Carrie Coon to Receive Vancouver's First Acting Luminary Award

Carrie Coon will receive the Vancouver International Film Festival's first Luminary Award in the acting category on Oct. 4. The honor recognizes excellence and dedication to the art of the moving image, and Coon will mark the occasion with a wide-ranging on-stage conversation.

Coon stars in "The White Lotus," "The Gilded Age" and "The Leftovers." Festival audiences can also see her that same day in "The Liberation," which screens earlier on Oct. 4 at VIFF. She plays a mother trying to escape the weight of her harrowing past, only to find solace in an all-women's cult.

VIFF's full program runs Oct. 1-11 and includes talks, panels and masterclasses bringing filmmakers, craftspeople, producers, programmers and other industry professionals to Vancouver. The festival will present two further Luminary Awards: Markus Schleinzer ("Rose") for directing excellence and Leah Nelson ("Tangles") for screenwriting.

The VIFF Talks series opens Oct. 3 with editor Matthew Hannam, whose recent credits include Halina Reijn's "Babygirl" and Noah Baumbach's "White Noise." Hannam will discuss his collaborative approach to editing. He began his career as an assistant editor in Winnipeg, working with Canadian auteurs including Guy Maddin.

Producer Haley Johnson follows on Oct. 4 with the story of "Obsession," an independently produced film made on a shoestring budget that went on to gross over $500 million worldwide. The conversation will cover the film's production and trajectory, including a studio bidding war that followed its Toronto premiere.

On Oct. 5, production designers Brandon Tonner-Connolly and Matt Hyland will discuss building the surreal, immersive world of Jane Schoenbrun's "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma." The series concludes Oct. 7 with Mark Mothersbaugh, DEVO co-founder and composer of Wes Anderson's "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou." He will appear in conversation with composer and former Fox studio executive Robert Kraft.

The masterclass program carries a distinctly international flavor. Latvian producer, writer and director Matīss Kaža, who co-wrote and produced Gints Zilbalodis' "Flow" — winner of last year's Academy Award for animated feature — will appear, as will Chilean producer Giancarlo Nasi. Nasi, whose credits include "The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo," winner of the Grand Prix in Cannes' Un Certain Regard in 2025, will lead a session on international co-productions.

Berlin-based editor Evelyn Rack, behind the Cannes Jury Prize winner and Germany's Oscar submission "Sound of Falling," will lead "Editing as Discovery: Narrative, Instinct, and the Unpredictable." Barcelona-born, Berlin-based audience designer Isona Admetlla will explore audience strategy and creative distribution.

The panel lineup addresses the festival and distribution ecosystem. "Curating Cinema in a Shifting Landscape" brings together Locarno programmer Pamela Biénzobas, VIFF documentary programmer Ruun Nuur and critic-programmer Saffron Maeve. "From Festival to Marketplace: Meet the Decision Makers" features Michael Robson of Elevation Pictures, Max Collister of Mubi Canada and Richelle Charkot of Game Theory Films.

A Vancouver-focused panel, "From Vancouver to the World: The Making of Tangles," will feature director Leah Nelson and members of her creative team. Based on Vancouver artist Sarah Leavitt's graphic memoir, the animated feature was selected for the Caméra d'Or for best first feature at Cannes and features a voice cast that includes Abbi Jacobson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston and Seth Rogen.

Additional panels will examine Indigenous filmmaking and narrative sovereignty, deal-making, documentary filmmaking beyond certainty and the craft of comedy.

The festival will also showcase its Composer Filmmaker Accelerator, an initiative connecting emerging composers with filmmakers through mentorship and hands-on collaboration. It is curated by three-time Emmy-nominated composer Miriam Cutler, whose credits include "RBG," "Love Gilda" and "Lost in La Mancha." The 2026 CFA showcase takes place Oct. 8.

Other expected guests include Canadian icon Rick Hansen, actor and "School for Defectors" producer Daniel Dae Kim, and Canadian directors Matthew Rankin ("Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney"), Marie Clements ("How We Stand," "Reclaim My Skin") and Zach Lipovsky ("Freaks Part II").