Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival wants to spotlight northern Ontario as a place to make movies.

‘We’re not trying to be like all the other film festivals,’ says Jason Beaudry, Cinéfest executive director. ‘Our main sales point is our relaxed venue, but our main mission is to promote local talent and industry.’

The 17th annual Cinéfest, Sept. 17-25, will feature 120 films from around the world, including headliner Deepa Mehta’s Water, the last in her ‘elemental trilogy,’ at a gala opening at Famous Players SilverCity Sudbury, the main venue for all showings.

Other entries include Barbara Willis Sweete’s documentary Five Days in September, on the Toronto Symphony orchestra, Robin Neinstein’s quirky Souvenir of Canada and Clement Virgo’s steamy Lie with Me.

But productions from the Nickel Belt region remain the festival’s raison d’être. This year, Cinéfest hosts the world premiere of the animation feature Chilly Beach: The World is Not Hot Enough, by locals March Entertainment.

Beaudry says the movie – based on the Gemini-nominated, South Park-esque CBC series – is a perfect example of the Cinéfest master plan at work.

‘This is a completely northern Ontario production,’ says Beaudry. Most of the edgy comedy’s high-tech animation was done at the city’s 5,000-square-foot Rainbow Centre animation studio, by the same crew that works on the series, now going into its third season. March was lured to the Nickle Belt with incentives from FedNor, Human Resources Development Canada and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.

The Chilly Beach movie is under tight wraps – no publicity shots and no hint about the storyline. Beaudry had to sign a nondisclosure agreement just to watch it. The series is about two hockey-loving Canucks and their slightly inbred neighbors in an isolated, subarctic town.

‘Naturally Sudbury can’t stand in for New York like Toronto can. But we can stand in for a midsize city. And if you need an outdoor locale, we’re a 20-minute drive from wilderness,’ says Beaudry.

He is working hard to fill the big shoes left by his former boss, Tammy Frick, credited with Cinéfest’s surge in popularity in the last six years.

So far, Beaudry has hit the ground running. He’s introduced three new programs – Cinéma Québécois, Indie-Can and Canadian Voyageurs – to highlight the works of independent filmmakers.

Voyageurs is for established filmmakers and features Sean Garrity’s Lucid and Amnon Buchbinder’s childhood romance Whole New Thing. Cinéma Québécois presents the best new films to come out of Quebec, such as Denis Côté’s Les États nordiques, while Indie-Can follows in the wake of the Toronto festival with a second showing of works by select Canadian filmmakers.

Further, he’s added two new sections to the Industry Forum schmoozefest: Cross Border Shopping and Canada Talks. The forum brings together filmmakers, exhibitors, distributors and producers, while giving new players streetwise advice on how to move their product.

Also this year, the MCTV Videomakers Competition and Northern Connections have merged into Tomorrow’s Talent Today: Projecting Northern Ontario. The new program will include multiple screenings of regional films, professional critiques of entrants’ work, and a tour of local schools with successful participants.

Even bigger plans are on the front burner for 2006. Next year Cinéfest will launch three mini-fests, three-day fetes that showcase the cinematic works of filmmakers from across Canada and abroad.

www.cinefest.com