Whistler Film Festival (WFF) has made its first wave of lineup announcements, including world premieres for Brian Stockton’s The Sabbatical, Daniel Robinson’s Nestor and Melanie Jones’ FSM.

Nestor is an outdoor tale of survival in northwestern Ontario, which is written, produced, directed and stars Robinson. The Sabbatical is a comedy about a professor’s mid-life crisis and the ensuing relationship with a young artist that reawakens his youthful spirit, while FSM is the story of a DJ who seeks love amidst her world of all-night raves and technological innovation.

There are also Canadian premieres for Jeffery Lando’s Suspension (Canada), John Ainslie’s The Sublet (Canada), Josh Hope’s The Life And Death Of An Unhappily Married Man (USA),  and the North American priemere for Valerie Weiss’ A Light Beneath Their Feet (USA). Canadian filmmaker Ingrid Veninger’s South America-shot feature He Hated Pigeons will also screen at the festival, as well as Siobhan Devine’s Canadian feature The Birdwatcher. There are also screenings for Vancouver filmmaker O. Corbin Saleken’s Patterson’s Wager and Jeremy Lalonde’s How To Plan An Orgy In A Small Town.  

Among the documentaries appearing at the festival is Canadian doc Last Harvest from director Jane Hui Wang, which tells the story of a Chinese couple forced to relocate by the government due to a large scale water diversion project. As well, there is a Canadian premiere for Blood Cells (UK/Italy) by Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore and a North American premiere of Jan Foukal’s Amerika (Czech Republic), which follows Vancouver-based Barbara Adler as she journeys through the forests of the Czech Republic in search of those living in the wilderness.

This year’s Whistler Film Festival takes place Dec. 2 to 6 and will feature the WFF Industry Summit as well as the B.C. songwriter and artist showcase, WFF’s Music Café.