Banff, AB: You can tell a television festival is having an off year when the hosts are having trouble reading off the autocue, or they miss their signals to come on stage, or they give speeches with all the verbal flare of a voicemail system, and this, the 25th installment of the troubled Banff Television Festival, will be remembered as much for reaching its silver anniversary as for its overall sense of awkwardness.

Since dodging bankruptcy in the spring, organizers have been at pains to emphasize that the famous meeting in the mountains would proceed as usual, with just a few costs trimmed and a slight drop in attendance. Mission sort of accomplished. This year’s Banff had a lot of little problems on stage – flubbed lines, missed cues, an overlong political tirade – that marred the most important events of the first two days. (This issue of Playback went to press halfway through the festival.)

‘There’s a palpable feeling of awkwardness,’ said one producer, partway through day two.

At one point actor Steve Smith, hosting Monday’s Salute to Canada, joked openly with the crowd about the repeated technical gaffs, reading verbatim from the badly typed nonsense on the giant prompter.

‘Turn around and see for yourselves,’ he said, pointing to the giant screen at the back of the cavernous Van Horne ballroom, reading out ‘Ur d elegate p have informat io r,’ or words to that effect.

The 2004 fest did, however, manage to draw a respectable crowd, although among the 1,200 delegates there appeared to be fewer big names and fewer international teams. According to a list of attendees released a week before the fest, almost everyone here, approximately a thousand people, is Canadian.

And yet in the hallways and hospitality suites of the conference center, the mood was positive. Amos Adetuyi of Toronto’s Inner City Films noted that the crowd, although smaller, was more racially diverse than previous years. He also feels the fest, with its focus on creativity, still stands apart from other more business-targeted events conferences. Adetuyi has been to the fest three times.

‘It’s about the ideas here, and I’m really glad to see that they’ve not lost that focus,’ he said. ‘The crowd is a little bit lighter by maybe a third or a quarter – maybe just a quarter, since it’s still hard to get a seat in the delegate lounge.’

‘I’m really enjoying it,’ agreed first-timer Shawn Alex Thompson, director of Puppets Who Kill and An American in Canada. He was worried that a trip here would be a waste of time – the show he was planning to pitch got picked up shortly before the fest – but he said the relaxed atmosphere and informal yet meaningful meetings have made it worthwhile.

‘I came in on the bus and sat with a woman from ABC in Australia; that would not happen at MIP or NATPE,’ he said, adding that he plans to come again next year.

The pitch sessions went smoothly, still ably run by Banff president emeritus Pat Ferns. Gene Fowler, a first-timer who arrived on a CTV Fellowship, said he got a lot of promising response for his would-be kids series Sam N’ Ella. Delegates here generally are optimistic that they would be able to make a few deals, or at least take some good meetings, despite Banff’s obvious transitional pains.

‘It has been a roller-coaster year, though that might make it sound like more fun than it’s actually been,’ said board chairperson and Global exec Loren Mawhinney in her opening remarks, getting a laugh. She thanked new CEO Robert Montgomery and his Toronto outfit Achilles Partners for taking over the ailing fest in April. ‘They stepped up to the plate and their determination bodes well for our future.’

The future, or lack thereof, was very much on the mind of Canadian Heritage Minister Helene Chalifour Scherrer, who popped in at the last minute for a fiery election-style stump speech, denouncing the Tory election platform and its plans for the culture trade during the Salute to Canada.

‘They would destroy the CRTC and open our skies to American satellites,’ she told the crowd on June 14, brandishing the Tory’s policy paper. ‘They really scare me and I’m sure they really scare you.’

Scherrer was looking to shore up crumbling support from a sector that has been largely ignored in the run-up to this month’s federal election. But the speech did not go over well with many attendees, who dismissed it as desperate and rambling. Scherrer offered no details about the Liberal plans and spoke at some length, throwing the entire day’s schedule off by almost half an hour.

CRTC head Charles Dalfen was also short on details in his traditional breakfast speech, in which he repeated the recently announced federal plans to support English- and French-language drama but dodged some pointed questions from union reps, essentially telling a room of stakeholders that he could not comment on the proposed policies until the commission had received feedback from its stakeholders.

The first day of the fest concluded with the Rockie Awards, which went en masse to the U.K. The Brits won or shared top honors in animation, performance, comedy, current affairs and docs, short drama, MOWs and minis. The only Canadian wins went to the National Film Board doc Sleeping Tigers – The Asahi Baseball Story in the sports category, and to The Origin of AIDS, which won for popular science. The doc was made by Canada, France, Belgium, the U.K., Spain, Switzerland and Australia.

Producer Arnie Gelbart of Montreal’s Galafilm accepted the award, quipping, ‘We pitched this picture here four years ago and didn’t win anything.’

The grand prize and $50,000 went to Children – Full of Life: Learning to Care from Japan’s NHK. The documentary also won for best family and youth program.

The festival presented its award of excellence to actor Gordon Pinsent.

‘It’s almost too much for me to take in,’ said Pinsent, after the standing ovation. ‘I’ve had a non-stop career because I always say yes to everything. That’s something you have to do in this country.’

-www.banff2004.com