Halifax: Gregor Ash is the first to admit there was a lot of pressure on him and his staff to deliver something special for the 25th anniversary of the Atlantic Film Festival. But despite its tug-of-war for dates with the first New Montreal FilmFest, the outcome of this year’s event is sunny, even if the leftovers of Hurricane Ophelia drenched delegates and reporters on its opening weekend.

‘There are huge expectations,’ said the AFF executive director on day three of the 10-day festival. ‘We made quite known that this is the year for us. The other festival put a lot of pressure on us.’

After a sold-out opening-night screening of local helmer Thom Fitzgerald’s drama 3 Needles – which spawned an immediate and sustained standing ovation – the AFF threw the biggest after-party in Halifax history. More than 3,000 fest-goers and Atlantic-Canadian beautiful people converged downtown on Argyle Street, lined by photographers and excited onlookers. This first night made it obvious to all that AFF isn’t the same regional festival that began running local work for a local audience a quarter-century ago.

AFF, which ran Sept. 15-24, had to fight for industry attendance because of its overlap with the debut of the NMFF, Sept. 18-25, which created doubts about delegate, media and print availabilty.

AFF’s attendance numbers are said to be on par with, if not higher than, last year’s event, although staff say they won’t have a final tally until after it wraps (Playback went to press midway through the fest). Last year, the festival attracted about 24,000. AFF had a registered press delegation of about 40, which is consistent with last year. Local press was all over the festival, though international reporters missed the first weekend, awaiting the end of the Toronto festival. This is one of the pitfalls of running so close to TIFF that AFF has long accepted.

‘We deal with that. We understand that,’ says Ash, conceding that the Canadian festival circuit is wild for media this year. ‘Reporters are supposed to tell stories and there is a big story in Montreal.’

As far as the sharing of prints with NMFF is concerned, Ash says there have been no major problems.

The AFF will always live and die by its Atlantic focus. Fitzgerald is treated like a hero here. Halifax’s Daniel MacIvor, who cowrote and starred in the Atlantic gala Whole New Thing, even greeted his fans as they entered the Oxford Theatre for the screening, adding to the AFF’s reputation of accessibility.

The overall program is a mix of local work such as Nick Willing’s The River King and Doug Sutherland’s Lakefront, Cancon like Sturla Gunnarsson’s Beowulf & Grendel and Clement Virgo’s Lie with Me, and international titles including Lars Von Trier’s Manderlay, Mike Mills’ Thumbsucker and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.

Ash says he and the AFF staff plan to make this event even more alluring to the faithful and curious, but in many ways – at least on the industry-focused side of the fest – it’s already been done.

The eighth Strategic Partners, the AFF’s sister coproduction conference, offered a chance for 160 international film types to fraternize in an intimate setting and learn from each other, but the ‘it’ moment of SP ’05 happened during a panel discussion about filmmakers’ reliance on soft money, when filmmaker Paul Donovan took a shot at Canada’s funding agencies.

‘The person who is most successful in [Canada’s] system is the person who makes the film the bureaucrat can’t say no to,’ said Donovan, who is finishing post on his German/Canadian copro The Conclave. A brief but spirited argument ensued, when Telefilm Canada feature film head, Ralph Holt, rebutted on behalf of his organization.

‘We try to be as useful as we can, and I know Paul, for one, feels the system is stacked so you can only choose the films most difficult to refuse. Paul – to my dying day I’ll disagree with you,’ replied Holt.

Donovan then shocked the audience by referencing the two-part mini Shattered City, produced by his former company Salter Street Films. ‘The only words [anyone at Salter] used to describe the script were ‘lame’ and ‘shit,” he said. ‘But everyone knew it would go through the system. It’s the closest thing Canada has had to 9/11.’

Holt responded by reminding all that the Telefilm-backed production aired to a big audience – an average of 1.5 million on CBC in October 2003. It also won five Geminis.

Strategic Partners launched with a keynote from Bull’s Eye Entertainment’s Cathy Schulman (Crash), who electrified the room with tips on how to succeed in the world of indie filmmaking. For example: work controversial material into your script before production; use big-name stars with a social agenda to attract other names; never scrimp on unit publicity because you cannot go back; and cater to the vanity of your stars.

SP director Jan Miller was emotional after the keynote, saying it was the kind of presentation she’d always hoped to see at her event.

This year’s SP focused on copros with Germany, and included a 17-person delegation from the country. As in previous years, every delegate had a schedule of 30-minute meetings with other producers put together for them by SP organizers based on requests filed by the delegates before they arrived. They sit, chat, eat and discuss what they can do for each other, until Miller rings a bell and everyone moves to their next meeting. It’s like filmmaker speed-dating.

‘I’ve been talking with Canadian producers about projects we’ve got that may become coproductions,’ says Thomas Springer of Germany’s Tradewind Pictures, one of several international delegates who found the conference worthwhile.

This was Regina-based producer Stephen Onda’s (Moccasin Flats) third SP. ‘It isn’t so much that one will close a deal or even initiate a deal, but you will certainly learn more about the production landscape, especially in Europe,’ he says. ‘I’ve made 15 German contacts here. I don’t have a chance to meet and have reasonable discussions with 15 Germans when I’m in Germany.’

Next year, SP will focus on South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Cape Town World Cinema Festival CEO Michael Auret came as part of the advanced delegation from South Africa and says he will recommend a trip to Halifax next September to his colleagues at home, and promote the event heavily during his own festival.

Ash is also already looking forward to the future. He says that the AFF will be reexamining some of its programs and implementing new additions and features to make it a can’t-miss event. Keeping his cards close to his chest, he will only say delegates can expect to see programming changes rolled out over the next five years.

‘We’ve created a unique destination event here, and over the next five years you’ll see us take that to a new level,’ he says. ‘We’re going to create the reason why you have to come to Halifax.’

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