The Whistler Film Festival (December 1–5, 2010) announced its 10th anniversary lineup featuring an unprecedented 9 World Premieres, 5 North American Premieres, 5 Canadian Premieres, 21 Western Canadian Premieres, 2 English Canadian Premieres, and 14 BC Premieres, and work from wide-ranging movie mavericks such as Jean-Luc Godard, Bruce McDonald and Monte Hellman to name a few.

Selected from over 900 submissions the 10th annual Festival will present 68 films consisting of 34 features and 34 shorts on four screens in three theatres over five days.

“It’s exciting to see Whistler Village transform into a snowy cinema lovers haven as 12,000 festival guests and over 500 industry delegates join film luminaries from around the world,” says Shauna Hardy Mishaw, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Whistler Film Festival. “Being able to offer our audience a program of such high calibre films and access to some of the most talented filmmakers and industry leaders guarantee an epic 10th anniversary celebration.”

WFF Artistic Director Stacey Donen has assembled a program that is sure to make even the most modest Canadian proud. Canadian cult icon Bruce McDonald brings indie to the forefront with a unbelievable three new features in this year’s festival (Hard Core Logo 2, Music From The Big House, Trigger). Up-and-coming director Michael Goldbach launches the festival with the Opening Night Gala screening of his made-in-BC Daydream Nation (starring Kat Dennings and Josh Lucas). Other Canuck flicks to look out for include The Whistleblower (dir: Larysa Kondracki; starring Rachel Weisz), Wrecked (dir: Michael Greenspan) starring Academy Award Winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and the South African-Canadian co-production The Bang Bang Club starring Malin Akerman, Ryan Phillippe.
American director Monte Hellman (mentor to Quentin Tarantino and winner of the Special Lion Award for Overall Work at the 2010 Venice Film Festival), will be coming to Whistler this year for the special sneak preview of his film Road To Nowhere starring Vancouver’s Tygh Runyan. Other highlights include the Western Canadian Premiere of Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg (Greece), whose lead actor Ariane Labed won Best Actress in Venice this year; the World Premiere of the family-friendly film Sophie (dir: Leif Bristow) about a 17-year old ballerina who joins a circus to reclaim her best
friend—a 5-ton elephant named Sheba; and the Canadian Premiere of the Danish indie feature, Nothing’s All Bad (dir: Mikkel Munch-Fals) produced by Lars von Trier’s Zentropa Entertainment.
Whistler Film Festival screenings are organized in eight categories: Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature; World Now; Documentary; Late Night; Mountain Culture; Shorts; Family and the New Voices International Feature Competition.

The Festival continues to support cinematic excellence and will award over $45,000 in cash prizes and commissions: the $15,000 Borsos Award for Best New Canadian Feature presented by the Directors Guild of Canada – British Columbia; the $10,000 New Voices International Feature Award; the MPPIA Short Film Award presented by MPPIA and BC Film ($15,000 cash prize plus up to $100,000 in services); the $2,500 Best Documentary Award; the $1,000 Best Short Film Award; the $500 Best Student Short Film Award; the $1000 Best Mountain Culture Film Award presented by Whistler
Blackcomb; and Best Actor and Actress Awards for films in the Borsos Competition presented by the Union of BC Performers.

Individual film and special event tickets go on sale online exclusively for American Express card members on November 4th and for the general public on November 11th (until December 4th). The Festival Box Office opens November 11th for phone sales and on November 25th for walk in sales. Early bird accommodation starting from $69 per night is available until November 15th. For information, go to www.whistlerfilmfestival.com

The Whistler Film Festival is presented by American Express, and is sponsored by the Directors Guild of Canada – British Columbia, Whistler Brewing Company, Vancouver Sun, Dose.ca and Whistler Blackcomb, and is supported by Telefilm Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, British Columbia Film and the Resort Municipality of Whistler.

World Premieres:
Feature length:
EVERYTHING LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE (CANADA) dir: Rob Leickner
HARD CORE LOGO 2 (CANADA) dir: Bruce McDonald
SOPHIE (CANADA) dir: Leif Bristow

Shorts:
THE LONG AUTUMN (CANADA) dir: Jeffrey St. Jules
MOVE OUT CLEAN (CANADA) dir: Kelly-Ruth Mercier
WHEN I WAS YOUNG AND IN MY PRIME (CANADA) dir: J.L. Munce, Laura Nordin

North American Premieres:
Feature length:
BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW (CANADA) dir: Panos Cosmatos
PLAYING WITH BLOCKS (CANADA) dir: Thomas Balzer
THE SILENCE/DAS LETZTE SCHWEIGEN (GERMANY) dir: Baran bo Odar
WRECKED (CANADA) dir: Michael Greenspan

Canadian Premieres:
Feature length:
CIRCO (USA/MEXICO) dir: Aaron Schock
NOTHING’S ALL BAD/SMUKKE MENNESKER (DENMARK) dir: Mikkel Munch-Fals

Shorts:
THE FOAL (AUSTRALIA) dir: Josh Tanner
INCIDENT BY A BANK (SWEDEN) dir: Ruben Östlund
VIA GORI (AUSTRALIA/GEORGIA) dir: George Barbakadze

English Canadian Premieres:
Feature length:
2 FROGS IN THE WEST (CANADA) dir: Dany Papineau
JO POUR JONATHAN (CANADA) dir: Maxime Giroux

Western Canadian Premieres:
Feature length:
L’AMOUR FOU (FRANCE) dir: Pierre Thoretton
ATTENBERG (GREECE) dir: Athina Rachel Tsangari
THE BANG BANG CLUB (CANADA/SOUTH AFRICA) dir: Steven Silver
BLUE VALENTINE (USA) dir: Derek Cianfrance
FILM SOCIALISME (SWITZERLAND/FRANCE) dir: Jean-Luc Godard
GOOD NEIGHBOURS (CANADA) dir: Jacob Tierney
IN A BETTER WORLD (DENMARK) dir: Susanne Bier
MEEK’S CUTOFF (USA) dir: Kelly Reichardt
OLIVER SHERMAN (CANADA) dir: Ryan Redford
THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS (USA) dir: Alexandre O. Philippe
RIDING THE LONG WHITE CLOUD (CANADA/NEW ZEALAND) dir: Alex Craig
VANISHING ON 7TH STREET (USA) dir: Brad Anderson
THE WHISTLEBLOWER (CANADA/GERMANY) dir: Larysa Kondracki
YOU ARE HERE (CANADA) dir: Daniel Cockburn

Shorts:
ALL FLOWERS IN TIME (CANADA/USA) dir: Jonathan Caouette
CLEAN DIRT (CANADA) dir: Brad Dryborough
THE LEGEND OF BEAVER DAM (CANADA) dir: Jerome Sable
LITTLE ACCIDENTS (USA) dir: Sara Colangelo
LITTLE FLOWERS/ LES FLEURS DE L’AGE (CANADA) dir: Vincent Biron
SOPHIE LAVOIE (CANADA) dir: Anne Émond
WOMAN WAITING (CANADA) dir: Antoine Bourges

BC Premieres:
Feature length:
DAYDREAM NATION (CANADA) dir: Mike Goldbach
A LIFE ASCENDING (USA) dir: Stephen Grynberg
MARWENCOL (USA) dir: Jeff Malmberg
MUSIC FROM THE BIG HOUSE (CANADA) dir: Bruce McDonald
SMALL TOWN MURDER SONGS (CANADA) dir: Ed Gass-Donnelly
TRIGGER (CANADA) dir: Bruce McDonald

Shorts:
CONVERSATION PIECE (UK) dir: Joe Tunmer
FIRST AID (ISRAEL) dir: Yarden Karmin
GREEN CRAYONS (CANADA) dir: Kazik Radwanski
THE HIGH LEVEL BRIDGE (CANADA) dir: Trevor Anderson
NEGATIVIPEG (CANADA) dir: Matthew Rankin
POWDER/POUDRE (CANADA) dir: Ky Nam Le Duc
WAPAWEKKA (CANADA) dir: Danis Goulet

Special Sneak Preview:
Feature length:
ROAD TO NOWHERE (USA) dir: Monte Hellman

Source: WFF