The way Tammy Frick sees it, there is a lot of promise in the film scene of northern Ontario, but there is also a great deal of work that needs to be done.

‘This is not a thriving film industry,’ admits Frick, executive director of Cinefest, the Sudbury, ON-based film festival, ‘but there is a lot of interest, mainly from youth. There are a lot of questions being asked.’

She hopes her festival will provide some answers. The nine-day Cinefest, on for its 16th year in Sudbury, Sept. 18-26, has long worked to develop the movie scene in its own backyard – all while simultaneously competing with Canada’s big four festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax for attention, guests and fest-goers in the hectic fall season. This year Cinefest has doubled its industry sessions to 11, in hope of doing more to inspire local talent and to connect that talent with the outside world.

‘The goal is to provide even more access to the inner workings of the cultural media industries of northern Ontario,’ says Frick.

The sessions cover the ins and outs of casting, promotions, how to develop and pitch a documentary, and other points. There’s even a session for preteens, put on by the National Film Board, at which kids aged eight to 12 use 3D animation to describe their summer vacations. Cinefest is also hosting a meet-and-greet for novice producers and broadcast execs, and is again putting $10,000 on the table for its Pitch’n It contest, open to budding film and TV writers from the north. Another $10,000 in cash and other prizes has been set aside by the fest and the local CTV affiliate for the amateur videomaker competition.

Robin Cass of Toronto’s Triptych Media was among the three judges at last year’s pitch contest. ‘I think I can speak for all of us that we were really impressed,’ he says. ‘The people really had their act together.’

Frick hopes the Nickel Belt can also draw more location shoots and, to that end, the fest is sending four Canadian and U.S. filmmakers on a ‘familiarization tour’ of the region. The tour is co-organized with the Ontario Media Development Corporation and will include producer Don Carmody (Chicago) and Warner Bros. exec-turned-producer Robert Shapiro (Empire of the Sun, My Favorite Martian).

Curiously, Cinefest also hosts sessions about music – the logic being that, with a little synergy, the north’s reputation for marketable musicians might rub off on its directors, too. ‘I think it [goes hand in hand], that not only film but also music are at the table,’ says Frick. Coincidentally, and as if to prove her point, Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions is in Sudbury until October to shoot a biopic about singer Shania Twain, and recently put out a call for locals to fill various roles. Twain hails from nearby Timmins.

The festival has grown considerably in recent years, and has expanded both its public and industry sides. It now stretches over nine days, up from six, and has added programs featuring Canadian and international docs, shorts and a ‘Legends of Film’ slot.

Cinefest drew some 25,000 people in 2003, a jump of several thousand from the previous year, most of whom came from Ontario, Quebec and Michigan. This year it will screen some 100 movies, opening with the Quebec hit Camping Sauvage by directors Guy A. Lepage, Andre Ducharme and Sylvain Roy. A number of other films that are currently popular on the art house and festival circuit – Festival Express, The Motorcycle Diaries, The Story of the Weeping Camel, Zatoichi and Born into Brothels – are also high on the list.

At press time, few guests had been confirmed, although director Louis Belanger is set to introduce screenings of his films Lauzon/Lauzone, Post Mortem and Gaz Bar Blues. Indie filmmakers Greg Marcks and Michael Gilio will also be there – Gilio with his oddball road movie Kwik Stop and Marcks with 11:14, a five-stories-in-one drama starring Hilary Swank, Colin Hanks and Rachel Leigh Cook.

‘I hate to use the word ‘network,’ but I think people are really amazed when they see who comes to the festival,’ says Frick.

Frick hopes this fest will also bring in more buyers, perhaps attracted by the many indie Canuck films, and has added a screening suite to its marketplace. She notes that – like the similarly laid-back Atlantic Film Festival (Sept. 17-25) – Cinefest usually gives people a chance to make deals away from the frenzied goings-on of, say, Toronto and Vancouver.

‘A lot of times we’re a continuation of [discussions] from Toronto,’ she says. ‘Let’s face it, Toronto is extremely hectic.’

-www.cinefest.com