Something WIFF this way comes

By Chris Mailloux

Windsor’s annual film festival is approaching its ninth year and organizers say it is poised to be bigger than ever.

The Windsor International Film Festival announced Oct. 22 that the event has been extended to six days instead of five. There will be a total of 97 screenings during this year’s festival, which will be held at the Capitol Theatre.

Executive director Peter Coady said he’s excited about what the festival has to offer this year.

“I’m excited about the fact that we’re offering so much more this year,” said Coady. “We anticipate a huge increase in ticket sales and we’re very happy and proud of all the films that we are bringing in.”

One of the films, Cinephilia, is a behind-the-scenes documentary about last year’s festival.

“Last year we had a crisis in which we had a 35mm projector break down. We had to have one carted in from Montreal at the last minute,” said Coady. “That’s shown in that little documentary called Cinephilia.”

WIFF’s marketing director Vincent Georgie said he’s excited about the work that they’ve done with the festival.

“We work on it all year long, it’s been crazy. We booked our final film last Friday morning, so we go right to the end trying to find every great film we can,” said Georgie.

The final film that was booked for the festival was The Double starring Jesse Eisenberg and directed by Richard Ayoade.

“It’s kind of creepy, kind of interesting, that film is something we liked very much,” said Georgie. “We held out right to the very end, we got the confirmation Friday morning that we got it.”

This year’s WIFF features four movies and shorts filmed by local directors. The four films are Min Bae’s Cinephilia, Dan Slater’s Found Footage, Daniel Yaworsky’s Sycamore, and Kim Nelson’s This Is What a Feminist Sounds Like.

Yaworsky, is a 22-year-old University of Windsor student and is currently in his fifth year in drama and communication, media and film.

“I directed and wrote Sycamore. I wrote it in class initially in my first year,” said Yaworsky. “The script was gradually written over five years, but it was all shot between February and March of this year.”

WIFF is anticipating 14,000 tickets will be sold this year. The festival will be held at the Capitol Theatre and runs from Nov. 5 – 10.