It’s November and you know what that means – the Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival! This latest iteration is bigger and better than ever, but don’t take my word for it. Check out this press release from Festival Director John Allison and the other good folks at the SFFF!
Saskatoon – November 3, 2022 – The Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival, Saskatchewan’s largest feature film festival, returns for its 13th edition at the Broadway Theatre on November 18-26, and will bring the best in international independent cinema to Saskatoon.
“This year is our largest festival ever. We’re showing more than 50 feature length and short films over nine days at the Broadway Theatre,” said festival director and founder John Allison.
In addition to a wide variety of new films from around the world, this year’s festival will feature a Midnight Mayhem screening, a short film block which will be free to the public, a Drunken Cinema, a Cartoon Party and live and virtual Q&As with filmmakers throughout the week.
“Yes, the Cartoon Party is back,” adds Allison. “This year it is Halloween themed, so on Saturday morning November 26, you can put your Halloween costume back on and watch retro cartoons in the theatre. For the party crowd, we’re hosting THE LOST BOYS as a Drunken Cinema on Friday November 18. It’s an interactive drinking game played along with the movie. We’ve held those before, and they are a lot of fun. On Saturday, November 19 at 11 am, join us for the Saskatchewan theatrical premiere of COLD WIND BLOWING, a film shot in Southern Saskatchewan, and director/writer Dionne Copland and producer/editor/cinemaphotographer Louise Weard will be in attendance for a Q&A. And all of that is just in addition to the creative documentaries, dark comedies, horror films and sci-fi movies we have throughout the festival.”
This year’s festival truly has an international flair with films from Norway, Argentina, Italy, Spain, France, Peru, Mexico, Philippines, USA and Canada. For information on the full film lineup and festival passes, visit www.skfilmfest.com.
For more information contact John Allison, Festival Director, at 306-280-2868 or john@skfilmfest.com.
2022 Festival Lineup
A short film precedes each feature film.
Few filmmakers capture the wonder and angst of young adulthood like Japanese writer-director Shunji Iwai. With the hazy, sentimental lens of his regular cinematographer Noboru Shinoda, Iwai’s early feature films explore pivotal moments in teenage life through the mundane challenges of the everyday. Audiences quickly embraced Iwai’s treatment of grief and love with his smash debut Love Letter, about a woman rediscovering her late fiancé through letters exchanged with his former classmate. Linked by their cold introductions, Iwai and Shinoda’s subsequent films – 1998’s April Story, about a shy girl’s move to university, and 2004’s romantic con-job hana & alice – trace the changing times as much as the changing hearts of their characters, and collapse style and substance into lyrical poetry. These “White Films” express Shunji Iwai’s unique view on young love and loneliness and exemplify the dreamy landscapes he nostalgically maps in his films.
Just look at that poster and tell me you’re not stoked for the 2021 edition of the 
Naoko Tanaka (Mei Nagano) is a 26 year-old office lady – a secretarial and clerical worker in a large Japanese company. Her job at Mitsufuji is reliable, the atmosphere is laid-back, and she has some friendly colleagues, but the fires of war burn brightly beneath the veneer of the office’s calm banality. Cliques of office ladies fight for departmental supremacy like sneering gangsters and posturing delinquents. These warring clans battle daily until a new employee arrives, Ran Hojo (Alice Hirose), armed with the strength and charisma of a manga hero to become the company’s top office lady and unite its competing factions. An unlikely friendship between Naoko and Ran is found, but what will happen to them and their company when powerful OL gangs from other companies arrive to test their honor and resolve? Can Ran, Naoko, and the office ladies of Mitsufuji survive the onslaught?
Make Mine Criterion! 