Iconic Canadian filmmaker Allan King will be the guest of honor at the 60th annual Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival, May 24-27. The fest is holding a special reception and screening of King’s dramatic feature Who Has Seen the Wind, which earned a 1978 Golden Reel Award as the previous year’s highest-grossing Canadian film.

Set in Depression-era Saskatchewan, the film is based on W.O. Mitchell’s novel about a young boy, played by Brian Painchaud, dealing with life and death on the prairies.

‘The film is an important part of the history of Saskatchewan’s film industry, as well as having inspired a new generation of Canadian filmmakers,’ says festival executive director Fay Kowal.

After the May 24 screening, King will field questions from the audience, and the following day host a three-hour master class on filmmaking, using clips from the numerous award-winning and often controversial documentaries and dramas he has made over a 50-year career.

Opportunities for short films on new digital platforms will also take center stage at the festival.

‘Yorkton is really embracing the changes in the landscape for short filmmakers and short films,’ says Kevin Teichroeb, a Vancouver-based CBC TV executive producer who oversaw the now-defunct CBC cross-platform program ZeD.

Teichroeb will attend the 2007 festival to discuss his new CBC project, a web/TV program that allows filmmakers to upload their short digital films and have them rated by an online community as part of a competition to find the best Canadian short digital films.

‘Short filmmakers have many new opportunities available if they attune themselves to what is happening online,’ he says.

The festival lineup also includes a lifestyle and factual entertainment workshop with Naela Choudhary and Dorlene Lin, producers of Food Network Canada’s I Do… Let’s Eat!, and Susan Flanders Alexander, supervising producer of HGTV’s Designer Guys.

During a lunchtime ‘pitch & munch’ session, filmmakers have the opportunity to move from table to table in five-minute intervals to talk up their projects to industry reps, including Teichroeb, CTV western development manager Rob Hardy, APTN programming manager Monique Rajotte, National Film Board producer Joe MacDonald, VisionTV COO Mark Prasuhn, OMNI Television’s Paritosh Mehta, SCN program manager Joanne McDonald, CTF president Valerie Creighton, and a representative from Telefilm Canada.

The festival is also hosting an Emerging Filmmakers Day on May 24 that includes cinematographer, producer and editor workshops as well as the premiere of short docs by emerging aboriginal filmmakers through the First Stories: Saskatchewan training program.

The Golden Sheaf Awards gala takes place on May 26.