There’s a hat trick of films at VIFF that were produced with ‘windfall’ or prize money – including Denis Villeneuve’s Cannes-winning short Next Floor, Carl Bessai’s Mother & Daughters and the world premier of Tom Scholte’s debut feature Crime. In each case, the no-strings-attached-tiny-budgets provided the filmmakers enormous creative freedom, unencumbered by any business or market restrictions.

This type of guerrilla filmmaking – in a time when digital video technology is now making it cheaper than ever to make a movie – is becoming increasingly popular.

Crime is a digital video feature shot for under $30,000 with funding from research grants Scholte received from the Univesity of British Columbia (where he teaches acting for the camera and directing for theater). For the Vancouver native, not having traditional financing sources figure into the equation gave him the autonomy to make his first film his way.

‘I wanted to make a very personal film, no distributors or TV licences, because I didn’t want to have any of those considerations,’ says Scholte, noting he shot according to the ‘Dogme 95 tradition’ which is already cost-effective, as the rules include only real locations and all natural lighting.

‘I shot on standard definition and up-resed to high definition,’ he explains. ‘We had lots of rehearsal so we could shoot quickly. It’s bare-bones filmmaking.’

Another Vancouverite, Carl Bessai, also went the guerrilla route, using prize money picked up at last year’s VIFF to make Mothers & Daughters.

The film boasts a miniscule budget of just $12,000 – funded entirely by the money he received for winning the Citytv Western Canada Feature Film Award for Normal in 2007.

As Bessai tells Playback, he was tired of the ‘big corporate shuffle you have to do to make a movie,’ and all the various business burdens tied to traditional financing models. The trade-off for that freedom comes in lean and mean filmmaking.

Mothers & Daughters was filmed using handheld cameras without sets, lighting or any makeup or wardrobe. Still, the results were impressive enough that the film was chosen to premiere at TIFF and unspool at the Vancouver festival.

Also enjoying the freedom of ‘windfall’ money is celebrated Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Maelström), who was awarded a financial jackpot of his own and made Next Floor, which won best short at this year’s Cannes and generated buzz at TIFF.

Montreal actress and arts patron Phoebe Greenberg approached the director with cash (Villeneuve has not revealed the budget) and told him to make whatever film he wanted. So he came up with Next Floor, an 11-minute surreal film about gluttony and lust at a dinner party. Villeneuve says it was the first time in his career that the money came before the story, and he had lots of fun experimenting on the project. Without the usual budgetary restrictions, he let his imagination run wild.

Clearly there is method in this madness. At press time, Next Floor had been picked up by both CBC and Canal+ (France).

– With files from Ilona Beiks and Matthew Hays