film festival
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...
held in
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler ( Lillooet/Ucwalmícwts: Cwitima, ; Squamish/Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: Sḵwiḵw, ) is a resort municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mounta ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. Established in 2001, the festival is held the first weekend of December and includes juried competitive sections, the Borsos Awards, and the Pandora Audience Award. A conference for the Canadian film industry, known as the Whistler Summit, is organised in connection with the film festival.
The festival has built up a reputation as one of the most important Canadian film festivals despite its location in a much smaller community than most of the other major festivals, particularly as a premiere venue for Canadian independent films.Norman Wilner "Five buzzy films to stream at the Whistler Film Festival" ''
Now
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Now ...
'', December 1, 2020. Some film critics have even gone so far as to suggest that the festival is emerging as Canada's equivalent to the influential American
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
.
As of 2015, the Whistler Film Festival bills itself as "Canada's coolest film festival" and has been increasingly attracting more distributors and sales agents. The 2015 festival presented the Canadian premiere of '' Carol'' and the world premiere of ''
Rehearsal
A rehearsal is an activity in the performing arts that occurs as preparation for a performance in music, theatre, dance and related arts, such as opera, musical theatre and film production. It is undertaken as a form of practising, to ensure t ...
'' among other world premieres. About half the films screened are Canadian and Paul Gratton, who became the festival's director of programming in June 2012, would like the Whistler Film Festival to become a "mini- Sundance" for Canadian films.
Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...
, the 2020 festival was staged entirely online. While most other Canadian film festivals which were staged online in 2020 geoblocked their service so that only viewers within the festival's home province were able to watch the films, Whistler made virtually its entire lineup available across Canada. In the same year, the festival also launched the Adventure Film Series, a summer program of films about adventure sports.
Film competitions and awards
The Whistler Film Festival features eight juried competitions with the following awards handed out at the Awards Brunch on the last day of the festival or post-event:
*
Borsos Competition The Borsos Competition is the main awards program for Canadian feature films screening at the annual Whistler Film Festival. Introduced for the first time in 2004, the juried competition presents six awards annually to honour films, actors, screenpl ...
: ($15,000 cash award presented by the Directors Guild of Canada – British Columbia with a $20,000 Post Production Prize sponsored by Company 3 LLC for winning film); Best Direction in a Borsos film presented by the Directors Guild of Canada – British Columbia; Best Cinematography in a Borsos film presented by ICG 669; Best Performance in a Borsos film; and Best Screenplay of a Borsos film
* Best Feature Documentary
*Mountain Culture Award presented by Whistler Blackcomb
* Canadian ShortWork Award ($1,000 cash award)
* International ShortWork Award
* Student ShortWork Award ($500 cash award), presented by Capilano University Film Centre
*Best BC Directors Award presented by the Directors Guild of Canada – British Columbia
*Alliance of Women Film Journalists EDA Awards for Best Female-Directed Narrative Feature, Short Film and Documentary
*MPPIA Short Film Award ($15,000 cash award plus up to $100,000 in services) presented by MPPIA and Creative BC, sponsored by Bridge Studios
*
Audience Award An audience award is typically an award at a film festival (or some other type of cultural festival or similar competition) which is selected by the audience attending the festival, rather than by the festival jury or a group of critics.
Example ...
for Best Feature of the Festival (non-cash prize)
The Borsos Awards are named after Canadian filmmaker