That's a Wrap!

Well, another film festival has wrapped up and what a 10-days it's been!  I'll be using the word "thanks" quite a bit in this post but I do mean it.

We would like to thank our sponsors - without them, there wouldn't be a festival for us to go to, to volunteer at, to blog about, etc...

A big shout out to American Express for helping to deliver the first ever Mavericks award on Saturday night. We'd also like to thank Volkswagen for helping to drive us around town, Cineplex and Citytv for their support.

We'd also like to thank Canwest, Movie Central & HBO Canada, Fast Forward, Fashion Central who gave us sweet digs for the delegate lounge and the box office this year and the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation for their support.

We had many sponsors in the media as well including Avenue Magazine, CBC, CJSW 90.9FM, Beatroute, Fashion Magazine, the Calgary Herald, CKUA Radio and Gay Calgary Magazine.

We'd like to thank the following sponsors in no particular order, Skyy Vodka, Bullfrog Power, Stella Artois, Joe Media Group, Segue Systems, Christie, Ikea, UPS, UVS, Starbucks Coffee, Hyatt Regency, Corkscrew Media, Sundog, Flagworks, Barley Mill Eau Claire, Pulp, Inc. Three Point Nine Marketing, Tubby Dog, Boulevard Travel, Indigo Books, The Fairmont Palliser, Mealon, Thrifty, Pyramid Productions, Cine Audio Visual, Diva Hair Salon and Christie Lites.

Scott Hall, LLP and Nuvo Hotel and Suites helped to bring you the Headliners and Cineplex, The Globe Cinema and The Plaza Theatre displayed the films. Big thanks to Alberta Film, the National Film Board, AMPIA, Calgary Economic Development and Telefilm Canada. Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Calgary Foundation, Calgary Arts Development, Alberta Lottery Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, Tourism Calgary and the Rosza Foundation. One last shout out to The Broken Plate, The Wicked Wedge, Agropur, The Palomino, Mango Shiva, Wok Box and Thai Tai.

That being said, we'd also like to thank one more person.

You.

In all seriousness, thank you for attending the festival. The festival has grown a lot in 10 years and we couldn't do it without the public so here's to 10 more!  I've been volunteering for the last four years in various capacities and I have to say this has been my favourite year so far!

I'd like to thank Juan and Kathleen along with all the staff for giving me a chance to blog about the festival.  It is a highly sought after position and I didn't take it lightly.  I took a break from my blog to do this and it was well worth it!

Hope to see you all next year...

Chaston B.

Review of the Weekend

First off, a big hand goes out to Eau Claire Market for helping to put on a great event last night - the Closing Night gala. Of course, last night's screenings took place just upstairs in the Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire Market Cinemas. The hospitality staff of the Hyatt Regency served amazing food and drinks and did a great job to keep everyone happy. A shout out to all the volunteers that worked the gala and to those who stayed late to pack all of this away. I grabbed a few shots of the party right before everything started.

And here's the room with a few more people all of whom were conversing and have great conversations over a few Stella's...

The Stella case up top was full at the beginning of the night and was promptly empty at the end of the night. There's the new "Stella Artoia Legere", the lighter version - I botched up the pronunciation of it so many times. Skyy Vodka and their sister brands were also available, Skyy is another sponsor of ours and we are glad to have them.

Going back a little bit, Friday night, Stella Artois held it's Unseen Party. It was a lot of fun from what I heard and if you saw any of these placards or banners, that's what they were for.

Congrats to all the award winners including our Best of Alberta winner and the winner of the Mavericks Award, Chris Chong Chan Fui who received a $25,000 grand prize furnished by American Express. He was given one of those big checks but sadly I didn't have a good view of it. Citytv will have some highlights for you on Monday's BT and Your City programs.

The parties may be over but there's still a full-day of festival to be had. See something you missed or catch something new because there's still another 8 hours of festival left!

Coming up on the Homestretch

If there's a film you saw and you really thought it was aces, why not vote for it for the 2009 People's Choice Award? Instructions are here but here's the really abridged version.

First things first, you'll have had to have kept your admission ticket. If you don't have an account with our website - Calgary Film.com, sign up for one, it's real quick and once you do you can vote. In order for your vote to count, the ticket stub you got from the venue has a code on it. The filmmakers with the most votes receive a prize courtesy of American Express.

This seems like a good segway to remind you that the festival is also a competition. CIFF presents over 10 awards that are judged by industry professionals - including our newest one, the Mavericks Award. A $25,000 grand prize from American Express awaits the winner and it's been getting buzz around the film community. It's been promoted at many other major festivals and it's shaping up to make a good last few days of the festival.

Another important award is the Citytv Best Canadian Feature Film award up for grabs, criteria for this award is that it must have been submitted by a Canadian. Our friends over at City have been proud supporters of ours, we are glad to have them on board with us and we thank them for their support. Before you head out for the gala's, catch The City Show this weekend on Citytv and they will have a look back at the 2009 Calgary International Film Festival.

Alberta is a hotbed of film activity - thanks in part to Alberta Film, AMPIA and so many other national groups such as NFB and Telefilm Canada. Short Films are being displayed prominently this year as the Closing Gala on Saturday is dedicated to short films, 10 of them - all of which are from Alberta and are up for the Best of Alberta award.

Not to leave anybody out but we also award the Best International Feature. I have my favourite choice for that one but since I'm not on a jury or anything, Peoples Choice here I come!

We also have awards for Best Documentary, Best Short Live Action Film, Best Animated Short Film, Best Documentary Short and the YYC Awards (Youth by Youth Cinema). A big hand to Juan Delgado for helping to coordinate that series. A big thanks to all the jurors for their time and expertise.

Once again, our friends at Bullfrog Power are helping to power the festival! We would like to thank Bullfrog Power for their continuing support. CIFF is proud to go green and if you are receiving the Festival Insider email - as part of being a member of Calgary Film.com, we are showing more ways that the festival has gone green this year.

Just a little behind the scenes...

You might not think about it but a lot of work goes into making sure there's a picture up on the screen. UVS is providing projection services in selected venues, namely through the use of digital projectors and in turn, those projectors are being provided by Christie. The films that you see arrive in many different formats including 35mm, 16mm and in some cases through digital means including digital video tape.

We get those prints and tapes shipped out to us during the course of the festival. Our transport team is kept very busy throughout the festival both receiving and sending out films. Big thanks to UPS and to each of our venues, The Plaza, The Globe Cinema and Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire Market for putting up with us this week and allowing us to deliver 10 days worth of great films.

The Mavericks program is starting up tomorrow (Wednesday) and along with American Express, we'd also like to acknowledge and thank some of the other sponsors of The Mavericks Program. Nuvo Hotel Suites, The Calgary Foundation, Alberta Film, Calgary Economic Development, Alberta Lottery Fund, Tourism Calgary, Calgary Arts Development, the City of Calgary and Avenue Magazine.

Avenue Magazine has also partnered with American Express to produce a Dining Guide - more on that in this post. Avenue Magazine can be picked up at many locations across the city or during the course of the festival, at any of our venues and downtown at our box office located at 207 - 8th Avenue S.W. All we ask is that you don't take the big poster boards. They do look great though on almost anywhere.

Hey, who likes movie tickets? And food?

With the first weekend of the 10th Annual Calgary International Film Festival behind us, we still have another week of festival to go!

At this point, we'd like to take a moment to thank our presenting sponsor, American Express.

While American Express has provided immense support to the festival itself, you might be able to get some usage out of this partnership if you're planning on going out for a nice meal - and seeing a film. Food, movies, I think everybody loves those..

Our friends at Avenue Magazine have partnered with American Express to produce a guide to dining out during the festival. The guides can be found at our box office at 207 - 8th Avenue S.W. or if you click here, you can see what there is to offer. The gist is that if you pay with your American Express card at any of the participating locations in the guide/website you get a really great deal on your food and are available to purchase 2 for 1 general admission tickets - only til October 4th of course. After that, just bring your tickets and receipt to the box office and exchange it up and you're good to go.

The Mavericks are coming. American Express has furnished the $25,000 grand prize for the winner of the new Maverick's competition. 10 exciting films are up for this prize and it should be an amazing time for the theatre-goers, the filmmakers themselves and everyone involved in the festival, many thanks to American Express once again.

I wanted to get a few shots of cardholders with their cards - but something told me that wouldn't be appropriate for an internet picture. So instead I have that one above which is just as nice, again it's the safest photo I could get because putting credit cards numbers on the net is definitely not cool. We love privacy! Also, those chairs are really comfy.

I grabbed this shot on Monday night, some volunteers were taking some well deserved R&R between shows. They just filled up The Plaza full of eager attendees for the screening of I Killed My Mother. The important thing, they didn't show me their American Express cards either.

Stellaaaaaaa! Gala Opening Get's Us Off To A Great Start!

The festival kicked off with a fantastic party last night! Thanks to all those who came down to Eau Claire Market for some drinks, live music, and festivities! I think we all got into one or two (or eight) conversations of "which film are you most looking forward to?" It seems like everyone is super excited for White Ribbon this Saturday, are you going? I am!

Photos of last night's party are up (yeah, just above these words.) No joke - the first time I used a digital camera!

At the American Express VIP lounge, Clinique set up fantastic make-over stations and then guests had their photos taken - and were photoshopped into Fashion Magazine covers! Looked fantastic! As guests mingled with their copies of the latest issue, I scored a Stella Artois (or a few) and my friends downed Skyy Vodka tonics. The only thing better? Me taking highly-staged photos of all of this! "Ok guys, so um... pose!" - great direction, right? Is this what Pedro Almodovar is like?