The loss of Calgary’s famous Eau Claire Market has been marked by many, and the reverberations felt throughout Calgary. Perhaps no one has felt them stronger than the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF), who lost its festival hub in the Cineplex Eau Claire Market Cinemas. While this loss has posed CIFF one of the biggest challenges in its 25 year history, life forever marches forward, and so does CIFF.
If the festival was to lose their “Hub” with the demolition of Eau Claire Market, CIFF decided to simply adopt a new model: The Constellation. As Alberta’s film industry experiences unprecedented growth and investment, CIFF has adopted a strategy of a “constellation” of venues to connect and animate downtown.
Expanding on its ownership of one DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives)-compliant projector (currently housed at the Globe Cinema), 2025 to 2027 will be focused on the acquisition of a fleet of six projectors. The new Constellation strategy posits that this projector fleet will have the flexibility to be redeployed across a range of scenarios, creating new venue partnerships and collaborations with local arts and non-profit organizations. After all, in a Constellation, it’s not just the stars themselves that are important, but the relationships between them.
The 2024 edition of CIFF will kick off with the West Constellation, anchored by Contemporary Calgary, the Globe Cinema, and the Plaza Theatre. Additionally, Cineplex Scotiabank Chinook Theatre will step up to facilitate the screening capacity CIFF needs to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the festival. Calgarians can look forward to films featuring actors such as Aubrey Plaza, Danielle Deadwyler, Melanie Lynskey, Sandra Oh, and Margaret Cho, in addition to great new films by directors such as Sook-yin Lee and Rashida Jones.
In celebration of its Silver Anniversary, the Festival will host a special event at the Globe Cinema on September 18, with the Alberta Premiere of THE TRAGICALLY HIP: NO DRESS REHEARSAL. This is one of only two chances to see this film on the big screen with fellow fans before it’s broadcast premiere. The film intersperses never-before-seen footage with brand new interviews with the surviving band members, friends, family and famous fans.
CIFF’s Opening Gala returns to the Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons on September 19, with a showing of the Alberta-shot feature film THE THICKET. Produced by Chad Oakes & Michal Frislev of Calgary, THE THICKET was filmed in and around Calgary in mid-winter, and was adapted from the novel of the same name by Joe Lansdale.
A dark western thriller from Tubi Films, THE THICKET is a film about vengeance, justice, and unlikely companionship, and starts Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets), Esmé Creed-Miles (Hanna), and Levon Hawke (Wildcat). Peter Dinklage and Leslie Grace will attend and walk the red carpet at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Arts Commons, followed by a post-screening Q&A.
This year at CIFF, nearly 40% of selected films will make their World, North American, International or Canadian Premieres – meaning Calgarians will be the very first to see them in Canada. Here are some picks from the Guardian.
For those interested in checking up on CIFF Alumnus, check out UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, directed by Matthew Rankin a CIFF alumnus whose first feature won the Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award at Cannes Film Festival. An absurdist triptych of seemingly unconnected stories finds a mysterious point of intersection in Rankin’s autobiographical fever dream, set somewhere between Winnipeg and Tehran.
For those looking to connect with Indigenous cinema, CIFF has no shortage of options this year. Mohawk Actress Kaniehtiiio Horn (Reservation Dogs, Letterkenny) makes her directorial debut with SEEDS. Horn plays Ziggy, an influencer who lands big a gig, but when her cousin summons her back to the rez, she is forced into a battle to save her people’s legacy.
For a more local indigenous flavour, check out STORIES WE HAVE EARNED: THE STONEY NAKODA FILM PROJECT, directed by Cody Lefthand. This documentary examines the involvement of the Stoney Nakoda people in events such as Banff Indian Days, the Calgary Stampede, and the filming of multiple Hollywood films, and asks the audience to reframe their views of these events through the lens of the First Nations peoples involved.
Fresh off the success of his CBC and BET+ show The Porter, which depicts the history of the first Black-led labour union in 1925, director R.T. Thorne turns to the future, with his film 40 ACRES, which tells the story of a famine-decimated prairie, where descendants of African American farmers settled in rural Canada struggle to safeguard their farm against those hell-bent on taking it.
