A three-minute standing ovation for The Rocket, by Charles Binamé, closed the National Screen Institute’s FilmExchange festival on March 4 in Winnipeg, kicking off the NSI’s 20th anniversary year.

It was the first time the Maurice Richard biopic had screened in English Canada, and the Peg’s French-speaking population turned out in force for the sold-out screening.

‘[Winnipeg’s French population] has always been very supportive when we bring in a French-language film, especially one by Charles Binamé,’ says Brendon Sawatzky, FilmExchange’s industry center producer. ‘When we screened [Binamé’s] Séraphin: un homme et son péché [in 2003], it sold out, too.’

The film was one of seven features screened at the four-day Film-

Exchange. Lucid from Sean Garrity and Niagara Hotel by Gary Yates – both Manitobans – also played. Overall attendance was down slightly at 5,025 from around 6,000 in 2005. Organizers say attendance was hurt, in part, by a blizzard that kept people away from the opening-night outdoor program, Snowscreen, which this year featured a collection of National Film Board and Winnipeg Film Group shorts.

More than 10,000 people voted for their favorite amateur short on diginet Movieola’s website after taking in the competing films in the National Exposure contest, screened at the fest and Movieola. The voters chose My Name Is, by the Halifax team of filmmaker Megan Wennberg and her cowriters, Jamie Blanchard and Chuck Teed.

FilmExchange featured an extensive industry program, which included panels on mobile content, videogames and screenwriting, as well as master classes with Maple Pictures copresident Brad Pelman, Binamé and others.

It also saw the announcement that the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation has pledged to contribute at least $75,000 per year to NSI’s Features First and Drama Prize programs over the next three years.

www.nsi-canada.ca