Premieres vie for prize
Two world premieres are up for the ninth annual Borsos Award for Best Canadian Feature at the 2012 Whistler International Film Festival, which runs Nov. 28 to Dec. 2.
The Mad Ship, features Gil Bellows, Martha Burns, and Nikolaj Lie Kass in the too strange not to be true story of a Scandinavian immigrant who builds a boat in the middle of a Prairie dust bowl during the Depression. It’s a first feature by Winnipeg’s David Morton.
The other world premiere in the competition is Blood Pressure, a sexy thriller directed by Sean Garrity starring Michelle Giroux, Tatiana Maslany and Jonas Chernick.
Garrity and Chernick face some competition from Garrity and Chernick as they’re up against another of their projects My Awkward Sexual Adventure a sex comedy about a lousy lover who gets romance lessons from a stripper ( played by Emily Hampshire)
Named in honour of B. C. filmmaking pioneer Philip Borsos, the award carries a $ 15,000 cash prize.
Other contenders in the competition include Michael McGowan’s new movie, Still, featuring James Cromwell and Geneviève Bujold as an elderly couple building their dream house while battling bureaucracy and the English- Canadian premiere of Martin Laroche’s mock documentary Fair Sex ( Les Manèges Humains) featuring Marie- Evelyne Lessard as an African- Québécoise chronicling a her summer job a the county fair.
“This year’s Whistler Film Festival program will prove to be an exciting and eclectic mix of traditional quality festival fare, sprinkled with a large sampling of the unusual, the unexpected and the just plain entertaining,” says Paul Gratton, WFF’s director of programming.
The festival is also featuring the first ever China Canada Gateway for Film ® Script Competition where up to three projects will be competing for as much as $ 15 million dollars in financing from Chinese studios.
The festival is also hosting a screen industry “Summit” dealing cross platform programming in the digital era. “The Summit will complement our film programming by addressing key challenges and opportunities facing the industry this year,” says Gratton.
This year’s festival will feature approximately ninety films. The full schedule will be released Nov. 1 and that’s when individual tickets and special events tickets go on sale.
Passes and industry registration is now available online, along with rates for accommodations starting at $ 79 a night ( whistlerfilmfestival.com).