The Vancouver International Film Festival opened Thursday night with the screening of Volver, Pedro Almodovar’s female-centred drama starring Penelope Cruz.
Volver has just been named as Spain’s entry for the Academy Awards in the foreign film category and has been a hit at film festivals around the world.
The movie won best screenplay and a best actress award for the ensemble cast, including Cruz and Carmen Maura, at Cannes.
It was also on the program at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, where Cruz revealed she wore a fake bottom to play the role of a working mother tormented by a teenage daughter, a layabout husband and an interfering ghost.
The festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary in its new home at the Vancouver International Film Centre.
It’s a “watershed year” for the festival, which will show 350 films and attract an estimated 150,000 filmgoers, festival director Alan Franey told CBC Radio.
“I didn’t think ever that we would become the second-largest film festival on the continent [after TIFF] in terms of number of films shown and size of audience,” he said.
The festival’s new headquarters at VanCity Theatre gives organizers a chance to create programming year-round, he said.
Young filmmakers and a look forward
But the festival, which features a mix of Canadian and international films, has maintained a focus on young filmmakers, with many first- and second-time directors, he said.
“We have emphasized young cinema partly because a festival is about a place of discovery. It’s bringing the filmmaker to the festival to meet the audience,” he said.
The 25th anniversary is also a chance to look toward the future, he said.
“A lot of [the films] this year reflect the future and express concern about where the world is going, but a lot of them are inspirational about what is happening to us.”
On Friday night the Canadian Images program opens with Everything’s Gone Green, the first feature film written by Vancouver novelist Douglas Coupland.
Everything’s Gone Green, directed by Paul Fox, includes prominent, undisguised shots of well-known Vancouver features, including English Bay, the Lions Gate Bridge and False Creek.
Coupland his created a character who works in the movie business and specializes in disguising Vancouver to make it look like a U.S. city.
Franey reflected on the new trend in Canadian movies to have Canadian cities be themselves, calling it a sign of the industry’s “maturity.”
The program also features a rich choice of international fare, with films like Ten Canoes, an Australian work that Franey centred out as one of his favourites.
“It deals with aboriginal culture on its own terms and has its own look that takes you to another place,” he said.
The Vancouver International Film Festival continues until Oct. 13.
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