Filmfests are finding fans
Niche marketing helps smaller events capture the attention of Canadians
With the demise of the Montreal World Film Festival just weeks before it was to open at the end of August, it may come as a surprise there are nearly 140 movie festivals across Canada competing for attention.
Almost everywhere from Halifax to Vancouver is able to host a film festival in their city, with many focusing on niches to garner acclaim. The Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, Vancouver Asian Film Festival and the Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival in Calgary demonstrate how focused festivals allow moviegoers to be exposed to flicks they might not otherwise see.
The elephant in the room, of course, is the Toronto International Film Festival, which attracts Hollywood stars and some 300 movies for 11 days each September. This year it appears to be going a tad against the grain by kicking off the event for the first time ever with a Canadian documentary, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band.
Ottawa is home to the largest animation festival in North America. Being able to keep Canadian content available to viewers is a priority, says Madeline Lines, a spokeswoman for the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
“The other big animation festival is Annecy in France. Students or those without the resources to get to Europe can come to us and really immerse themselves in animation,” Lines says. “We try to have Canadian animation at the forefront, with local animation when we can.”
Wayne Carter, executive director of the Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax, says focusing on specific content is what makes smaller festivals stand out from the crowd.
“Every year we show six to eight feature films about Atlantic Canada, stories filmed in Atlantic Canada,” Carter says.
Having your city represented on the big screen is not something that happens often in Canada, aside from local film festivals.
“When you get into places like Toronto or Vancouver, they stand in for a lot of places. Usually when a film is made it Halifax, you know it’s Halifax,” Carter says.
The Halifax fete, branded as FIN (an allusion to silent era end cards), has attracted guests from all over the world for 40 years, not only to view movies in the region, but also to help produce them.
FIN Partners helps connect more than 100 filmmakers annually with production and funding, showing co-production as integral to how independent films get made, Carter says. Atlantic Canada could be part of more international movies as well, he says.
“Our point is to have a project that two people from different countries would be discussing and then there could be the potential for international co-production,” Carter says.
Festivals are an economic boost wherever they may be held, even if not on Toronto’s scale. Ottawa’s Lines says animators and animation lovers from all over the world take over the capital’s downtown for five days in September.
“It’s a hidden gem that a lot of people from Ottawa might not realize is happening in their city, but is definitely internationally renowned.”