Whistler FF, ‘Canada’s Coolest Film Festival’ Wraps
Whistler Film Festival comes of age with 18th edition featuring more high-profile premieres, filmmakers, artists and industry executives in attendance than ever before. ‘On the Basis of Sex’ wins the WFF Audience Award.
The 18th edition of the Whistler Film Festival (WFF) wrapped Sunday night, living up to its reputation as ‘Canada’s coolest film fest’ with more premieres, filmmakers, artists and industry executives in attendance than ever before. With unique experiences ranging from live music to mountain top events, cinematic excellence remained at the heart of this year’s festival.
With more than 1,000 submissions, festival goers experienced 85 fresh films (50 features and 35 shorts) in 104 screenings from over 12 countries, including leading award season fare, meritable Canadian content and more female directed films than ever before. WFF remained true to its mandate of discovering new talent, with the inclusion of 16 first time feature films, 21 feature films directed by women (representing 46%), and with 64% of its program premiering Canadian features, more than any other international Canadian film festival this year. Plus, WFF’s juries featured some of the industry’s top talent, who presented 14 film awards and $146,500 in cash and prizing ($31,500 cash and $115,000 in prizes).
The Whistler Film Festival’s Audience Award sponsored by Tim Hortons went to On the Basis of Sex, Mimi Leder’s topical biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg played by Felicity Jones, which received its Western Canadian premiere at the fest. The WFF Audience Award runner-up was the Western Canadian premiere of Alfonso Cuarón’s masterful Roma, which for the first time ever at WFF was shown in 4k projection and 7.1 sound. The WFF Audience Award for Most Popular Canadian Film went to the Canadian premiere of Brigitte Berman’s Hugh Hefner’s After Dark: Speaking Out in America, which features a treasure trove of archival footage with everyone from Lenny Bruce to Moms Mabley. The WFF Audience Award is a non-cash prize presented to the highest-rated film as voted by the audience.
“This year was demonstrably our best event ever, with enthusiastic sold out screenings for Mary Queen of Scots, On the Basis of Sex, Free Solo and Roma (the first time a picture has been shown in Whistler in 4K projection and 7.2 sound). Two thirds of our programming was Canadian, and 46% of the films were directed by women,” said Paul Gratton, WFF Director of Programming. “There was also more diversity in the selection, with stories told by people of color (If Beale Street Could Talk, Indigenous (Falls Around Her and Trouble in the Garden) and films dealing with the LGBTQ community (Roobha, Love Scott). In many ways, you could measure the increasing sophistication and openness of Whistler audiences to quality cinema from around the world.”
“In 2018 at our 18th edition, the Whistler Film Festival truly came of age as a filmmakers festival,” said Shauna Hardy Mishaw, WFF Executive Director and Founder. “The level of talent and industry that came together to participate in our Film Festival, Content Summit and Talent Programs was by far the most impressive to date. We maintained our commitment to making media equitable with our Women on Top Series and being inclusive of diverse voices throughout our programming, which included an increased focus on more Indigenous and diverse talent and stories.”
Total attendance for this year’s fest was on par with last year with a 20% increase industry delegates, including 425 guests. WFF18 attracted 14,053 attendees, which included 7,121 film-screening attendees and 2,835 special event attendees (four Signature Series, two Music Showcases, plus the ShortWork Showdown, Festival Party, Women on Top Series, Awards Celebration, and Opening and Closing Parties), in addition to 2,751 Summit attendees, 161 talent program attendees and 1,185 delegates.
Designed to facilitate international alliances and financial partnerships, WFF’s Content Summit presented 30 interactive sessions that addressed a range of issues affecting the film, television, and digital media industry. Overall Content Summit attendance had 2,751 total attendees including 1,185 delegates (20% increase). The event features four themed days with 30 interactive sessions designed to foster business connections and collaborations for filmmakers and dealmakers through high-level keynotes and panel discussions on topics that range from finance, marketing, distribution and technology to export. The WFF Content Summit directly connects to the festival’s slate of 11 talent development programs designed to provide creative and business immersion experiences for 80 Canadian artists, with 51% of participants being female. Programs include the WFF Producers Lab, Praxis Screenwriters Lab, Indigenous Filmmaker Fellowship, Power Pitch, Doc Lab, Women on Top Mentorship, Stars to Watch and Music Showcase. WFF also collaborates with several industry organizations to host specific third party initiatives at the Whistler Summit including the Women in the Director’s Chair Industry Immersion, Women in Film & Television Film Market Preparation Mentorship, and the MPPIA Short Film Award Pitch with the Motion Picture Production Industry Association and Creative BC. Jen Araki with her “Slip Into Darkness” project won the WFF Power Pitch $41,000 prize package that included a $1,000 cash prize and a $40,000 production package featuring a $10,000 post production credit from Encore Vancouver, and a $10,000 studio credit, $10,000 lighting and grip credit and a $10,000 camera credit from Sim.
WFF industry programming made a focus to schedule more one-on-one meetings and roundtables for its Content Summit and talent program participants which included 264 scheduled meetings. There was also another notable increase in unscheduled meetings that took place outside of WFF’s programmed blocks. With guest experts attending from across Canada and the USA, the Whistler Film Festival remains a place for the industry to meet and do business and includes some of the top talent and executives in the business.
At a time when the call for gender parity is more prevalent than ever before, WFF also presented gender parity focused initiatives that included the Women on Top Series Keynote Luncheon and Workshop which attracted 400 attendees, the Women on Top Mentorship, and four-female focused programs with three awards presented in partnership with Women in the Director’s Chair, Women in Film and Television Vancouver, and the Alliance of Women Female Journalists EDA Awards.
WFF’s Signature Series featured a Director Masterclass with award-winning writer, director and producer, Robert Budreau, who returned to WFF with the Canadian premiere of his latest feature, Stockholm, starring Ethan Hawke, Noomi Rapace and Mark Strongwhich, won WFF’s Borsos Competition Award for Best Screenplay. Budreau joined film critic and interviewer Jason Gorber. WFF Artist Spotlight featured Italian-Canadian actor Giacomo Gianniotti, best known for his roles on Reign and Murdoch Mysteries. Gianniotti currently stars as “Dr. Andrew DeLuca” on ABC’s hit drama Grey’s Anatomy, and he recently joined the cast of the indie comedy, Baseballissimo, to be directed by Jay Baruchel. Gianniotti joined Canadian media personality George Stroumboulopoulos in an intimate conversation about his career and love of acting preceding the World Premiere of his latest film, Acquainted, directed by Natty Zavitz.
Tantoo Cardinal received WFF’s Career Achievement Award and Signature Series Artist Tribute in an intimate conversation with George Stroumboulopoulos about her career, environmental activism and how the portrayal of indigenous women has changed over the course of her career. Arguably the most widely recognized and most renowned Indigenous actresses of our generation, Tantoo Cardinal is without a doubt one of the most prolific actors in Canada. An eminent activist and artist with an indomitable presence, Cardinal’s seminal portraits of Indigenous characters have ignited screens globally in more than 120 film, television, and theatre projects over her 48-year career, including films LEGENDS OF THE FALL, DANCES WITH WOLVES and SMOKE SIGNALS, and TV series North of 60, Arctic Air, Mohawk Girls and Strange Empire. Cardinal attend WFF with her first starring role in a feature FALLS AROUND HER which received its Western Canadian Premiere at the festival.
The Whistler Film Festival proudly hosted the Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch for the seventh consecutive year This year’s slate of 11 screenwriters in attendance included Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, A QUIET PLACE; Ashleigh Powell, THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS; Jay Longino, UNCLE DREW; Elizabeth Chomko, WHAT THEY HAD; Christy Hall, DADDIO; Jac Schaeffer, THE HUSTLE; Micah Fitzerman-Blue andNoah Harpster, YOU ARE MY FRIEND; and Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz, BLACKKKLANSMAN. Joe Robert Cole, BLACK PANTHER andSofia Alvarez, TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE were not in attendance.
To top it all off, Cara Gee, RED ROVER and TROUBLE IN THE GARDEN,Richard Harmon, WOODLAND; Taran Kootenhayoo, BELLA CIAO!; andMarc Senior, IN GOD I TRUST were recognized as WFF’s Stars to Watch sponsored by UBCP/ACTRA at WFF’s Awards Celebration, and all had their latest films premiering at the fest.
425 filmmakers including actors, producers, writers, directors, and industry executives were part of the 18th Whistler Film Festival including an impressive lineup of guests and honourees. Additional notable talent confirmed with films premiering at the fest included: Natty Zavitz (ACQUAINTED), Laysla De Oliveira (ACQUAINTED), Adelaide Kane (ACQUAINTED), Jonathan Keltz(ACQUAINTED) Deanne Foley (AN AUDIENCE OF CHAIRS), Carolina Bartczak (AN AUDIENCE OF CHAIRS), Bruce McDonald (CLAIRE’S HAT), Jen Walden (ELIJAH AND THE ROCK CREATURE), Sophie Dupuis (FAMILY FIRST), Julia Sarah Stone (HONEY BEE), Michelle McLeod (HONEY BEE), Rama Rau (HONEY BEE), Brigitte Berman (HUGH HEFNER’S AFTER DARK: SPEAKING OUT IN AMERICA), Steven Roberts (IN GOD I TRUST), Jennifer Dale (INTO INVISIBLE LIGHT), Renée Beaulieu (THE NATURALLY WANTON PLEASE OF SKIN), Gary Burns (MAN RUNNING), Jeff Zimbalist(MOMENTUM GENERATION), Michael Zimbalist (MOMENTUM GENERATION), Douglas Nyback (THE DANCING DOGS OF DOMBROVA and NOSE TO TAIL), Genevieve Kang (NOSE TO TAIL), Jason Tome (NOSE TO TAIL), Shane Mauss (PSYCHONAUTICS: A COMIC’S EXPLORATION OF PSYCHEDELICS), Kristian Bruun (RED ROVER), Meghan Heffern, (RED ROVER), Amrit Sandhu (ROOBHA), Adisa Septuri (SKIN IN THE GAME),Arden Alfonso (SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS), Stephanie Czjakowski (SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS), Darrin Rose (SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS), and Tom Donahue (THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING).
A team of 113 volunteers contributed over 1,513 hours of time to support the festival’s success.
The Whistler Film Festival is funded by the Government of Canada through Telefilm Canada, and by the Province of British Columbia and the Resort Municipality of Whistler through the Resort Municipality Initiative, is supported by the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation and the American Friends of Whistler, and is sponsored by Variety, Creative BC, Cineplex, Encore Vancouver, NETFLIX, RE/MAX Sea to Sky Real Estate, Gibbons Whistler, Tourism Whistler, Whistler Blackcomb and the Westin Resort & Spa Whistler.
