Stratford Winter Film Festival Organizers thrilled with third annual event

The opening night reception of the Stratford Winter Film Festival set the stage for the weekend which proved to entertain with films curated in the theme of “Friends, Foes, and Strangers.”

The third annual Stratford Winter Film Festival (SWFF) has come to a successful conclusion from their weeklong run at the Stratford City Hall auditorium. The weekend of the main event began with a packed reception serving cocktails and nibbles catered by Mercer Hall in advance of the opening night screening of the film Blue Moon.

“We’re very happy with the atmosphere that day. Our reception went absolutely as well as we could have hoped. We had marvelous attendance, everyone was in very good spirits and it was professionally catered by Mercer. Then we proceeded through extremely frigid temperatures to (the) city hall auditorium where we had our inaugural screening at 8 (p.m.) of Blue Moon,” said Craig Sangster, SWFF co-director with Bruce McInnis and Leslie Marsh.

The choice of this film delighted the audience with many taking the time to write the trio upon returning home saying how much they enjoyed Blue Moon, with one saying it was the best movie they had seen in years. This successfully set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

This year there were nine films showcased over three days in one venue. Lessons learned from past events have led the trio to streamline their selections curated and simplify the agenda with additional leisure time built in so that attendees could take a break between films and seek out neighbouring businesses.

“Certainly there’s a possibility of film fatigue if you go past nine, which we’ve seen in the past. We saw in some of the feedback that at the price point (for a pass) that we offered people were able to feel they didn’t have to go to all the movies. I think at the price we were offering it, seeing six movies is absolutely a great weekend,” said Bruce McInnis.

With built in time to wind down between films, festival goers were able to connect with each other and go for a meal or beverage while sharing their reactions.

“That’s always been one of our key motivations behind all of this, to get people out and moving about town. We’ve consolidated down to a single venue which is so central and it allows for that. You can get to most restaurants in town within five minutes on foot so I think that’s real key to what we are trying to do here,” said McInnis.

The new sound system was a step up and made it clear with full control of levels so that the sound could be balanced and they found no deficiencies. They are grateful that the city has seen the importance of improving the auditorium experience with a permanent quality system.

Fan favourites are yet to be determined by a survey, but if founders were to go by conversations held and overheard, Checkpoint Zoo was an important and profound film that affected the audience. The comedy Wicked Little Letters was also very well received.

“Some things are not always easy to take in from an entertainment perspective but they’re important. Checkpoint Zoo was like that. I suspect that once we do our email survey, we’ll find that someone will have found each movie, you know, it’ll have been their favourite and that’s the fun part,” said McInnis.

This was also a year of growth for SWFF, with the addition of the Canadian Independent Film Day held Jan. 29. “This was an experiment for us that went well, certainly well enough that we’d like to add on to it,” McInnis said.

“Having or lead sponsor (TD Bank) step up for a second year in a row is a huge deal for SWFF. This was a better year for us than in pervious years so we’re encouraged by the trajectory. We’re deeming it a success not only from feedback from patrons but also from the viability of the project. We’ve refined our model and found some efficiencies by going to one location and I think that serves us well,” said Sangster.

The future for SWFF is bright indeed. They have even bought the domain name, StratfordSummerFilmFestival. Let that be an Easter egg for what is to come from the trio of founders.

“The communal support has been incredibly warm and even the run up to the event, people we went to last year and the year before with posters were very receptive and even said they were expecting us. So that was nice and we came across a few other new friends in town – so the community aspect of it was very encouraging,” said Marsh.

The team at SWFF, the founders and volunteers that have returned each year, can call it a wrap on the third annual Winter Film Festival looking forward to a positive feasibility study for year four. Keep an eye out for news from SWFF by visiting www.stratfordwinterfilmfestival.ca.