Sixteen films will be presented over the course of the week-long event, most either Canadian or Vancouver premieres. Selections will be announced later this month, along with schedules and ticket purchase information. A number of guest filmmakers will attend in person or live via Skype for Q&A at their screenings.

Vancity Theatre Program Coordinator Tom Charity said, “We are delighted to be the first in Canada to present the IBFF. We have long appreciated their programming and it will be great to bring out audiences here for the wonderful films they find around the world.”

IBFF 2013 Vancouver is part of the IBFF Tenth Anniversary Season and will be the twelfth IBFF. Since its inaugural event in Los Angeles in 2003, the IBFF has been presented in nine cities on three continents, screening over 350 films from 22 countries, with over 50,000 attendees.

Gaetano Kazuo Maida, executive director of the IBFF, said, “Vancouver is in many ways our sister city, and we’re really honored to be working with the Vancouver International Film Centre. Plus, we’ve had the pleasure of presenting several films from Canadian filmmakers during the course of this Tenth Anniversary Season and we look forward to showing these in Vancouver.”

The Vancity Theatre features three cutting-edge screening rooms and presents international arthouse and repertory programming throughout the year. Since 2005 the Vancouver International Film Centre has been the home of the venerable Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), now in its 32nd year. VIFF 2013 will take place September 26–October 11.

Through the Valley is an ambitious multiplatform exploration of death rituals, practices and beliefs around the world, offering a prism with which to begin to understand what Zen Buddhists call “the Great Matter.” The director is Tad Fettig and the executive producer is Eva Anisko. A short film from this project, Sky Burial (filmed on location in Nepal), will be presented at the upcoming IBFF 2013 VANCOUVER in July.

Chasing the Face of Buddha is a journey with Thai sculptor Sunti Pichetchaiyukul as he pursues his dream of creating a realistic and historically/culturally accurate portrait of Shakyamuni Buddha. The film will be as much about the creation of an artwork as about our ideas of the historic Buddha and the meaning of his life to millions around the world. Canada-based director Lindsay Rushaleau is working with producer Rod Ruel to film this story as it unfolds over the next year.

Buddhist Film Foundation is fiscal sponsor for over a dozen films currently in production or distribution. Submitted proposals are subject to a detailed review process: all projects are qualified for content, feasibility, team experience, and realistic production and distribution resources and strategies. View a summary of current projects.

Highlights included the opening night screening of the West Coast premiere of When the Iron Bird Flies, with its editor/associate producer Catherine Hollander handling the Q&A for hospitalized director Victress Hitchcock, who spoke via speakerphone with guest presenter Anam Thubten on stage after the film; director Dafna Yachin flew in from Tel Aviv to present the West Coast premiere of her Digital Dharma, and she was joined onstage by Jeff Wallman, executive director of TBRC, the organization founded by the late Gene Smith, featured in the film; five US premieres—Karma, from Nepal, Olo, the Boy from Tibet, from Japan, Mindfulness and Murder, from Thailand, and Thangka and The Great Pilgrim, both from China; the West Coast premiere of Kanzeon, with filmmaker Neil Cantwell on hand from the UK; a rare public screening and Bay Area premiere of the Cannes Grand Prix-winning The Mourning Forest; and a special screening of Tokyo Waka with filmmakers Kris Samuelson and John Haptas hosting a wide-ranging Q&A to close out the program.

IBFF Showcase 2013 was copresented at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center by the California Film Institute, and in San Francisco by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Opening night on Friday also included a talk by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Anam Thubten, one of the key on-screen participants in the film. He was introduced by Steven D. Goodman, professor of Asian and Comparative Studies at California Institute of Integral Studies, and in a surprise, the film’s director Victress Hitchcock, unable to attend due to a hospitalization, spoke with Anam Thubten on speakerphone to cheers from the audience. When the Iron Bird Flies’ editor and associate producer Catherine Hollander handled the Q&A.

Other highlights included the West Coast premiere on Saturday of Digital Dharma, with the film’s director Dafna Yachin in person right off a flight from Israel, joined on stage by Jeff Wallman, executive director of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center founded by the late Gene Smith who is the subject of the film. Kanzeon co-director Neil Cantwell arrived from London to present the West Coast premiere of his film on Sunday.

IBFF Showcase 2013 was presented by Buddhist Film Foundation and California Film Institute and sponsored in part by a grant from Jeffrey and Sharon Roe.

The complete program.