Escape to the Movies at the Whistler Film Festival
Early season snow is flying in Whistler, but there’s another reason to head to the mountains. From November 29 to December 3, the town will host the 17th annual Whistler Film Festival. Escape to the movies at Canada’s “coolest” film festival, plus enjoy skiing, après, fine dining and more.
The five-day festival features eighty-seven original films, forty-six of which are feature-length. “The Whistler Film Festival celebrates emerging, female and Canadian filmmakers with a focus and enthusiasm not found at other Canadian festivals,” says Director of Programming Paul Gratton. Two-thirds of the features are Canadian and thirty percent are directed by women.
Enough numbers. What’s hot? It doesn’t get much hotter than the world premiere of Becoming Burlesque ,a film about a shy Muslim girl attracted to the world of burlesque. “We not only expect first-time director/writer Jackie English to attend as well as lead actress and ‘star to watch’ Shiva Negar, but also a number of the real-life burlesque dancers prominently featured in the film,” says Gratton.
From the opening gala film, Darkest Hour, a World War II drama and award season frontrunner, to the closing feature-length documentary The Moment about the history of free-ride mountain biking, the program is jam-packed with films of every genre.
“We have a number of films that focus specifically on the challenges of kick-starting film careers,” says Gratton. “There’s the hilarious The Disaster Artist, about the making of The Room, and the world premiere of the documentary Becoming Iconic, featuring interviews with Jodie Foster, John Badham, Adrian Lyne and Taylor Hackford about their first-feature experiences.”
When asked what film might resonate most in a place like Whistler, Gratton picks I, Tonya. “It seems to me the perfect movie for a town that was once a site for the Winter Olympics. A funny but compassionate story about an Olympic hopeful from the wrong side of the tracks, this is a story about never giving up hope.”
Film festival tickets are available online now. Take advantage of the Whistler Film Festival Essential Escape Package offering two free Scandinave Spa passes with two night’s accommodations. For details, visit whistler.com/filmfestival.