John Hollands' "Le Tour de Canada" embraces all the Canadian cliches

In John Hollands' "Le Tour de Canada," two rival cyclists face off in a gruelling cross-Canada cycling race. Combining live action, 2D, and 3D animation, this multifaceted short takes a broad swing at what it means to embrace the Canadian identity. A tongue-in-cheek take on our provinces and territories, this work from Hollands is not only visually captivating, but straight up hilarious. In this episode of the VIFF Podcast, John Hollands joins us to discuss developing his own animation aesthetic, how the short film form can be its own laboratory, the pros of getting comedians to be actors, and how he got beloved Canadian, indie giant, Matthew Rankin to narrate. Fun fact: Hollands used to be on the programming team here at VIFF. Years later, it was a pleasure to screen this incredible, mixed media collage of a film as part of VIFF 2025. This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival. Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.