International film festival starts in Ottawa
If you missed the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) or the Festival of New Cinema (FNC) in Montreal, the International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO) is your chance to see the best films screened at these festivals.
The festival will take place March 8 to 19 at Ottawa's legendary repertory cinemas — the Mayfair Theatre and ByTowne Cinema — showing Canadian and foreign films that can't be found in regular mainstream cinemas.
Among others, the festival program will feature Natalia Sinelnikova's "We Might As Well Be Dead" (nominated for Best Debut at the Berlin Film Festival), Ashley Mckenzie's "Queens of the Qing Dynasty" and Chandler Levack's "I Like Movies.
The Ottawa International Film Festival is not limited to new auteur films. Each year the festival screens several historically or culturally significant Canadian films. This year, for example, Tales from the Gimli Hospital by Guy Maddin, released in 1988, will be screened.
Most screenings of feature films at the festival are accompanied by a special selection of short films. Meetings with the makers of the films are not uncommon.
Festival events featuring a wide variety of visual and multimedia artists and musicians will also take place at the Ottawa Art Gallery and Arts Court.
