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Whistler Film Festival to show 84 movies, including 19 world premieres

Lineup announced, Jason Priestly's Cas & Dylan opens festival
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Photo courtesy of Whistler Film Festival Summit

The Whistler Film Festival has announced its full film lineup for its 13th annual festival running from Dec. 4 to 8.

Eighty-four films from 14 countries will be shown, selected from more than 700 submissions, the festival said in a release. This includes 42 feature films and 42 shorts that will be shown on five screens.

The feature film list includes an unprecedented 19 world premieres, one English Canadian premiere, 34 Western Canadian premieres, three B.C. premieres and seven Whistler premieres.

World premieres include snowbound rom-com Three Night Stand and late-night thriller Ice Soldiers.

Canadian director and actor Jason Priestly's road movie Cas & Dylan is the festival's Opening Night Gala presentation on Dec. 4, getting its Western Canadian premiere. Cas & Dylan star last year's Borsos Best Actor winner Tatiana Maslany and Oscar and Golden Globe winner Richard Dreyfuss.

Cas & Dylan is one of the films vying for the 10th anniversary Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada - British Columbia. The others are The Husband, Patch Town and Uvanga, as well as Louis Cyr and Siddharth. The six films vie for a $15,000 first prize.

The closing film is The Crash Reel on Dec. 8, also a Western Canadian premiere. It tells the story about the recovery of champion half-pipe snowboarder Kevin Pearce following a terrible neck injury and is the work of two-time Academy Award-nominated documentary director Lucy Walker.

Whistler attendees will also get to see River Phoenix's last uncompleted film Dark Blood. Considered one of the best young actors of his generation, Phoenix died of a drug overdose in Los Angeles in 1993.

The documentary competition returns with five films, including Filthy Rich: The Bob Guccione Story and the Canadian premiere of Misfire: The Rise and Fall of the Shooting Gallery.

International filmmaking is represented by Finding Mr. Right (China), Cinco De Mayo: The Battle (Mexico) and Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (France/U.S.), starring Benecio Del Toro.

"This year's programming mix has identified a number of emerging trends. There is a focus on Canadian directors who have graduated to large budgets and international, an edgy collection of original indie productions, a strong contingent of First Nations-themed movies, and a significant number of British Columbia-based premieres," says WFF's director of programming, Paul Gratton, in the release. "Overall, our 2013 movie mix is the most exciting collection of films to date and I can't wait to see how audiences respond to them."

For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.whistlerfilmfestival.com

WFF 2013 complete feature film listing

World premieres:

Afterparty (Canada), dir. Michelle Ouellet; Down Here (Canada), dir. Teach Grant; If I Had Wings (Canada) dir. Allan Harmon; Ice Soldiers (Canada), dir. Sturla Gunnarsson; No Clue (Canada), dir. Carl Bessai; Three Night Stand (Canada), dir. Pat Kiely.

Canadian premieres:

Cinco De Mayo: The Battle (Mexico), dir. Rafa Lara; Best Man Down (U.S.), dir. Ted Koland; Finding Mr. Right (China), dir. Xiao Le Xue; Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian (U.S./France), dir. Arnaud Desplechin; Jingle Bell Rocks! (Canada), dir. Mitchell Kezin; Meth Head (U.S.), dir. Jane Clark; Patch Town (Canada), dir. Craig Goodwill; Misfire: The Rise & Fall Of The Shooting Gallery (Canada), dir. Whitney Ransick; Savaged (U.S.), dir. Michael S. Ojeda; Wait, The (U.S.), dir. M. Blash.

Western Canadian premieres:

Animal Project, The (Canada), dir. Ingrid Veninger; Amazonia 3D (France), dir. Thierry Ragobert; Cas & Dylan (Canada), dir. Jason Priestley; Citizen Marc (Canada), dir. Roger Larry; Cheap Thrills (Canada), dir. E.L. Katz; Crash Reel, The (U.S.), dir. Lucy Walker; Dark Blood (U.S.), dir. George Sluizer; Devil's Knot (U.S.) Dir. Atom Egoyan; Empire Of Dirt (Canada), dir. Peter Stebbings; Filthy Rich: The Bob Guccione Story (Canada), dir. Barry Avrich; Hi-Ho Mistahey! (Canada), dir. Alanis Obomsawin; Husband, The (Canada), dir. Bruce McDonald; Le Demantelement (Canada), dir. Sebastien Pilote; Life's A Breeze (Ireland), dir. Lance Daly; Louis Cyr, Strongest Man In The World (Canada), dir. Daniel Roby; Odd Thomas (U.S.), dir. Stephen Sommers; Ridge, The (U.K.), dir. Pablo Iranburu; Siddharth (Canada), dir. Richie Mehta; Station, The (Austria), dir. Marvin Kren; Sklmnti (Latvia), dir. Ernests Cerbul; Uvanga (Canada), dir. Marie-Helene Cousineau, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu.

B.C. premieres:

Grand Seduction, The (Canada), dir. Don McKellar; Sex After Kids (Canada), dir. Jeremy Lalonde.

Whistler premieres:

Caligula (U.S.), dir. Tinto Brass/Bob Guccione; Dallas Buyers Club (U.S.), dir. Jean-Marc Vall; Gabrielle (Canada), dir. Louise Archambault

Special presentation:

Prisoners (U.S.), dir. Denis Villeneuve.

For more information plus interviews, see Pique Newsmagazine on Nov. 7 or visit www.piquenewsmagazine.com.