The Okotoks Film Festival moved online this year finding success in the virtual theatre.

Film festival director Katie Fournell says they played 69 films throughout their four days and had over 300 people watch the festival.

"The first question we had to ask was will the filmmakers come with us, filmmakers are very protective of their films because people will pirate films, so putting their films online puts their film at risk, we were the online festival that got to screen Jim Button and Luke the engine driver online, but lots came with us. the second question was will the audience come with us this was the most exciting part for us because yes they did. I think being able to watch online made people a bit more comfortable because there is always a chance for people to say "what are they showing?"

The festival handed out many awards but the two main ones where the "Audience Choice Award" and the "Best Picture Award."

The best picture was won by "W."

Fournell says "W" was a powerful film about war that was just six minutes long.

"The "W" stands for war, it was a powerful film that held your attention so well and was really quite sad"

The Audience Choice Award went to "Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver" a German film that was dubbed to English for viewing outside of Germany.

Fournell says outside of the professionally made films there were also the 48-hour films that local teams put together.

"It's enjoyable to watch the films that come out of these 48-hour projects, we give them props so we know they defiantly make them in the 48 hours, we give them a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre and they use those three things to influence their film. This year we had to promise people that the films were actually 48-hour projects because people made such amazing films."

 

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email news@okotoksonline.com