Film North – Huntsville International Film Festival

The Film North – Huntsville International Film Festival (HIFF) is a Film Festival that takes place annually in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. Held in September, the festival's mandate is to create a user-friendly environment for emerging Canadian and International Filmmakers. Film North 2014 will take place at the Algonquin Theatre, Huntsville, Ontario from September 18 to 20. The program will be announced in August. Film North is a charitable organization.

History

The Film North, Huntsville International Film Festival was founded by Lucy Molnar-Wing in 2009, and held in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada.

Film North presents a Retrospective Program each year as part of their film studies focus. Film North takes place at the Algonquin Theatre, Huntsville,Ontario, Canada.

The festival's inaugural dates were Thursday, September 23 to Saturday, September 25, 2010. Film North presented 39 short and feature films from around the world, including Canada, the United States, Peru and Belgium.^[1] Notably, the film In the Wake of the Flood, Ron Mann's documentary on Margaret Atwood's interactive book tour for her novel The Year of the Flood. was screened at the 2010 Festival event.^[2]

West Wind: A Vision of Tom Thomson opened^[3] the 2011 Film North 2 festival on September 22, 2011 - a documentary exploring Tom Thomson's extraordinary contribution to Canada's artistic development directed by Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont. The Lifetime Achievement Bull’s Eye Award 2011 recipient, Michael Snow requested screening his film Wavelength (1967 film) in its original format.^[4] Film North found 1600 feet of original film and projector and drove it up to Huntsville to screen Wavelength.

2012, the third season of Film North programmed 43 films,^[5] of which 31 were Canadian and 15 were world premiers: Dolime Dilemma: Water Proof, Morning Zombies, Sisters In Arms, I Was a Boy, 2 Knocks, One Night Stand, The Ballerina and the Rocking Horse, Angelfish, The Etiquette of Sexting, From Nomad to Nobody, Waiting For Summer,^[6] Ostichcized, Zen and the Arts of Distraction, 'Missing' Artist:Unknown, and 6 Canadian Premiers: Fish, Powerful:Energy for Everyone, Duck, Spaghetti fur Zwei, La Cosa in Cima Alle Scale, Algonquin.

Butter, directed by Jim Field Smith, starring Jennifer Garner, had its Ontario Premier screening, and Antiviral had its first screening since winning the 2012, Toronto International Film Festival's Skyy Vodka Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film.

Artist: Unknown, directed by Craig Goodwill, is the unfolding of a wake for Tom Thomson and was part of the Closing Night program, which culminated with the Ontario Premier screening of Two Jacks, directed by Bernard Rose, starring Jack Huston, Sienna Miller, Danny Huston and Jacqueline Bisset.^[7]

The short film, Algonquin, had its Canadian premiere at the festival in 2012. The film brought audiences into the heart of Canada's iconic wilderness, Algonquin Park, by following the headwaters that originate and flow out of its highlands. Algonquin was directed by Jeremy Munce and produced by Joel Irwin. Andrew Sheppard and Hugo Kitching were the film's cinematographers.^[8]

The 2012 Director's Retrospective selection was Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 1971, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, about the frontier myth of the west.

In 2013, Film North screened 35 films. Awards were presented for Best Short Film, "S is For Bird", directed by Matt Sadowski, Best Canadian Emerging Filmmaker, "Pretty Thing", directed by E.Mirabelli & M.DeFilippis, Best Documentary, "The Captain's Log", directed by J.Haenel & B.Pfister, Best Canadian Feature Length Film, "Sex After Kids", directed by Jeremy Lalonde, Best Animated Film, "The Snow Spirit", directed by L.Salas Rejes. The Retrospective Series theme was Representations Of Stand Up Comedy Comedy In Feature Film, and the films "The King Of Comedy", directed by Martin Scorcese, and 'Louis CK:Hilarious", Directed by Louis CK were screened. The Opening night feature was "Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children", directed by Patrick Reed, produced by Peter Raymont. This film won the Golden Antler Viewer's Choice Award. The Friday shorts program screened 20 films and the night's feature was the Canadian Premier of "All Is Lost", directed by J.C.Chandor and starring Robert Redford. The Closing Night feature was "Who The F--k Is Arthur Fogel", directed by Ron Chapman, which was preceded by the 1965 short film "Genevieve" starring Geneviève Bujold, directed by Michel Brault. On September 21, 2013, director Michel Brault died of a heart attack while travelling to the festival to receive its Bull's Eye Lifetime Achievement Award. Festival founder Lucy Wing praised Brault as “a champion of Canadian cinema and among Canada’s short list of trailblazing filmmakers of the 20th century.”^[9][10]

Film Submission Criteria

Each year the Film North Festival will select a number of Feature Films and Short Films. Films that are selected to be in one of five competition programs are eligible for Jury Prizes in their respective categories.

Best Animated Film
Any feature or short length film incorporating animation.

Film North Best Documentary Film
Any documentary work with a running time of at least 70 minutes.

Film North Feature Length Film
Any narrative work of fiction or non fiction with a running time of at least 70 minutes.

Film North Short Length Film
Any narrative film with a running time of 70 minutes or less, or, any documentary film with a running time of 50 minutes or less.

Film North Viewer's Choice Film
Any short or feature length film.

2010 Winners^[11][12]

Trading Bay Grouse and Trout Club Bull’s Eye Award for Lifetime Achievement
Graeme Ferguson^[13]

2011 Winners

Trading Bay Grouse and Trout Club Bull’s Eye Award for Lifetime Achievement
Michael Snow presented by Graeme Ferguson

2012 Winners ^[14]

Riaz Tyab Bull's Eye Lifetime Achievement Award
Sheila McCarthy

2013 Winners ^[15]

Bull's Eye Lifetime Achievement Award
Michel Brault

Recognition

• Film North branding by concrete.ca part of the 2010 exhibition at the AIGA National Design Center.^[16][17]

See also

• Film festivals in North and Central America
• Toronto International Film Festival

References

External links

• filmnorth.net - Official Film North Webpage
• concrete.ca - Branding by Concrete Design Communications