The 2022 Windsor International Film Festival was a grand 11-day celebration of Canadian film. A plethora of Canadian film. Perhaps as many French Canadian films in a single festival as your humble narrator had seen in the previous 3 years. The wait between festivals was so very long.
We are repeating a split of English, French (and Spanish), and Documentaries. We even thought about having a separate column for the 2022 WIFF Prize in Canadian Film nominees; we will note those that qualified under that banner.
Grouping the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film entries in a 2-day period early in the festival meant a new significance for your humble narrator. I saw 4 Canadian films in a row (one of them not a WIFF prize nominee) to end the first Friday and 5 Canadian films in a row to end the first Saturday. That hasn't happened in the many years of attending the film festival.
There were also stretches without a Canadian film, as will happen over 11 days. As we noted, there were Canadian films in the festival that we had already seen and a few minor ones we were unable to view. We saw 9 of the 10 WIFF Prize in Canadian films entries with To Kill a Tiger drawing the odd straw out. I did see Falcon Lake before the festival (because of 10 films in 8 slots) and including that review.
Riceboy Sleeps wins the 2022 WIFF Prize in Canadian Film
The judges had a difficult decision in determining the 2022 WIFF Prize in Canadian film.
Our sentimental favourites from the list were I Like Movies, North of Normal, and Falcon Lake. When you get asked a lot on the streets of downtown Windsor "what have you liked so far?" — these titles kept coming out of my lips.
Brother, Riceboy Sleeps, and to a lesser extent, Eternal Spring were strong portrayals of difficult stories to tell. Norbourg was very straightforward, The Swearing Jar was a pleasant surprise, and Something You Said Last Night was the only real disappointment. Thoughts on To Kill a Tiger are still to come but since this was the most non-Canadian of the entries, the wait is just a reality.
2022 Windsor International Film Festival preview
The festival includes Canadian films we have already reviewed: The Grey Fox (1982), Indian Horse; and Peace By Chocolate. We did not get to see such titles as Unloved - Huronia's Forgotten Children and a local film, A Year in the Forest. There were Canadian film titles viewed outside of the festival that may receive a future review: Slash/Back definitely will get a review while there is a debate over The Last Tourist and Aline.
2022 TIFF wrapup
2019 WIFF Canadian films in review
CanadianCrossing.com film reviews
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
We saw Women Talking during the festival and will explore that film with the opening of that film in U.S. theatres on Friday. I got to meet Sheila McCarthy at the end of the Q&A for the film. McCarthy was an absolute delight. Truly fun to hear a Canadian film star say there isn't a star system in the Canadian film world. We had a lovely chat about Cardinals, a Canadian film she described (and I concurred) as a film that didn't take off.
I jumped into a conversation of several people, including Maxime Giroux, who I met when he was promoting Felix et Meira. I told him I still wanted to see his previous film to Norbourg — La grande noirceur | The Great Darkened Days. Giroux told me that film is on Apple TV (in Canada).
One cool advantage to the WIFF Prize in Canadian film is that the directors want to come to Windsor to talk about their films.
We should note that the 2022 festival pass itself was comped for the first time in a very long time. We don't feel like that changed our interest in writing and tweeting about the Windsor International Film Festival. Disclosure is paramount.
photos credit: me
Overview English French Documentaries
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