The 45th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is set to begin in just over a month, and this year will feature 162 films, including more than 50 documentaries.

The festival will feature 12 world premieres, six international premieres, 15 North American premieres, and 49 Canadian premieres, with films from 76 countries.

The lineup also includes 91 short films and two episodic series.

This year’s event will open with Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti.

“It’s tense and funny, it’s challenging, it’s irreverent,” executive director Kyle Fostner told CityNews.

“There’s a kind of absurdist quality to it, and there is a nice approachability, but being an A24 film, it still has an edge to it.”

Fostner says he and the festival’s director of programming took their time deciding which film would open the festival, because the choice can set the tone of the festival.

“[The Debut] just felt like the right note to open the festival on,” he said.

This year’s festival turns its attention to a new generation of German filmmakers with its Focus on New German Cinema: Extreme Tension program.

Fostner says this focus will shine a light on a vanguard new generation of German filmmakers.

What’s interesting about this, he says, is that the program goes beyond a traditional definition of German cinema. Instead, it supports work by German fillmakers living abroad as well as some who have immigrated to Germany.

“It’s quite an interesting program, and it defies a little bit of the traditional geographic lens that might be applied to any European country.”

Included in this slate is the international premiere of Ella Cieslinski and Nina Wesemann’s Dear Future Self. It will feature the North American premiere of Daniela Magnani Hüller’s Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party as well as the Canadian premieres of Christoph Otto’s The Ballad From Wednesday to Thursday, among others.

The festival’s more than 50 documentaries include two world premieres from B.C. filmmakers: Vancouver-based Joella Cabalu’s First Comes Love: Nakabingwit and David Ehrenreich’s Relax, Open Your Eyes.

Other docs spotlight Canadian personalities such as Terry Fox, Rick Hansen, and former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

In addition to the film lineup, VIFF is expanding its live programming this year, with more performances, conversations, and other events throughout the festival. The schedule includes live scores, musical performances, and interactive events with filmmakers and composers.

Fostner says the expanded VIFF Live program is one of the things he would most recommend to “traditional cinephiles.”

“The live performance series is exceptional this year,” he said.

“It’s quite long and quite large, but there’s real depth and variety in there.”

VIFF runs Oct. 1 to 11. Tickets are $22 for regular screenings and special presentations. Tickets go on sale to the public Thursday at noon.