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Blue Mountain Film Festival Artistic Director Helen du Toit.handout
If you want to stand out in Canada’s crowded film festival market, there’s no better place than the top of a mountain. That’s why the vibrant Blue Mountains Film Festival is rebranding for its third edition and expanding its market reach beyond the world of film to television and digital media.
This spring, the Blue Mountain Film + Media Festival (BMFM) will be held in a resort area outside Collingwood, Ontario, with two exclusive programs. The first plan is to expand the Creative Forum, which brings together the industry’s top players, to include the Film & TV Forum on May 30-31 and the Digital Media Forum on June 1. divided into. This is in partnership with Buffer Festival, an international digital video festival held annually in Toronto.
“While there were some challenges launching during a pandemic, in the end it went surprisingly well for a new event and we were able to screen 20-25 films over four days, remotely. It’s quite a large scale project,” says artistic director Helen du Toit. A BMFM reporter pointed out that ticket sales doubled from 2022 to 2023. “But from the beginning, we were thinking about branching out in more directions than just film, and we feel there’s a strong audience for it.”
Two parts of the newly expanded BMFM will include screenings, panels, and networking opportunities with some of the industry’s most powerful players, including executives from major streamers, broadcasters, and production companies (one of which will include Blue Mountain (takes place during the gondola ride). companies.
This year’s Canadian Screen Awards were rescheduled from April to May in a last-minute change last week, and now overlap with BMFM, but this conflict is something of a happy coincidence.
“We are currently able to accommodate potential award recipients, and for those coming from other parts of the country, we are very close to Toronto.” Du Toit adds: “Even for junior and mid-career filmmakers, traveling to film and television events around the country or around the world can be very expensive.”
Regarding the new focus on digital content creation, Du Toit says Buffer is “perfectly prepared for the digital media landscape, so we can create mini-versions of events here. .This helps expand the brand and also attracts a younger demographic of storytellers.”
Confirmed digital media guests include comedian Tope Babalola (2.1 million followers on TikTok), actress and author Julie Nolke (1.1 million followers on YouTube), and documentary maker Ryan Ng (on YouTube). 123,000 people) etc.
BMFM’s film program – last year included a guest panel featuring Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson (blackberries), Chandler Rebak (i like movies) and Oscar-winning documentarian Daniel Rohr (navalny) – will be announced in the coming weeks, and du Toit hopes the festival will remain true to its international and independent film roots, inviting both attendees from outside the community and local film fans. He emphasized that he wanted to secure a lineup that would appeal to the general public.
“Today it’s so easy for people to sit in the comfort of their own homes, but we’ll be showing new movies and movies that aren’t yet accessible on streamers,” says du Toit. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for festival programmers, but people like the communal, shared experience of watching something together on the big screen. And filmmakers are there to discuss their work. Even more so if you’re in a relationship. That’s when you form a real bond.”
For tickets and more information, click here. bluemtnfilmfest.ca.
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