As the days get cooler and shorter, perhaps you’re looking for a night to settle in, cozy up and take in some quality cinema. The 29th Annual Barrie Film Festival is about to get underway with a total of 17 feature films and 20 short films spanning nine days. Eight of those films are Canadian, which Barrie Film Festival Executive Director Claudine Benoit says it’s something the organization is proud of. “I think what makes Barrie Film Festival special is our focus on Canadian content as well as international films, so it’s really story focused,” Benoit tells CTV News. If you missed the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), many of those movies are set to be screened in Barrie as well. One of those is Fjord, a Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival and already being viewed as an Oscar contender. The film is a legal thriller and family drama about an immigrant Romanian family living in Norway, finding themselves subject to an investigation. The other TIFF films are Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, In Alaska and Run Terry Run. The opening film on Saturday will be a Canadian one, a tradition for the Barrie Film Festival. And the director, Sergio Navarretta, also happens to be local with roots in Innisfil, having been a founding member of the Town of Innisfil’s Arts, Culture and Heritage Council. This year, the festival will be showing What We Have Left with a post-screening question and answer period with Navarretta. “It’s always a lot of energy and opportunity to talk to the film’s creators,” Benoit says. The other Canadian films showing are Akashi, Blue Heron, 111: Echoes from Halifax, In Alaska, Run Terry Run, The Furies and You Had To Be There. Benoit says she and others have a passion for movies and they decide collectively what they’ll bring to the region. “I think I watched close to 30 films in a month,” she says. If you’re wondering why certain films are only screened once, Benoit says some of them are pre-releases and as a part of the licencing conditions, there are restrictions on how many times those films can be screened. The festival kicks off on Saturday and runs until Oct. 25 at the Galaxy Cinemas in Barrie’ south end. To purchase tickets, you can go to the Barrie Film Festival website.
