Dallas into my VCR, I
thank you for coming to
this year’s festival, and for your support of VTIFF and its
mission to bring the world to Vermont through film.
STEVE MACQUEEN
VTIFF Executive Director
“Without VTIFF
here in Vermont, I’m not
sure how cinema culture
could have survived.
Here’s to the next 40!”
So… welcome to the 40th annual Vermont International
Film Festival!
We’re dedicating this year’s
festival to everyone who’s had
a hand in creating such a
long-lasting, vital event—
directors, board members,
volunteers, employees,
donors, and enthusiasts
who made it possible for
• Great American indie
filmmakers John
Waters and Nancy
“VTIFF
Savoca
has gradually
screening and
speaking
transformed into a
about their
year-round organization
work.
But this incredible fall festival remains our most joyous
and meaningful undertaking, the source of our connection
with this community. We look forward to inviting another
8,000+ people to this year’s festival, so they can see:
Eric Ford, former board member
and festival programmer
• 60+ films from 40 countries, including several major
international prize winners.
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
