WIFF ends with record attendance and plans to extend its reach to 10 days in 2019

With the "exciting" 2018 Windsor International Film Festival, beating attendance records by about 10%, organizers plan to spend seven to ten days on the festival's fifteenth anniversary in 2019.

"We are delighted," said Vincent Georgie, executive producer and chief programmer, as the last day of Sunday came to an end. Ticket sales are expected to total approximately 24,000, up from the record high of 22,000 in the previous year. These film buffs created a daily bustle in the downtown core, where 143 films from 21 countries were shown at the Capitol Theater, the Chrysler Theater and the new School of Creative Arts at the University of Windsor. Georgie remarked that there was a "tremendous increase" in the daytime audience, as people took their vacations and reorganized their schedules to attend several movies.

A man had just told Georgie that he had seen 46 films.

"This is an exciting, fun festival, it reminds us a lot of how it builds the community," said Georgie, amazed by the social character of the festival. "People talk to each other, people come to the festival alone, make friends and catch up with neighbors in the hallway, even if there are only 45 seconds left. The atmosphere was great. "

When the festival started in 2005, the number of spectators was less than 1,000. In 2008, when Georgie arrived, there were 2,500, so the number of spectators almost tripled in 10 years.

Earlier this year, the WIFF received a major financial boost when the city council approved $ 250,000 for capital improvements: purchase of equipment such as projectors and sound systems instead. as the rental, and upgrading of a technology such as the ticket sales system. At the time, Mayor Drew Dilkens said he hoped the money would allow the festival to move up a gear. Georgie said that it was mission accomplished.

"It was felt immediately," said Georgie about the board's investment, saying it helped boost attendance and quality – better projectors and better sound. "There is no doubt that whoever is at the origin of the biggest variable to revive the festival, there is no question."

He added that in addition to the purchase of new equipment, new sponsors joined us and that there was a general feeling in the community that the WIFF was "an event not to be missed". not to be missed, that it is a jewel of the Windsor crown ". And because the money was paid out early in the year, the organizers had plenty of time to plan improvements.

WIFF is the second largest volunteer film festival in the country behind Collingwood. Georgie said that when publishing the official rankings for 2018 this summer, "we are very confident that we will be in a good position" to be # 1.

Among the most popular films are The Russian Five (chronicling the five Russian stars who left the United States to play the Detroit Red Wings in the 1980s), The Wife (whose star, Glenn Close, receives Oscar-winning successes), The Children Act featuring Emma Thompson and Free Solo, a documentary detailing Alex Honnold's unsecured lonely climb on a 3000-foot vertical rock wall at Yosemite National Park.

The People's Choice Award for the participants' favorite film was due around midnight.

Georgie said that what makes WIFF such a special event is the many people taking risks at the movies.

"A festival should be like a buffet," he said. "If you order a main dish, you will only order what you like. But a buffet, you tend to try things. "

People are coming out of their comfort zone and watching movies from different countries and genres.

"And often, they come out and say," I loved it, it surprised me, "he said.

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He said that after Sunday, the volunteers would rest and start planning for 2019. Their next meeting of the board of directors will be held on November 14th.

"You talk about the support of the city that brings us to another level, we are now going to a 10-day festival," he said from November 1 to 10, noting that volunteers and the public were "ready to continue "after the last day of the festival on Sunday.

"It's a good atmosphere," he said, pointing out that people were talking to strangers about what they liked and did not like. "That's what you can not reproduce in an ordinary theater, that's what you can not reproduce at home," he said. "We are very proud of it."

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