We criticized the 2017 Windsor International Film Festival for cutting back on Canadian films, going from 31 to 20. Well, the 2018 Windsor International Film Festival Canadian films list has 16 films. The 2016 version was above average in terms of Canadian film, but a film festival in Canada should celebrate Canadian film.
There are only 2 French-Canadian films. Deux!?
The number of documentaries has shrunk to 4, down from 9 in 2017.
Some of the major anticipated highlights from TIFF 2018 include the latest Thom Fitzgerald film Splinters. Splinters is the Canadian film at WIFF 2018 I am looking most forward to seeing. Other top choices would be Giant Little Ones, featuring American actors Kyle MacLachlan and Maria Bello, and The Grizzlies about the indigenous lacrosse team from director Miranda de Pencier.
I will see The Fireflies Are Gone in the Chicago festival. The winner of the TIFF 2018 Best Canadian Feature Film is half of the French-Canadian output along with 1991, the latest installment from Ricardo Trogi.
Documentaries of note include Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, the latest from Jennifer Baichwal; Unarmed Verses, winner of the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs 2017; Sharkwater: Extinction, the final film from the late Rob Stewart; and Transformer, the Audience Award winner from the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival 2018.
2017 Windsor International Film Festival preview
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
The festival has scheduled a screening each for 2 films with local ties: current release The Control and Baby Blues (2008). They have scheduled both in the same time period so filmgoers will have to flip a coin.
Fans of horror films of various types will enjoy these Canadian titles: Level 16, Summer Of 84, and What Keeps You Alive.
The other documentary is Ferris’s Room, which tells the story of Toronto artist Sarah Keenlyside's recreation of the bedroom from the John Hughes film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. That would seem to be more about Chicago than Canada.
The other feature film is Roobha, a story of a South Asian romance between a middle-aged man and a trans woman.
Films in the festival with a Canada co-production credit are C'est La Vie, Just a Breath Away, and Love, Gilda.
The 2018 Windsor International Film Festival runs October 29-November 4.
photo credit: Windsor International Film Festival
Comments