Calgary's Best Film Industry Events & Venues
Movie & TV Festivals, Cinemas, Commissions, and Film Societies
Mar 18, 2009
If you want to make movies or television shows in this city, the Calgary Economic Development Board is the place to start. This is the city's liaison to promote the industry, not only outlining the guidelines, fees, and legal requirements, but providing links to resources.
Repertory and Independent Cinemas
For visitors who enjoy watching, as opposed to making, independent, avant-garde and foreign films, documentaries and/or animation are regularly screened at the following three independent movie theatres.
The Plaza in Kensington, which has screen in Calgary, is situated in the Hillhurst-Kensington boutique district, about a 3-block walk south of the Hillhurst C-train station. They also offer delicious coffee and sell fresh popcorn with real butter in honest-to-god buckets.
The Uptown has two theatres, and a very grand lobby where movie-lovers can usually find all kinds of information about what's happening with movies in Calgary. It's on 9th Avenue downtown, a short walk away from the 12th-Street C-Train station.
The Globe is a large, very comfortable cinema almost directly across the street from the Uptown. It is actually operated by the Landmark Cinema company, but because of its location often serves as a venue for special screenings and events.
Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers
CSIF has actively supported independent filmmakers in Calgary for 30 years. They provide edit suites and cinemas for screenings, special membership price reductions on stock and film. They offer workshops on every aspect of filmmaking, and a few funky ones like working with Super-8. They also hold highly enjoyable and occasionally raucous events like the annual CSIF $100 Film Festival which features films that have been made for $100 or, if it's even possible, less; the Sofa Cinema Classic Film Nights, a free classic film screening from their extensive library 7 pm, second Tuesday of every month at the Currie Barracks (see their website for the address); and the Fairy Tales Film Festival, films made by and directed to the GLTB community.
Calgary International Film Festival
Every year in September, the Calgary International Film Festival provides a week-long celebration of movies. Their Movie Mavericks Competition provides a juried $25,000 award to a winning filmmaker whose entry best "forges new cinematic ground and breaks traditional models for success." The movie programme is released and sold in the week prior to the festival, and is the only definitive guide. Events are hosted at fairly central locations throughout Calgary, most of which can be reached by C-Train.
Aside from this large-scale annual event, CIFF has also joined together with the Toronto Company Hot Docs to host a monthly documentary film festival called Doc Soup, for those who enjoy creative nonfiction with their popcorn.
Calgary Underground Film Festival
The Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) has a large mandate, specifically to offer Calgarians a unique features, shorts, docs and animation of an unconventional nature "rarely seen in North American theatres." Some are made in the city. Others are brought in from all over the world. The festival is open to all genres, and will run from April 14 - 19, 2009, at the Plaza Theatre.
Both the Calgary International Film Festival and the Calgary Underground Film Festival strive to provide alternative movie-going experiences, but CUFF is the less populist of the two.
Banff World Television Festival
The Banff World Television Festival is the biggest, most populist annual industry trade show in Canada. Strictly speaking, it is not a "Calgary-based" festival, but its proximity to the city and the international airport, links them together.
It offers workshops, speakers, panel discussions, master classes, meet-&-mingle events like the famous BBQ, and a market-place for producers, distributors, networks, cable companies, agents and writers. For awhile, the event developed the reputation as almost a closed shop with actual decision-makers so fully booked, so many months ahead, that younger, more independent talent couldn't even get their proverbial foot in the door. Organizers have opened it back up somwhat with new marketing techniques like the "speed-date" pitch style, which is actually very efficient and practical. The festival is still an expensive and risky proposition for newcomers, but those who do their homework, book appointments ahead, and build on a solid foundation of achievements, will likely succeed.
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