Whistler, B.C.: The Whistler Film Festival enjoyed a busy four days and drew some 5,000 people to its ski resort hometown last month – on course, say organizers, with their five-year plan to put the fest near the top of the Canuck film circuit.

Though attendance was the same as 2004, ‘it’s a matter of quality not quantity,’ says exec director Shauna Hardy. ‘It’s who came this year. We were very excited about the level of international guests and filmmakers.’

The fifth annual fest hosted producer Robert Lantos, filmmaker Don McKellar and actress Molly Parker, among others.

‘Industry came out in droves,’ says Hardy, especially to the Bell Filmmaker Forum, a three-day huddle for filmmakers of all stripes, which saw attendance climb 27% to more than 400.

‘This festival allows you to be involved, interface with other panelists and emerging filmmakers. If it weren’t structured in this way, I wouldn’t have come,’ says Tom Rooney of Sony DADC Global.

Whistler screened 36 feature and mid-length films and 54 shorts – opening with the short film collection Whistler Stories and Jean-Marc Vallée’s Quebec smash C.R.A.Z.Y. It wrapped after four days on Dec. 4.

The festival’s cornerstone prize – the $10,000 Borsos Award for best new Canadian feature – went to Exiles in Lotus Land, a National Film Board doc by Ilan Saragosti about Quebec street kids.

‘It was funny – broadcasters and distributors told me that they didn’t think it would translate well in English Canada,’ says Saragosti. ‘When I came off the stage with my award, those same guys were giving me their cards and asking for screeners.’

Johnny Kalangis’ Love Is Work, an ensemble piece about relationships, won the People’s Choice Award for best feature film, beating even the mighty C.R.A.Z.Y.

Kalangis says winning with the privately financed $100,000 film ‘is an affirmation to me, and to other filmmakers, that a film can be made out of the mold. You think what does the market want – that’s where you lose it, when you’re driven by the cycle of getting development dollars.’

Best documentary and $5,000 went to The Best of Secter & The Rest of Secter by Joel Secter, about his filmmaker uncle David. Best ‘mountain culture’ film went to Off Road to Athens by U.S.-based Jason Berry. Greg Spottiswood won $500 and best short for Noise, while B.C.’s Andrew Genaille won the best short scripts competition with Harvey the Indian.

www.whistlerfilmfestival.com