The second annual Vashon Island Film Festival (VIFF) — a chance for islanders to revel in independent films, meet filmmakers, and take part in an array of other events, will unspool on Aug. 10-13, at Vashon Theatre and in its new outdoor event pavilion, the Backlot.

Founded by international film producer and longtime island resident Mark Mathias Sayre, the festival is the flagship program of the Vashon Film Institute, which presents educational programs, events, and workshops focused on youth.

Sayres said he is proud of the programming in this year’s festival — a lineup of 12 new films and shorts that have already won top prizes at Austin’s SXSW, Sundance, Slamdance, Berlin’s Berlinale, and other top festivals.

“In many ways, this is a showcase of 2022-2023’s crème de la crème in competition against each other at a singular festival,” he said.

There’s something for everyone in the program, he added.

“We’ve got coming-of-age stories; children, adults, and families gone wrong; smart, short, and sharp horror; an inspiring examination of a female football league; a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction spy saga; and long-overdue salutes to two of the PNW’s most legendary bands, to name a few of our offerings,” Sayre said.

All events are slated to take place at Vashon Theatre and in the theater’s new Backlot pavilion — an outdoor festival arena complete with a giant LED screen, a music stage, and plenty of seating.

At “Rock on the Rock,” VIFF’s Friday night event in the Backlot, ticket holders can mingle with filmmakers while local bands take the stage. The Festival’s “Saturday Night Soirée” will also feature live music, street food, and a beer/wine garden in the Backlot.

An awards ceremony on Sunday will conclude the festival, with jury prizes including the Quartermaster Award, recognizing excellence in feature filmmaking. Red Bicycle Awards in other categories will also be given to feature films. Short films will compete for the Burton Award. Audience awards for best feature and best short will also be given.

Narrative features

Fresh from its world premiere at SXSW 2023, Lance Larson’s “Deadland,” follows Mexican American U.S. border agent Angel Waters (Roberto Urbina), who is bewildered when an undocumented immigrant he witnessed die reappears days later.

“Escaping Ohio,” a film written, directed and starring Jessica Michael Davis, is described as a fresh take on the teenage rom-com genre, telling the story of a young woman who dreams of leaving her small town for new adventures in California. The film just had its world premiere at Dances with Films.

In the multiple award-winning “I Like Movies,” Canadian director, co-producer, and writer Chandler Levack tells the story of Lawrence, a socially inept 17-year-old cinephile who gets a job at a video store, where he forms a complicated friendship with his older female manager. The film has taken home awards from festivals in Calgary, Santa Barbara, and Miami.

Writer-director Paris Zarcilla combines horror, mystery, and drama in “Raging Grace,” which won the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Features at SXSW. The film follows the story of an undocumented Filipina immigrant who is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter as she works as the caretaker of an extremely wealthy but terminally ill old man. The new position pays well — but the caretaker and her daughter soon realize everything is not as it seems.

Charlotte Regan’s “Scrapper” captured the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at Sundance this year. Following her mother’s death, a resourceful 12-year-old girl, Georgie (Lola Campbell), continues to live alone in their London-outskirts flat. Everything is working out fine until her estranged father Jason (Harris Dickinson) shows up.

Directed by Lawrence Chen and produced by Jonathan Hsu, the hybrid docu-narrative “Starring Jerry as Himself” is the story of Jerry C. Hsu, in which he plays himself — a retired, divorced Taiwanese immigrant living in Orlando. Based on a true story, the film follows Jerry as he receives an urgent call from the Chinese police, who inform him that he’s the prime suspect in an international money laundering investigation. Under threat of arrest and extradition, the police force Jerry to cooperate as an undercover agent in their case.

The film won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature, Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, and the Acting Award for Jerry C. Hsu at Slamdance, in January.

In Olivia West Lloyd’s psychological thriller “Somewhere Quiet,” Meg (Jennifer Kim) tries to readjust to normal life after being involved in a heinous abduction. But a retreat with her husband to the family’s countryside compound doesn’t go as planned. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In Rocio Mesa’s “Tobacco Barns,” three generations spend the summer in a tiny rural village, uncovering the secrets of their family’s tobacco barns —which serve as a child’s playground, a teenager’s cage, an elder’s house of memory, and the abode of a magical creature that will change the way they all see reality. In Spanish, with English subtitles.

Documentary features

One of the festival’s most anticipated screenings will be a new, never-before-seen director’s cut of “Boom: A Film About the Sonics,” by Jordan Albertsen. The wildly acclaimed film takes a deep dive into the untold story of how the Sonics, formed in Tacoma in 1960, deeply influenced punk and rock music for decades to come. The film features interviews with artists from Pearl Jam, The Sex Pistols, Heart, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and many more.

Another music doc — “Even Hell Has Its Heroes” — by renowned Seattle director Clyde Peterson, shot in Super 8 film in locations throughout Seattle and the Northwest, is about the legendary experimental rock band Earth, known as “the world’s slowest metal band.” The film is an ode to a time that grunge ruled the Pacific Northwest and the world.

“Downwind,” directed by Mark Shapiro and Douglas Brian Miller, and narrated by Martin Sheen, is a harrowing expose of human tragedy and government culpability in Mercury, Nevada, the site of 928 large-scale nuclear weapons from 1951 to 1992.

Another documentary, “The Herricanes,” chronicles the Houston Herricanes, a pioneering team that was part of the first women’s full-tackle football league in the 1970s. The film won both the Audience Award for Documentary Spotlight at SXSW 2023, as well as a major prize for its director, Olivia Kuan.

Shorts

Eight narrative and two documentary shorts — with most being major prizewinners at recent festivals — will round out the VIFF program.

These include “Bläckfisk,” by director Sarah Hanner; “Closing Dynasty,” directed by Lloyd Lee Choi; “Cycle,” directed by Leigh Powers, “Dead-Enders,” by directors Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker; “Down Home,” by director Shadi Karamroudi, “Nicole,” by directors Edy Modica & Ian Fari; “We Were Meant To,” from director Tari Wariebi; “When You Left Me On That Boulevard,” from director Kayla Galang; and “Will You Look At Me,” from director Shuli Huang.

Find out more about the festival and purchase tickets at vashonislandfilmfestival.com.