Virginia Film Festival

We, at the Virginia Film Festival, are dedicated to showcasing the very best films available to us each and every year. With this said, our programming staff is sensitive to the fact that there may be times when we select a film with content that an audience member may find offensive or distressing. We aim to provide our patrons with carefully written film descriptions that appear on our website and in our printed Festival Program as a guide to the content in each of the films we screen.

Beyond this, we refrain from attaching specific warnings on individual films for a number of reasons. Primarily because it would be impossible to identify all content that could be objectionable or distressing to any possible audience members. Furthermore, identifying objectionable or distressing events for one sector of our audience could be inaccurate and/or incomplete for another. And finally, VAFF’s staff are not qualified experts in identifying what subject matter could be found to be objectionable or distressing by a potential audience member, and we would not want to make a mistake in creating a list of warnings that is not fully comprehensive and inclusive of all.

While some of the films we screen go on to receive a wide theatrical release and submit for a MPAA rating, the majority of our films at the time of our screening do not have and may never submit for a MPAA rating. And while there are other public sources of ratings and reviews beyond MPAA, we have found that relying on other outside sources for content warnings on a screening could also be incomplete or inaccurate as online resources vary in their identification of sensitive subject matter.

After reading our description of a film, if you are still concerned about the content and/or appropriateness of a film for you personally, your family members, or other members of the public, we encourage you to view the film’s trailer (which if available, we link to on each film’s web page), as well as research the film further before attending our screening.

We thank you for your support and understanding.