DISCLAIMER: Okay, I know this is a month late but I’ve had some busy times and two colds plus I was waiting for some certain facts that took forever to come. Nevertheless I decided to finally publish this VIFF wrap-up today.
The Vancouver International Film Festival wrapped itself up the night of Friday, October 9th. The sixteen days were full of excitement throughout the city. It was also quite warm which allowed for some people to pass up films in favor of savoring whatever sunny weather we’ll have left for the year. Nevertheless this year’s VIFF was still bustling. The format that worked the two previous years continued to work again this year. The three Tinseltown theatres gave the VIFF four extra days.
Volunteering was also good this year. Funny thing is this year we were only to do a single theatre this time around. I originally requested to volunteer for the VanCity theatre. Thing is it was loaded with volunteer requests. They asked me to do one of the other theatres. I obliged to do Tinseltown. That worked for the most part but the thing with me is I like to volunteer on both opening day and closing day: the two days Tinseltown isn’t part of the VIFF. That led me during the volunteer training to negotiate with one of the heads of volunteering and she gave me the option of doing Cinematheque those two days. I was happy with that, especially since I could get free popcorn.
Volunteering started off somewhat easy on opening day at the Cinematheque. Things became a bit more difficult when I worked the Tinseltown theatres. There one would have to deal with big crowds. Almost reminding me how busy it was over at the late Granville 7. There was even one time Tinseltown was so booked with volunteers, I was asked to volunteer the Sunday at the nearby SFU theatre. One film was a special event film where one corporate sponsor was giving people popcorn. Problem was food couldn’t be allowed in the theatre. You can imagine how peeved the people were. I also remember how busy closing Friday was. I had to do something over at the Centre for Performing Arts in between volunteering at the Cinematheque. Hey, film fests are busy things.
As for films I watched, I saw fourteen including the Reel Youth shorts fest. The feature-length films I saw came from Canada, USA, UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Greece, Ireland, India and Denmark. I saw a lot of good live-action movies as well as some good documentaries. I think the edgiest film I saw was Nina Forever. Hard to say what my favorite was. I found 100 Yen Love the most entertaining and A Flickering Truth to the the most eye-opening documentary I saw. I was hoping to see some Canadian live-action but it just wasn’t to be this year.
Anyways here is the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival by the numbers:
–140,000: estimated gated attendance
–710+: Film and Television forum delegates
–930+: hours of film screened
–900+: volunteers
-520+ accredited industry guests
–549: public screenings
–370: films shown (shorts and feature length)
–99: Canadian Films and shorts shown
–85: countries entering films
–114: Canadian premieres
- 35: North American premieres
- 24: International premieres (first screening outside home country)
- 11: World Premieres
-198: meetings with industry leaders and delegates at VIFF Industry Exchange
–104: guest speakers
–14: entries in the Best Foreign Language Film category for this year’s Oscars shown
–16: days of showing films
–9: screens showing films
–7: theatres participating in the VIFF
Now I know some of you want to know the award winners. Here they are:
ROGERS PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
-BROOKLYN (UK/Ireland/Canada), dir. John Crowley
VIFF MOST POPULAR INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM AWARD
-INGRID BERGMAN: IN HER OWN (Sweden), dir. Stig Bjorkman
VIFF MOST POPULAR CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY AWARD
-HAIDA GWAII: ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, dir. Charles Wilkinson
VIFF IMPACT: CANADIAN AUDIENCE AWARD
-FRACTURED LAND, dirs. Damien Gillis & Fiona Rayher
VIFF MOST POPULAR CANADIAN FILM AWARD
-ROOM (shared with Ireland), dir. Lenny Abrahamson
VIFF IMPACT: INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE AWARD
-LANDFILL HARMONIC (USA, Paraguay), dir. Brad Algood
#mustseeBC Award (for most anticipated BC film)
-TRICKS ON THE DEAD, dir. Jordan Paterson
BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM AWARD
-SLEEPING GIANT, dir. Andrew Cividino
EMERGING CANADIAN DIRECTOR AWARD:
-THE SOUND OF TREES, dir. Francois Peloquin
BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM AWARD
-BLUE-EYED BLONDE, dir. Pascal Plante
MOST PROMISING DIRECTOR OF A CANADIAN SHORT FILM:
-NEVER STEADY, NEVER STILL, dir. Kathleen Hepburn
BEST BC FILM:
-FRACTURED LAND, dirs. Damien Gillis & Fiona Rayher
BC EMERGING FILMMAKER AWARD:
-THE DEVOUT, dir. Connor Gaston
Those were awarded at Friday’s closing gala. After the VIFF closed, VIFF repeats happened at the VanCity theatre until Thursday the 15th. The volunteer party went from being held close to the end of the fest to being held on Halloween. It all started at the VanCity theatre as volunteers were treated to three circus-themed thriller films. The first one was held at 10 in the morning and was 1933’s Freaks which is frequently shown on Turner Classic Movies. The second was the 1960 British film Circus Of Horrors. The third and last was 1966’s Berserk starring Joan Crawford. Goodies and pastries were around for us to much on. Of course there were candies. There were prizes given away as well as prizes for costumes. Then the festivities ended with a three-hour dinner and dance at a nearby cabaret. It was a fun Halloween, that’s for sure. Great to see this year’s VIFF end on an exciting note.
So there you go. The 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival ended with continued success if not a record and fun for all volunteers. Next year’s VIFF is anticipated to be from September 23rd to October 8th, 2015 and should be bigger and better. It’s 10 months away but I still can’t wait. Anyways we’ll see how things go for next year’s VIFF. See you next year!
Jon The Blogcentric 