Film aficionados will be flocking to Canada’s rainy city come October 1 for the 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival. The festival runs for a total of 16 days and presents approximately 640 screenings of 360 films from 80 different countries.

VIFF has built a reputation as one of Canada’s premier film festivals, showcasing a variety of different films and attracting over 150,000 attendees.

The festival’s films are broken down into several categories: The Way of Nature, an environmental series; Dragons and Tigers, films from Asia; Non-Fiction Features, a showcase of documentary films; Canadian Images, some of our nation’s best cinema; Spotlight on France, a sidebar on France’s national cinema; and Cinema of Our Time, an annual spotlight on some of the most significant films from around the world. Additionally, VIFF has added two new sections to the festival program this year: Audience Award Winners, popular winners at other international film festivals; and Follow the Money, films focused on the current worldwide financial crisis.

GLOSS will be attending screenings of some of the best films VIFF has to offer, including acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s newest piece, Broken Embraces , starring Penelope Cruz; Heath Ledger’s final curtain call, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus ; and the highly-anticipated portrait of legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour, The September Issue .

For more film information or for ticket information, visit: http://www.viff.org