Vancouver: When the eyes of the world are focused on B.C. during the 2010 Winter Olympics, local film festival organizers want to make sure that there is more to look at than winter sports – and that’s Canadian films.

The Whistler Film Festival, on again in the ski resort town Dec. 1-4, is looking to raise the profile of indie films via the hype of the approaching Games in Vancouver.

‘This is an exciting time for us and for the evolution of the festival,’ says Shauna Hardy, exec director and cofounder of the fest. ‘Last year was monumental for us. The submission rate increased more than 100% from the year before and we screened 92 films, up from 40 in 2003. Everything doubled.’

Hardy credits filmmaker and festival board chair Carl Bessai with the ‘quantum leap’ in the vision and direction of the festival. ‘Carl was here in 2003 with his film Emile, and he came up to us and said, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got here.’ And he offered to help us. He was definitely the catalyst.’

‘Our films don’t get the respect they deserve,’ says Bessai. ‘Even at Canadian festivals they take a back seat. And it was important to establish ourselves now, or with the Olympics coming, watch the festival get co-opted by corporate interests.’

Bessai urged Hardy to shift the focus onto smaller Canadian films and to tap into the pre-Olympics hype. In 2004, Bessai joined the festival’s board as chair and, with a new slate of directors, they nailed down a formal strategic vision.

‘Our vision is to do for Canadian independent films what Sundance has done for U.S. indies,’ explains Hardy. ‘In five years, we want the Whistler Film Festival to be a pre-eminent event to discover new and innovative Canadian cinema.’

Organizers lured their new director of programming Bill Evans away from the National Screen Institute and created a new prize – the $10,000 Borsos Award for best new Canadian feature, this year to be judged by producer Robert Lantos, filmmaker Don McKellar and actress Molly Parker.

They also added special events such as this year’s tribute to Lantos, and created a Filmmaker’s Forum, to attract national and international filmmakers.

Hardy is predicting a 25% attendance increase over last year’s 5,000.

This year’s forum, Dec. 2-4, has 10 interactive workshops covering topics such as financing fundamentals, international distribution trends, technological innovations, and the craft of acting. Panelists include Parker, Deborah Kara Unger, J.R. Bourne, Ben Ratner, Ann Marie Fleming, producer Stephen Hegyes and Haddock Entertainment CEO Laura Lightbown.

Touted as the forum highlight, the International Sessions on Dec. 2 match budding filmmakers with international and Canadian sales agents and distributors for 20-minute pitch sessions. Participants include Shebnem Aksin from 2929 International, Nicholas Chartier from Voltage Entertainment, Meyer Shwarzstein from Brainstorm Media, Ariel Veneziano from Greenestreet Films International and Peter Wetherell from Magus Entertainment.

Hardy is intent on attracting industry heavies. ‘There is a real potential to make deals here,’ she says. ‘Whistler is a relaxed place to do business. It’s a European-style pedestrian village. Everyone is in the same place without having to take cabs or buses.’

Programmer Evans says, ‘Realistically, we know we’ll never match Sundance as a market. Sure, we want Whistler to be Sundance in the way of discoveries, but more like Telluride, a kind of ’boutique’ festival.’

According to Evans, Whistler can take a few years to become accustomed to its new size and build its brand globally.

This year, Evans has picked 90 films, roughly the same as last year, including 36 feature and mid-length films and 54 shorts. ‘I look for break-out films that are outside of the mainstream, under the radar, and represent the spirit of independent filmmaking. Whistler has a real appetite for films that are socially provocative and challenging.’

In the running for the Boros are Anita Doron’s The End of Silence, Ilan Saragosti’s Exiles in Lotus Land, Johnny Kalangis’ Love Is Work, David Christensen’s Six Figures and Raphael Assaf’s The Zero Sum.

Six Figures is Christensen’s (War Hospital) first dramatic feature, which he wrote, directed and coproduced with Calgary-based Jason Lee and Susan Bristow. ‘Everybody aims for Vancouver, but I like that Whistler is confined and condensed to the village. Also, Whistler organizers are starting to grow it in a market way – getting the right exposure for Canadian indie films,’ says Christensen.

Six Figures is one of six films that has just been invited by the Museum of Modern Art in New York to show in its Canadian Front Series in March.

Fetching Cody is writer/director David Ray’s first feature film. Jay Baruchel (Million Dollar Baby, Almost Famous), Sarah Lind and Jim Byrnes star in what Ray describes as ‘a magic-realist romantic fairy tale’ set in Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside. It was picked up by U.S. distributor Panorama at the Toronto International Film Festival.

There are also more docs this year due to popular demand, including God Only Knows: Same Sex Marriage by writer/director Brent Kawchuk, Waiting to Inhale by U.S.-based Jed Rife and Yesterday in Rwanda, a Canada/U.S./Rwanda copro directed by Davina Pardo.

The World Cinema program features hits from the 2005 festival circuit – Thom Fitzgerald’s 3 Needles, Neil Jordan’s Breakfast On Pluto, Palme D’Or winner L’Enfant by the Dardenne brothers and – the ‘must-see film of the festival,’ says Evans – The Great Yokai War by Japanese cult director Takashi Miike.

The fest opens with a gala screening of Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y., the award-winning box-office phenom from Quebec, fronted by the world premiere of Whistler Stories, three shorts by B.C. filmmakers.

www.whistlerfilmfestival.com