The 13th annual Trade Forum at the Vancouver International Film Festival is being touted as the most diverse program of its kind ever delivered in Western Canada, a reflection of growing indigenous production and industry demand.

‘Thanks to the service industry we have top-rate technicians, which is a great source of pride, but now the number of writers, directors and producers is growing steadily and we are growing to meet their needs,’ says Trade Forum producer Melanie Friesen. ‘Films like Kitchen Party and Kissed and Double Happiness have come out of b.c. and shown around the world. It is a real morale booster for the filmmakers here.’

Confirmed guests include King of the Hill supervising producer Glen Berger, Brent Boates, storyboard artist on Men in Black, Fox Fire Films producer Ann Frank, When We Were Kings director Leon Gast, l.a. gap financier Lewis Horwitz, entertainment lawyer Jon Sloss, and former 20th Century Fox story editor Susan Merzbach.

Roger Frappier (Jesus of Montreal) and Nik Powell (The Crying Game) are among the guests offering advice on structuring deals, shopping projects and picking up foreign sales. Also on the panel lineup are Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne, cinematographer Conrad Hall and director Paul Schrader.

A special workshop has been designed to take producers through the ins and outs of the new b.c. tax credit and its federal counterparts, while another panel will look at trends in gap financing and distribution and marketing.

Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo), Don McKellar (Last Night) and Tom Burstyn (City of Industry) are featured on a panel assembled for the New Filmmakers’ Day, where they will discuss the director’s relationship with the producer, cinematographer, production designer and editor.

The legal and ethical issues of turning news stories into drama will be debated by Laszlo Barna, the producer behind mows At The End of the Day: The Sue Rodriguez Story and Hard Time: The David Milgaard Story, and John Morayniss, senior vp, business and legal affairs at Alliance Television group.

On the craft side, production designer Jan Roelfs, who has worked on Orlando and The Cook, The Thief & Her Lover, will share some tricks on making a low-budget film look like high art.

Also scheduled are workshops on cinematography, auditioning, pitching, animated storytelling, story editing and biographies.