WHISTLER MOUNTAIN, BC: You’d be hard-pressed to find much that can divert attention away from the pristine skiing conditions at North America’s top-ranked winter resort, home to the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

But organizers of the Whistler Film Festival take on that lofty challenge, as the mountains and Whistler Village morph into a dynamic backdrop for a four-day feast (Dec. 4-7), serving up 92 films for cinephiles, as well a series of workshops, seminars and face-to-face meetings for filmmakers and deal makers.

‘We’re not about quantity, but quality. We are not a buffet, but fine dining. This is an intimate film weekend experience,’ says WFF co-founder and director Shauna Hardy Mishaw, who is especially stoked that Golden Globe-, Emmy- and Genie Award-winning actor Donald Sutherland is coming to this year’s fest as president of the Borsos Award jury and subject of an evening tribute that will showcase his contribution to the Canadian film industry.

‘We’ve been working on this for more than four years. He embodies the spirit of the Borsos Award, which is a cornerstone of what we are trying to do here at the festival for Canadian filmmaking – promoting and encouraging Canadian films,’ says Mishaw, noting that Sutherland worked with the late director Phillip Borsos on the epic drama Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990).

The Borsos Award carries a $15,000 cash prize for best new Canadian feature film. The titles in the running this year, all of which are making their B.C. premieres, include: Jim Donovan’s 3 Seasons (QC), Marie-Helène Cousineau’s and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu’s Before Tomorrow (QC), Alison Reid’s The Baby Formula (ON), Ileana Pietrobruno’s Girlfriend Experience (BC, making its world premiere), Charles Officer’s Nurse.Fighter.Boy. (ON), and Darren Curtis’ and Pat Kiely’s Who is KK Downey? (QC).

Opening and closing the fest are a couple of Ontario films that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. First out of the gate is Michael McGowan’s One Week, starring Joshua Jackson (Fringe) as a cancer patient who journeys from Toronto to Tofino, BC, while finishing things off is Pontypool, Bruce McDonald’s zombie flick starring Stephen McHattie.

In between, there’s an eclectic mix of films culled from around 400 submitted and 200 they sought out, according to director of programming Bill Evans, who points to a 20% bump in world premieres this year. He adds that the festival is not only getting more submissions from farther afield, but it is also looking for films that don’t get screened at the bigger Vancouver and Toronto events.

‘We’re gaining a reputation amongst filmmakers as a place where they want to screen their films,’ he says. ‘And we seem to be doing very well with films from Quebec – films that never see the light of day in English Canada – even English-language films.’

Organizers feel that the Filmmaker Forum is another big reason the fest is drawing a crowd.

‘We’re positioned as the place where industry meets in Western Canada,’ says Mishaw. ‘Industry told us they want more meetings, more face-to-face time, and less talking heads. And that’s what we’re giving them. This is not for emerging filmmakers. This is for the adventurous who are ready to deal.’

This year’s forum (Dec. 3-6) features the ever-popular blood-sport Doc Talk – Pitch Fest West, in which 10 docmakers pitch their ideas to a roundtable of experts; master classes with filmmakers Ron Mann and Bruce McDonald; and the copro panel Working with China: How to Scale the Great Wall, featuring reps from Huaxia Film Distribution, one of that country’s largest distributors.

Last year, Vancouver’s Long Tale Entertainment inked a $30-million copro deal, brokered at the fest, with Chinese and U.S. companies for a live-action version of Mulan.

Meanwhile, Mishaw envisions the new Whistler Summit becoming a signature event for the fest.

‘Basically, it’s a view from the top – a look at the past, the present and future,’ she says. ‘This year, we’re discussing the future of content – looking at what happened to the music industry… That should be a big heads-up for the film industry. We can’t be complacent. This will be a forum to debate and discuss and explore the new terrain of the digital landscape.’

This year’s event will also include a tribute to Infinity Features founder William Vince, who passed away from cancer earlier this year.