The Vancouver International Film Festival (September 25 to October 10) celebrates its 33rd birthday this year, and like many 30-somethings, it keeps looking at itself and wondering, “Do I look fat in these jeans?”
And it keeps looking at itself and wondering, “How can I be better?”
That is why the non-profit cultural organization (officially the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society) has undertaken a yearlong brainstorm of strategic planning to expand upon last year’s success to carry it into future events.
“We’ve gone through an intensive stakeholder consultation and found there’s a willingness from industry and non-industry stakeholders to develop a new strategy,” said Jacqueline Dupuis, VIFF’s executive director, who succeeded Alan Franey as the event’s top dog. Franey is now the festival’s director of programming.
The festival is really just one of three business units the society oversees, the other being involvement with the B.C. film industry and operating year-round programming primarily through the Vancity Theatre.
Last year, VIFF enjoyed a record revenue year, buoyed by its success at five new venues including the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, Rio Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse, Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas and the Simon Fraser University Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.
VIFF expanded its education outreach program to bring young students into the theatres and launched the BC Spotlight series, which screened a dozen films by local filmmakers and presented cash prizes to participating artists.
BC Spotlight became the best-attended series in festival history, with crowds averaging 80% capacity.
“Audiences responded better than we anticipated to the new venues, and we were able to reach some new audiences in those new neighbourhoods,” said Dupuis.
Those attending shows at International Village could take a short walk to the SFU theatre and another short walk to the Playhouse.
In 2013, VIFF showed 341 films spread over 515 screenings, had 400 invited guests and enjoyed attendance of 130,000.
That was down from 2012’s 140,000 attendance, but the festival set a box-office record despite that because of more paid admissions.
This year, it will show 353 films over 533 screenings and have the same number of guests. It remains to be seen if the festival can set another record, and Dupuis wants to be conservative, saying, “We expect to have flat revenue and attendance growth, and if we exceed our revenue and attendance target, we’ll be thrilled.”
To date, advance ticket sales are slightly ahead of 2013, and sponsorship revenue is up slightly over this time last year.
Dupuis became head of the festival in August, part of a three-year transition of leadership that she and Franey embarked on. During this period, the executive team nailed down new venues and came up with new initiatives like BC Spotlight and this year’s Style in Film, a six-film series that is tied to events with Holt Renfrew and Eco Fashion Week.
Both initiatives are meant to broaden the festival’s demographic reach.
So, too, is the High School Outreach program.
The film festival crowd tends to be older, and exposing teenagers to the festival experience lays the groundwork for future generations of festival-goers. Last year, 2,000 high school students attended matinee screenings offered by the outreach program, which also includes private and post-secondary schools.
For more information about the film festival, go to viff.org.
