The 14th annual St. John’s International Women’s Film and Video Festival unspools Oct. 15-19 in St. John’s, NF. The popular fest, which traditionally has had a sizeable Newfoundland & Labrador film presence, is designed to extol the contributions of women in the film and video industry.

New York director Gayle Kirschenbaum’s A Dog’s Life: A Dogamentary will have its world premiere at the festival. Kirschenbaum’s shih tzu Chelsea, the subject of much of the film, will be in attendance as well.

Doing the Canadian festival rounds, The Bread Maker by St. John’s director Anita McGee will make its Newfoundland premiere. The film stars its writer Sherry White and Jonathan Torrens (Trailer Park Boys). Also confirmed is The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, a doc written, produced and directed by Vancouver’s Ann Marie Fleming, who led the documentary master class at this year’s Atlantic Film Festival.

-www.womensfilmfestival.com

Animation workshop at OIAF

The Ontario Media Development Corporation will present a three-part animation production workshop at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (Oct. 16-19).

The one-day workshop, Oct. 18, opens with an introduction to producing for animation, featuring Sue Riedl, author of Career Diary of an Animation Producer.

Board not Bored: Ways Cuppa Coffee Drives Unique Creative explores the process at Toronto’s Cuppa Coffee Animation, a shop known for its diverse animation styles and creativity.

The workshop will wrap with The Legalities of Producing Animation, a discussion panel with entertainment lawyer Bob Tarantino and Mark Edwards, Amberwood Entertainment’s VP, business affairs.

-www.awn.com/Ottawa

AFF attendance up 15%

The 23rd Atlantic Film Festival, held Sept. 12-20 in Halifax, saw a 15% rise in attendance.

According to organizers, the popular AFF boasted final attendance numbers of approximately 23,000 and 27 sold-out screenings and events (up from 25 in 2002).

The festival has also announced the dates for the 24th AFF – Sept. 17-25, 2004, in Halifax.

-www.atlanticfilm.com

Ord cleans up at Cinefest

Filmmaker Wendy Ord dominated the film section of the Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards, handed out as part of Cinefest, held Sept. 15-21 in Sudbury, ON. Ord’s Black Swan won best film and best director. Ord won a third award, best screenplay, for her film Hangdog.

Other winners included John Hartman for best editing for his work on Anglophobes and Ben Bruhmuller for cinematography for Dark Corner.

Meanwhile, Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares won Cinefest’s audience choice award, as well as the Bell Canada best Canadian film prize. Peter O’Brian’s Hollywood North picked up the National Film Board’s Carolyn Fouriezos Memorial Award and Scott Smith’s Falling Angels, an Ontario/Saskatchewan copro, won the MCTV best Ontario feature award.

-www.cinefest.com

Deadlines

* The second edition of the World of Comedy International Film Festival has issued a call for entries for feature and short comedy films. The fest, running Feb. 11-15, 2004 in Toronto, is accepting film submissions in the narrative, animation, mockumentary, experimental and documentary categories. If the films are not funny, they’d better be about someone who is, or at least about the art and craft of comedy.

The early bird deadline is Sept. 30, with a final deadline of Oct. 31.

-www.worldcomedyfilmfest.com.