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Film reels haven’t stopped turning for two decades, and this year, WIFF 2024 promises its biggest celebration yet.
The Windsor International Film Festival unveiled the schedule for its 20th milestone at the Capitol Theatre on Thursday, offering its largest ever lineup of feature films.
“Twenty years of WIFF,” said executive director Vincent Georgie. “It brings gratitude when you think 20 years ago…so many community leaders came together and said ‘What if we did a film festival?’ Then the next year, they said, ‘What if we did it again?’
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“And on and on. I don’t know that any of us ever imagined this.”
The 11-day downtown showcase begins Oct. 24 and will offer 213 feature films and 20 local shorts, including Oscar contenders, stirring documentaries, white-knuckle thrillers, and some audience favourites from the last 20 years.
WIFF audiences will also have the opportunity to catch 112 films before they hit theatres.
“That’s something we really, really value,” said Georgie. “Our audience knows the best films and we want to see them seeing things ahead of time.”
Sophie Deraspe’s Shepherds will open the festival on Oct. 24.
One of the most anticipated screenings on Oct. 26, said Georgie, is The Apprentice, which explores a young Donald Trump’s entry into the 1970s and 1980s real estate business in New York.
The festival will also screen films from 42 countries, including Iran’s Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof on Nov. 2.
“Not only was it banned in Iran,” said Georgie, “this is a film where the filmmaker, Mohammad Rasoulof, had to flee incarceration and escape because he made this film. Him, along with his cast, can never return to Tehran for fear of jailing or more. It’s a courageous film. It’s an extraordinarily good film.”
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New this year, Georgie revealed a multi-year partnership with National Geographic.
Three National Geographic documentaries will screen at WIFF 2024, including Blink by Daniel Roher and Edmund Stenson on Oct. 29, chronicling the parents of three children diagnosed with degenerative eye disease as they embark on an emotional journey around the world before their vision fades.
Another film sure to take audiences on a wild ride on Oct. 25, body horror The Substance, by Coralie Fargeat, starring Demi Moore.
Tourism Windsor-Essex Pelee Island also announced a $200,000 investment for WIFF over the next four years, in partnership with the City of Windsor.
“Festivals such as WIFF help us define our sense of place,” said CEO Gordon Orr of Tourism Windsor-Essex Pelee Island.
With more than 48,000 box office ticket sales last year, Orr said the downtown film festival helps place Windsor in the spotlight as an “Oscar-worthy city.”
A retrospective of festival memorabilia from the past two decades will be displayed at the downtown Windsor Armouries building throughout the festival.
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Every film that has won the LiUNA People’s Choice Award Winners will also make an appearance on the big screen.
Edward Berger’s Conclave will close out the 11-day festival on Nov 3.
Festival Tickets
Tickets and packages are available now at windsorfilmfestival.com.
WIFF by the Numbers
- 213 feature films
- 42 countries represented
- 23 local films
- 58 Francophone feature films
- 46 films selected from TIFF
- 141 films from world-leading film festivals
- 75 feature documentaries
- 261 minutes – length of longest film The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal
- 2 minutes 13 seconds – length of shortest film Anlian
Source: Windsor International Film Festival
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