Vancouver: More than 140,000 people attended the nearly 300 films screened at the 20th anniversary Vancouver International Film Festival, ended Oct. 12, generating box office of more than $800,000. Both attendance and revenues are new records, say organizers.

‘The festival began on Sept. 27, just 16 days after Sept. 11,’ says festival director Alan Franey. ‘Approximately 15% of the over-300 scheduled guests decided to cancel their plans to attend, but we were able to transfer their tickets to other filmmakers and business people. Amazingly, only two film prints needed to be cancelled outright.’

Adds Franey: ‘Despite the current global political climate of anxiety and trauma, local audiences were not only able, but keen, to come together and enjoy the festival experience and the pursuit of art. There was a renewed spirit of camaraderie and civility apparent at the often-packed theatres, while attendance at screenings of non-fiction films was notably stronger than ever.’

Calgary-based writer/director Robert Cuffley was the big winner among Canadian filmmakers. His debut feature Turning Paige, a family drama, won the $5,000 Telefilm Canada award for best emerging Western Canadian feature film director. His script, cowritten with Jason Long, won the $3,000 Rogers Video Western Canada screenwriter award.

The short film 10-Speed, by Jeff Cunningham and Adam Locke-Norton, won the $4,000 Telefilm Canada award for best emerging Western Canadian director of a mid-length or short film. Shot while Cunningham was a student at Vancouver’s Point Grey Secondary School, 10-Speed is the first film the festival has programmed made by filmmakers too young to legally attend the event (officially restricted to people 18 and older).

The Federal Express award for most popular Canadian film went to the documentary Obaachan’s Garden, B.C. director Linda Ohama’s documentary about her 103-year-old grandmother.

Runner-up was Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) by Nunavut director Zacharias Kunuk. Also getting special mention were Suddenly Naked by B.C. director Anne Wheeler, Treed Murray from Toronto filmmaker William Phillips, Culture Jam: Hijacking Commercial Culture by Jill Sharpe of B.C., Rare Birds by Toronto-based Sturla Gunnarsson, and Mile Zero from Andrew Currie of B.C.

The Air Canada Award for most popular film went to the U.S. documentary Promises, by B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro and Carlos Bolado. The film explores the complexities of the Middle East conflict through the eyes of seven Israeli and Palestinian children. Promises also took the Diversity in Spirit Award, given to the film that promotes the values of racial harmony.

The unique romantic comedy Amelie, by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet of France, was runner-up in the most-popular film category.

Other favorite films in decreasing popularity were: The Tunnel (Roland Suso Richter, Germany), A Song for Martin (Billie August, Sweden/Denmark), Before the Storm (Reza Parsa, Sweden), Together (Lukas Moodysson, Sweden) and The Princess and the Warrior (Tom Tykwer, Germany).

Jung: In the Land of the Mujaheddin (Alberto Vendemmiati and Fabrizio Lazzaretti, Italy/Afghanistan) won the $2,000 National Film Board Award for best documentary feature.

Mirror Image (Hsiao Ya-Chuan, Taiwan) won The Dragons & Tigers Award for young cinema, awarded annually to the best Asian film.

The New Country (Geir Hansteen Jorgensen, Sweden), a film about refugees, won the Chief Dan George Humanitarian Award.

Actress Frida Betrani, whose work was showcased in the festival’s closing gala film Last Wedding, won the Women in Film and Video artistic merit award.

-www.viff.org