Whistler is already considered a primo destination for skiing, snowboarding, and partying, but for a few days this December, it'll also be a hotspot for cinephiles.
From December 4 to 8, more than 10,000 film buffs will gather in the snowy village for the Whistler Film Festival. A total of 84 films from 14 countries will screen over the course of the festival including 19 world premieres, 19 Canadian premieres, and 34 Western Canadian premieres.
"We're really trying to unearth hip, little, edgy gems," said Paul Gratton, WFFs director of programming. "These are films that make you sit up and say, 'what the hell was that about?'"
Among them: River Phoenix's final cinematic outing, Dark Blood. The film was unfinished at the time of Phoenix's 1993 death, its unassembled footage condemned to a storage locker. When the insurance company announced its plans to destroy the footage, Dark Blood's aging director George Sluizer arranged for it to be (as Gratton puts it) abducted.
Nearly 20 years after Phoenix's death, Sluizer finally assembled a rough cut of Dark Blood, providing voiceover narration for the 20 per cent of the script that was never filmed. "I don't know if this will ever get a theatrical release, and I can tell you, River Phoenix's performance is extremely charismatic," said Gratton. "My feeling is you go to film festivals to see this stuff because you may never see it again."
Also in the line-up: Cas & Dylan, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) and directed by Beverly Hills 90210 alum Jason Priestley; Bruce McDonald's The Husband, about a man whose wife is arrested for sleeping with a 14-year-old boy; Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story, a peek into the life of the infamous producer and Penthouse founder (Gucciones universally panned Caligula will also screen); Ice Soldiers, a sci-fi thriller set in Canada's North starring Adam Beach (Arctic Air); Quebec's highest grossing film, Louis Cyr; and The Crash Reel, a documentary about snowboarding legend Kevin Pearce's neck injury and rehabilitation.
In addition to the screenings, WFF will also host the China Canada Gateway for Film Script Competition, in which 12 Canadian writer/producer teams will compete for production financing, and hand out the second largest cash prize in Canadian film (the $15,000 Borsos Award for Best New Canadian Feature Film).
WFF's Spotlight On invites three leading ladies — Academy Award-winning actress Melissa Leo, Variety star you should know Ali Liebert, and last year's Audience Award winner Emily Hampshire — for an evening conversation Dec. 5, complemented by the premiere of ELLE Canada's Fashion Film Competition finalists.
Tribute honouree Richard Dreyfuss will be celebrated in an intimate conversation on Dec. 6 with Variety's vice president and executive editor Steven Gaydos.
WFF's In Conversation features Jason Priestley and Canadian television and radio personality George Stromboloupolous in an intimate tête-à-tête on Dec. 7.
The festival is hosting Variety's 10 Screenwriters to Watch for the second consecutive year on Dec. 7. This year's slate of screenwriters will be announced by Variety in its November 26 issue.
Look for the full festival schedule at WhistlerFilmFestival.com.
