Location | London, Ontario, Canada |
---|---|
Founded | 2016 |
Most recent | 2022 Forest City Film Festival |
Website | https://fcff.ca/ |
The Forest City Film Festival (often abbreviated as FCFF) is a film festival located in London, Ontario, Canada. [1] Founded in 2016, the Forest City Film Festival centres on exhibiting the work of filmmakers from Southwestern Ontario in juried competition for features, shorts, documentaries, short animations and other categories, [2] although it also screens a selection of other Canadian and International films out of competition.
The event is typically held in October each year, principally at the London Public Library's Wolf Performance Hall. [3]
The Forest City Film Festival was founded in 2016 by Dorothy Downs. The first festival was a collection of twenty-five films, screened over three days in November to an audience of 1200. [4]
In 2017, the festival added an animation category and an out-of-competition International Screening, totaling 48 films. The festival’s duration was expanded from three days to five in October, with 1800 audience members in attendance.
In 2018, FCFF added a special Flashback Friday screening, a celebration of older films with a connection to the region. The Breakfast Club was screened, followed by a Q&A with special guest and London-native John Kapelos, who played Carl, the janitor in the film. The festival also held their first pitch competition for short films. FCFF 2018 offered 48 films once again, met by a 33% increase in attendees, totaling 2400 audience members in attendance that year.
In 2019, the Forest City Youth Film Festival was introduced, offering a separate competition for high school student filmmakers in Southwestern Ontario. This year, the number of films increased to 64 films which were screened over a five day period. Attendance increased from 2400 to 3200.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Forest City Film Festival to offer their festival digitally. [5] For an eight day period, 75 films were available for online on-demand viewing from anywhere in Canada, resulting in 4000 audience members in attendance. Additionally, a new Music Video category was added to the competition.
In 2021, the film festival took on a hybrid model, returning to in-person screenings in downtown London while also continuing to offer nationwide online viewing. FCFF 2021 offered 92 films, viewed by 6100 in-person attendees and 4500 virtual views. 2021 also saw the festival’s Industry Sessions take on the name Ontario Screen Creators Conference, alongside expanding their offerings to a full weekend of events dedicated to education and networking for film industry professionals. Additionally, the pitch competition was rebranded to Project Pitch, a national competition to pitch a feature film for the opportunity to win a prize package with a value $60,000 in products, services, and cash grants. The Forest City Youth Film Festival also grew dramatically, screening 29 short films across seven categories.
The 2022 edition ran from October 15 to 23, screening 70 films in competition. The festival included Indigenous films in two programs, as well as a new category, Best of the World Fests showcasing 14 films from around the world that had premiered and won awards at international festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Berlinale, and TIFF.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2024) |
The 2023 edition ran from October 14 to 22. The films that this edition screened is currently unknown.
The Forest City Film Festival offers the following categories of competition for submitted films:
In 2021, an Experimental category was also available.
In order to be eligible for the Forest City Film Festival competition, there must be a substantial connection to Southwestern Ontario. This connection may be:
The Forest City Film Festival designates one film from each competition category as the best of the year. The film is selected by a viewing committee made up of filmmakers and community members. Each award winner receives a trophy and a cash prize. The exception to this is the Old Oak Audience Choice Award. This award is not selected by a committee, instead selected by audience rankings.
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | Liminality | Darryl Callcott | [7] |
Best Short Narrative | My Brother Charlie | Evan Hamza | |
Best Feature Documentary | Missing Mom | Robert McCallum, Jordan Christopher Morris | |
Best Short Documentary | Revealing Marie Saint Pierre | Janice Zolf | |
Old Oak Audience Choice Award | Revealing Marie Saint Pierre | Janice Zolf |
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | Go Fish | Brett Heard, Kate Drummond | [8] |
Best Short Narrative | Martin's Hagge | Penny Eizenga | |
Best Feature Documentary | Sea of Life | Julia Barnes | |
Best Short Documentary | Babe, I Hate to Go | Andrew Moir | |
Best Animation | It Happened During Recess | Cherry Zong, Jani Balakumar, Devin Emery, Olivia Zhao, Patt Jewanarom, Jade Armstrong, Michelle Oh, Yi Peng, Yiwei Zhou, Cong Nie, Andy Zhou, Angela Liao | |
Best Screenplay | Lost Slaves of Sand Island | Lisa Hagan | |
Old Oak Audience Choice Award | Clearing the Way | Paul Culliton |
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | Firecrackers | Jasmin Mozaffari | [9] |
Best Short Narrative | Little Black Dress | Mackenzie Donaldson | |
Best Feature Documentary | What Walaa Wants | Christy Garland | |
Best Short Documentary | Nests of Gold | Alan Poon | |
Best Animation | Gamble | Chayadol Lomtong | |
Best Screenplay | The Infected | ||
Old Oak Audience Choice Award | The Drawer Boy | Arturo Pérez Torres, Aviva Armour-Ostroff |
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | Open for Submissions | Bryan Skinner, Ana de Lara | [10] |
Best Short Narrative | Christmas Green | Allan Magee, Melanie McCaig, Ali Mashayekhi, Neil Huber, Clara Altimas | |
Best Feature Documentary | Prey | Matt Gallagher | |
Best Short Documentary | Take Me to Prom | Andrew Moir | |
Best Animation | "Little Star" | iskwē | |
Best Screenplay | My Canadian Son | Theodore Bezair | |
Old Oak Audience Choice Award | Prey | Matt Gallagher |
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | The Cuban | Sergio Navarretta | [11] |
Best Short Narrative | Break Up for the Modern Girl | Sydney Herauf | |
Best Feature Documentary | The Walrus and the Whistleblower | Nathalie Bibeau | |
Best Short Documentary | Hollie's Dress | Annie Sakkab | |
Best Animation | Scribblings | Tori Richards | |
Best Screenplay | Sluts | Mary Cross | |
Best Music Video | "Gerry" — WHOOP-Szo | Travis Welowsky | |
Old Oak Audience Choice Award | Into the Light | Janice Zolf | |
Pitch Competition | My Regularly Scheduled Chemo Appointment | Tyson Breuer |
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | Marlene | Wendy Hill-Tout | [12] |
Best Short Narrative | Paris, Ontario | Arnaud Weissenburger | |
Best Feature Documentary | Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery | Sheona McDonald | |
Best Short Documentary | Stitched Glass | Ian Daffern, Omar Majeed | |
Best Animation | The Lost Seahorse | Benjamin Fieschi-Rose | |
Best Screenplay | Both Sides Now | Tyler Dowey | |
Best Music Video | "Eso Que Tu Haces" — Lido Pimienta | Lido Pimienta | |
Old Oak Audience Choice Award | The Gig Is Up | Shannon Walsh | |
Project Pitch | Audit | Geordie Sabbagh |
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | Ashgrove | Jeremy LaLonde | [13] |
Best Short Narrative | Tenth Generation | Matthew Downs | |
Best Feature Documentary | The Long Rider | Sean Cisterna | |
Best Short Documentary | Cod Story | Noa Roginski | |
Best Animation | The Star Mill | Daniel Blake | |
Best Screenplay | Chameleon | Pat Brown | |
Best Music Video | "Hurt So Bad" — Bella Rosa | Paula Vergara | |
Old Oak Audience Choice Award | Burden | Ethan Hickey | |
Pitch Competition | Cry Wolf | Faran Moradi |
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | The Boy in the Woods | Rebecca Snow | [14] |
Best Short Narrative | Adore | Beth Warrian | |
Best Feature Documentary | July Talk: Love Lives Here | Brittany Farhat | |
Best Short Documentary | Uproot | Queena Liu | |
Best Animation | Afterimage | All Ears Productions | |
Best Screenplay | Legs | Jen Romnes | |
Audience Choice Award, Narrative | The Boy in the Woods | Rebecca Snow | |
Old Oak Audience Choice Award, Documentary | Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe | Robert McCallum | |
Old Oak Audience Choice Award, Experimental | Zoon-Manitou | Trevor Blumas | |
Pitch Competition, Narrative | Turn It Up | Jesse Thomas Cook | |
Pitch Competition, Short | Lake’niha’ (My Father) | Judith Schuyler | |
Pitch Competition, Web Series | 18 to 35 | Rahul Chaturvedi |
Award | Title | Director | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
Best Narrative Feature | All the Lost Ones | Mackenzie Donaldson | |
Best Short Narrative | Desync | Minerva Marie Navasca | |
Best Feature Documentary | Curl Power | Josephine Anderson | |
Best Short Documentary | Bad at This | Jessie Posthumus | |
Best Animation | Detours Ahead | Esther Cheung | |
Best Performance | Matt and Mara | Deragh Campbell | |
Best Music Video | OMBIIGIZI, "Connecting" | OMBIIGIZI | |
Music Video Technical Merit | Donovan Woods, "How Good" | Brittany Farhat | |
Best Technical Narrative Feature | A Thousand Cuts | Jake Horowitz | |
Best Technical Documentary Feature | 999: The Forgotten Girls | Heather Dune Macadam, Beatriz Calleja | |
Impact Award | Atrocity | Nigel Stuckey | |
Old Oak Fan Favourite Award | The Count of Monte Cristo | Matthieu Delaporte, Alexandre de La Patellière | |
Screenwriting Competition | Slowly Fleeting | Darryl Callcott | |
Pitch Competition, Feature Film | Broken Bones | Rebecca Herron | |
Pitch Competition, Short Film | Writ Or | Natalie Davey, Rebecca Davey |
Each year since 2017, the Forest City Film Festival has offered special screenings and events within the duration of the festival.
Lerners Opening Night is the official launch of the festival, though it is not always the first day of screenings. The film is typically out of competition. Traditionally, the screening is preceded by a gala event at a local restaurant.
Previous Lerners Opening Night films include:
Flashback Friday, traditionally held on a Friday evening during the festival, presents a screening of an older film with a connection to the region of Southwestern Ontario. A member of the cast or crew typically attends for a post-screen question and answer session.
Previous Flashback Friday films include:
Music Video Night is an event screening all of the selected films in the Music Video category. Additional to the screening, there are live performances by featured musical artists.
The Forest City Film Festival works with Indigenous filmmakers within the region to curate programs of Indigenous films. [15]
Previous Indigenous films screened include:
These curated films are not a part of the film festival competition, though films by Indigenous filmmakers that are submitted and selected are in contention.
Each year, the Forest City Film Festival invites classes from across Southwestern Ontario to attend weekday matinee screenings. A Teacher's Guide is developed and distributed to ensure the screened films are age-appropriate.
The Forest City Youth Film Festival (often abbreviated as FCYFF) is a separate filmmaking competition under the umbrella of the Forest City Film Festival. Entrants to the FCYFF must be high school students in Southwestern Ontario. The competition is judged by a jury of industry professionals. Selected films are screened at a special event during the Forest City Film Festival.
Historically, the categories of competition are:
Live online seminars are offered year-round to member school boards. These seminars give high schoolers and aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to learn more about the various aspects of filmmaking from industry experts, student filmmakers, and post-secondary educators, with an additional focus on career opportunities.
Previously known as FCFF Industry Sessions, the Ontario Screen Creators Conference (often abbreviated as OSCC) is a three-day conference that takes place on one weekend of the Forest City Film Festival. The conference invites filmmakers and industry professionals of all experience levels to learn and connect at seminars, panels, networking parties, and other events held both in London, Ontario and online. Previous sessions have included:
Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, also known as Cinéfest and Cinéfest Sudbury is an annual film festival in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, held over nine days each September. It is one of the largest film festivals in Canada.
The Adelaide Film Festival is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented biennially in March from 2003, since 2013 AFF has been held in October. Subject to funding, the festival has staged full or briefer events in alternating years; some form of event has taken place every year since 2015. From 2022 it takes place annually. It has a strong focus on local South Australian and Australian produced content, with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) established to fund investment in Australian films.
Sheffield DocFest is an international documentary festival and industry marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.
The Cairo International Film Festival is an annual internationally accredited film festival held in Cairo Opera House. It was established in 1976 and has taken place every year since its inception, except for 2011 and 2013, when it was cancelled due to budget limitations and political instability. It is the only international competitive feature film festival recognized by the FIAPF in the Arab world and Africa, as well as the oldest in this category.
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. The festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 feature films and 150 short films from more than 70 countries are screened at the festival each year.
Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers' creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the careers of screenwriters, who historically have been underrepresented within the film industry.
The Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) is an annual film festival hosted in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest film festival in England outside of London. Founded in 1987, it is held in November in various venues throughout Leeds, including Hyde Park Picture House and Cottage Road Cinema. In 2022, the festival showed 140 films from 78 countries, shorts and features, both commercial and independent.
The British Urban Film Festival (BUFF) was formed in July 2005 to showcase urban independent cinema in the absence of any such state-sponsored activity in the UK.
The Kingston Canadian Film Festival is an all-Canadian film festival held in Kingston, Ontario. Since 2001, a week-long festival has been held annually early winter, with the 2025 festival taking place from February 26th to March 2nd, 2025.
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. Many films premiering at Sundance have gone on to be nominated and win Oscars such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.
The Odesa International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in the middle of July in Odesa.
The Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) is a cultural, charitable organization whose mission is to recognize and celebrate the art of cinema by showcasing Canadian and International films and filmmakers. When the festival first took place, it had 1,000 people in attendance and screened 20 films over the course of 2 days.
The Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) is an international film festival which takes place annually in York, England, at the beginning of November. Founded in 2011, it is a celebration of independent film from around the world, and an outlet for supporting and championing filmmaking.
Quebec City Film Festival is a film festival held annually in September in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It screens short and feature films and premieres movies from all over the world.
The QCinema International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Quezon City, Philippines. The festival showcases local and international films, documentaries, and short films, and gives grants to their creators. As of 2017, the venues for the festival are Trinoma, Gateway Mall, Robinsons Galleria, and U.P. Town Center.
There Are No Fakes is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jamie Kastner and released in 2019. Starting with musician Kevin Hearn's lawsuit against the Maslak McLeod Gallery after being informed that a Norval Morrisseau painting he had purchased appeared to be a forgery, the film expands into an exposé of a significant art fraud ring that has produced many fake Morrisseau paintings through the use of forced child labour in sweatshops, in which some of Morrisseau's own surviving family members are complicit; by some estimates, there may be up to 10 times as much fake Morrisseau art on the market as real work.
The Oakville Festivals of Film and Art is a not-for-profit organization that runs the Oakville Film Festival, as well as special screening and Arts events such as the Sheridan/OFFA Annual Screening series. The festival celebrated its 10th year in 2023, and has been held the third week of June every year for over 10 years. The festival includes a juried award competition with senior members of the Canadian film and production communities, and Audience Choice Awards for the best feature and best short film. The festival uses Film Freeway for its submissions, which are open 1st November every year, and has a track record of programming over 70% of its programming from the platform. The festival screens its films at three primary venues in Oakville: Film.ca Cinemas, The Five Drive In, and the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts.
Faran Moradi is an Iranian-Canadian film and television writer and director from London, Ontario. He is most noted for his debut feature film Tehranto, for which he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Editing at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.