Telefilm Canada announces its support of the 29th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival

“Tête-à-tête” and “Speed Dating” initiatives develop Canadian talent, industry

Montreal, September 8, 2010 – Telefilm Canada announced its support of the 29th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) today, which takes place from September 30th to October 15th, 2010. Telefilm Canada’s participation enables VIFF to deliver a first-class event to a growing audience of film aficionados and industry members.

“The Vancouver International Film Festival is a nationally respected film festival, bringing much-deserved attention to the filmmakers it showcases during its 16 days of programming while also offering valuable development and business opportunities to emerging and established filmmaking talent alike,” said Sheila de La Varende, National and International Business Development Director at Telefilm Canada. “We are proud to partner with the Festival and are pleased to see that Canadian titles are prominent in this year’s selection, including on opening night.”

This year’s opening night gala film will be the Telefilm-supported and much-talked-about Canada-Italy coproduction Barney’s Version. From Canadian director Richard J. Lewis, the film follows Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti) as he reflects on his life, its highs and its lows, successes and failures. An adaptation of the wildly popular, critically-acclaimed Mordecai Richler novel of the same name, the film also casts Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver, and Canadians Bruce Greenwood, Scott Speedman and Rachelle Lefevre, among others.

In addition to supporting VIFF as a venue for building audiences for Canadian cinema, Telefilm is proud to have financed 19 or 56% of the 34 feature-length Canadian films screening at this year’s festival.

“Congratulations to the Vancouver International Film Festival on 29 strong years of building audiences for Canadian cinema and for maintaining its strong tradition of promoting regional filmmaking talent,” said John Dippong, Regional Director Business Development, Western Region for Telefilm.

Canadian Images Series

Presented by Telefilm, Carl Bessai’s Fathers & Sons will open VIFF’s Canadian Images Series, one of the biggest showcases of Canadian film in the world. Telefilm has supported many of the films in the series at the development, production and completion stages.  Local filmmakers and Telefilm representatives will be onsite to answer questions from the audience following the screenings.

The next generation of Western filmmakers continues to make its presence felt at the VIFF with feature-film débuts from Vancouver directors: Kaare Andrews (Altitude), Katrin Bowen (Amazon Falls) , Silvio Pollio (Guido Superstar: The Rise of Guido) and Sara McIntyre (Two Indians Talking).

VIFF 2010 CANADIAN SELECTIONS