Huntsville International Film Festival

Plans in works for annual international film festival
Sep 03, 2008

Huntsville enjoys a successful summer arts festival, is home to several vibrant community theatre groups, and now, if one determined lady has her way, the town will also have its own international film festival.

Lucy Molnar Wing, a summer resident in Dwight, has already booked the Algonquin Theatre for six nights in September 2010 for that very purpose.

Wing is currently working toward forming the Huntsville International Film Festival, and has the town’s mayor endorsing her endeavours.

“He’s thrilled with the idea, very supportive, very onside,” said Wing.

With the G8 Summit coming in 2010, the world’s eyes will be focused on Huntsville, so the opportunity is ripe for putting the town on the map in terms of a film festival, said Wing. “We will be showing movies 24/7 for a week.”

The film festival will be a juried event with awards given in a variety of categories. “To begin with it will be an open festival, not themed, in terms of genre,” said Wing, a watercolour artist and photographer.

The film categories will include best emerging Canadian filmmaker, best first feature, and best student film, the latter designed to encourage those trying to break into the film business, said Wing. “They fall into a loophole with large film festivals which stigmatize by not accepting them into their festivals. We need a festival that opens up to the novice.”

Other categories would look for the best in comedy, horror, documentary, short film, feature drama, foreign film and family, which would include animation. “We have a fabulous animation school in Hamilton, where Disney traditionally recruits the whole class each year,” said Wing.

Screenings would run at the Algonquin and the Capitol theatres to accommodate both digital and celluloid submissions, said Wing. “I would also love to have an open-air screening on at least one evening in the (River Mill) park. It would be a great social event and offered for free.”

In the first year, the film festival will not be a huge affair, said Wing. “We will be starting small and keeping it as local and as Canadian as we can, but with our sights set on a larger scale. That’s the vision. The Sundance film festival started very small and look where it is now.”

The Huntsville International Film Festival will be a not-for-profit organization with charitable status and a board of directors. “I’m incorporating ‘international’ into the name, because I’d like to bring an international profile into the community and Canadian filmmakers would get international exposure,” said Wing, adding that a website is currently under construction.

The 2010 film fest will be the first, after which one will be held at the same time each year. “The idea of this is to extend the season for the community,” said Wing.

She continued: “I would do it earlier, but we need to come in on the tail of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which is held on the first 10 days of September. I would’ve preferred right after Labour Day, but this timing allows the people in the industry to come up here.”

If anyone can make the project work, it would seem Wing can. She has a background in political sciences and law, studied art at the Chelsea School of Fine Art in London, England, and at the Ontario College of Art and is currently one credit away from a photography degree at Ryerson University. She has sat on numerous boards, started up businesses and has many connections in the film industry.

“I am constantly networking with the industry. I’m going to a TIFF screening every night. I have an industry pass for TIFF, so I’ll be networking there,” she said.

Wing’s eldest son Cameron is also well connected in the Canadian film industry. “He is a filmmaker. He wrote, produced and directed his first feature-length film titled Deterioration at the cottage in Lake of Bays with Canadian actors and crew,” said Wing.

While she readily admits her knowledge of filmmaking is limited to a video camera, Wing has confidence in her organizational abilities. “I know how to run an exhibit. I know how to make an event happen. I have the experience and the expertise and I can make this happen,” she said.

When the groundwork has been laid, Wing will be looking for sponsorships and, hopefully, government grants to help make her dream a reality. “I’m funding everything myself right now,” she concluded.