From left to right: Christina Frolova-Gregory, Tish Black, Devin Hartley, Tom McSorley
When we finally find each other among the patrons of the Ottawa Art Gallery's Jackson Cafe, it quickly becomes clear that the International Film Festival of Ottawa's team is friendly and forthcoming. As IFFO's Tom McSorley, Tish Black, and Devin Hartley pull over their chairs to join us alongside Communications Manager Christina Frolova-Gregory, the atmosphere feels warm despite the rainy, slush-loving conditions outside.
With the International Film Festival of Ottawa opening on March 12th, OFN has met with Tom, Tish, Devin, and Christina to discuss their work with the festival, as well as their general views on cinema as an art form.
What follows is an abridged version of our conversation, paraphrased for brevity and clarity.
OFN: Can you tell us a little about IFFO’s main purpose?
Tom (Executive Director, Features Programmer): The Canadian Film Institute created IFFO in 2020 to promote international and Canadian film culture in Ottawa, and celebrate the previous years’ best of film – films which may not be in distribution nor arrive in Canada otherwise. IFFO’s role is to celebrate international and Canadian films – films from all over the world – in Ottawa.
It's an emerging major event which offers public presentation and education about filmmaking in Canada but also around the world.
OFN: How do you choose which films will be part of the festival?
Tish (Festivals Manager, Feature Programmer): Geographically we try to cover every continent. [When it comes to] diversity, [we try to think about] how many of these films include women+, or BIPOC perspectives, LGBTQ2+.
That being said, it’s not just a checklist; we’re also trying to bring international stories to people and different experiences. It’s not just “Oh, I’ve seen a film from Kazakhstan", but "Now I know about Kazakhstan’s green card lottery.”
"Our goal was to not marginalize short films into this sort of category. That's what makes us different."
Tom: [On the selection process for short films:] We decided when we founded IFFO that we were going to have a short before each feature. So you're coming to see the film from Argentina, there's 600 people [in the theatre]. They're going to see a Canadian short film. We're not just pushing them off into some side room. We want the shorts to be as important to the experience as the feature.
So our goal was to not marginalize short films into this sort of category, but actually have them [included with feature screenings], and Devin matches the short with the feature.
That's what makes us different. No other festival does this.
Devin (Director of Film Operations, Short Programmer): That plays into the programming as well, because obviously we still have that same mandate of diversity of voices and stories and so on, but the process of having to actually pair them with the features as well kind of adds another layer.
In some cases they're just thematically very similar or they're hitting similar beats. In some cases they're contrasting or they're kind of in dialogue with each other. Sometimes it's literally just vibes—it's that esoteric, honestly. "It just feels like these two films will fit, let's go!"
OFN: Why would you say that viewers should be excited to attend IFFO this year?
Tom: Every year to me is exciting because every year is different. Last year we opened with Seven Veils, the Atom Egoyan film. This year we're opening with a [science fiction] film by Anne Marie Fleming called Can I Get a Witness? with Sandra Oh. It's a very different film experience than Seven Veils, which is about trauma.
Christina (Communications Manager): Can I Get a Witness? just won a bunch of awards, too.
Tom: One of [the films I'm most excited for] is our closing night film, They Will Be Dust, from Spain, which I saw at Cannes last year. I'm watching it, and I'm like, "Oh my god, this is an IFFO film!"
We always try to include something for everybody. But I think there's a certain vibe about IFFO. Our audience knows, when they come to the festival, that they're going to see something exciting, but also daring and challenging.
Christina: We also have some really great interactive elements. Tish programs a series called The Gaze, we also have Canadian Masters, and Devin brings in a number of short filmmakers as well.
OFN: I actually do have a question about The Gaze for Tish. Is there a specific moment or experience from that series that sticks out in your mind as being memorable?
Tish: [The most memorable experience is] probably the first one we did in person, because we did it online for a couple of years. The point of it was always to talk with the audience. The first one [we did in person] was with Emily Diana Ruth, who is a Canadian filmmaker. I always talk to someone not related to the film, just a person in film.
So that was really exciting because it was the first time sitting with the people, and handing someone the mic in the audience, and actually interacting. And ever since then, it's been like, "The audience is so great again! Everyone is so on board."
"The scale of the festival is a human scale. It's accessible, like, there's Atom Egoyan right over there. "
OFN: [For Tom:] I'm interested in your own perspective as a film critic. If there's a film critic, let's say who's based outside of Ottawa, who is debating whether or not to come to IFFO, why would you suggest they make the trip to come in and see the festival?
Tom: We try to give a survey of the best films that other festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Rome, and Venice show. [Much of it] is probably not stuff you're going to see again, because as distribution is [with streaming], yes, most of it might eventually filter into the system, but some of it won't.
And we've made some selections that haven't played at festivals in Canada. Ciao Bambino is this film from Italy which won an award in Venice, Best First Feature. It's a black-and-white feature, this kind of very sombre but brilliant look at this guy who's growing up in Naples. Kind of a coming-of-age story, kind of a crime scenario. It's beautifully photographed; it kind of harkens back to Italian cinema of the post-war period. For the life of me I don't know why this film wasn't playing in Toronto or Vancouver.
So I think a film critic would look at our lineup and say "Wow, they got that one, they got that one..." These are just absolutely amazing films you likely won't ever get a chance to see [otherwise].
Plus the scale of our festival is a human scale, not like Toronto or Berlin or Cannes. We kind of tailor it to the rhythm of the city. It's accessible, like, there's Atom Egoyan right over there. We don't put the filmmakers in a VIP pen and keep them away from the public.
OFN: There's been a lot of discourse in the past few years around what "cinema" means, and the relative health of "cinema". As people who work in cinema, do you think cinema's healthy? Do you think there are unique challenges right now?
"At the end of the day, art is such a human thing.
We'll keep doing it no matter what happens. "
Tish: [When it comes to theatres versus streaming:] I really support watching stuff at home, because of the accessibility. Not everyone can physically or mentally get out to a theatre and sit for two hours. I love that we can watch really great stuff at home on our really great big TVs and projectors, and pause when we need to, and use the subtitles, and take advantage of all of those accessibility features.
But I do also love that there's the option to go out because for some people, that is how they like to enjoy the movie. Especially at a festival, there is a social element to it, and that's what makes the festival not just "going to the movies".
The time between when something's in the theatre and when something's on streaming services is like nothing now. Sometimes it even overlaps. So again, great accessibility. But are we losing this sort of exclusive magic of seeing in the theatre?
Devin: I think the shorts industry, if you want to call it that, is kind of in a strange time of flux right now, especially compared to features. Features, of course, tend to have a lot more funding, a lot more options in terms of getting money, whether from grants or production houses, distributors and so on.
And in Canada in general, a lot of the arts funding bodies have been scaling back the amount of money that they provide, and unfortunately, shorts are always the ones that tend to get hit first.
It's not that films aren't being made. They are. It's that it's, you know, lone independent filmmakers working largely by themselves, funding themselves. And then they're the ones who, of course, end up struggling to get attention on their film.
I don't know what the answer to that is other than we need to have a more robust funding model for the arts in Canada.
I think it will all come out okay in the end. I have to believe that it will because, you know, at the end of the day, art is such a human thing. We'll keep doing it no matter what happens.
OFN: If young filmmakers in Ottawa want to eventually create a film that screens at IFFO, what would be your advice for them?
Tom: There's no chart, there's no map.
In my view, you do something because you need to do it, you must do it, you're a creator and you find a way to get it made.
Atom Egoyan is a great example. He's just a 20-something-year-old at U of T writing plays and doing short films with his friends, submitting them to festivals. They get selected for, you know, some festival. And he gets a grant to make his first feature. He made his first feature for $20,000 and it got a prize in Germany for Best First Feature Film.
Christina: I think a great example from this year's festival is Winter Kept Us Warm. That movie was such a surprise.
[One of IFFO's special programming slots] is SAVE AS. It's about looking into our shared cinema heritage on an international, but also on a Canadian level, and the preservation efforts, the distribution, the exhibition of those works.
And so there's this film. This year is its 60th anniversary. It's called Winter Kept Us Warm.
The story behind this is that this filmmaker on U of T's campus—I don't even know if they were friends with the actors, how they were gathered together to shoot this film. Low-budget everything.
It became the first English Canadian film to go to Cannes. And it is now considered to be the first English speaking queer film from Canada to reach this level of international acclaim.
OFN: Is there a filmmaker who hasn't been featured in the festival before, but whose work you'd like to be part of the festival?
Tish: Dan Levy. Whatever he's making next, I want to bring him and whatever he's making to IFFO.
Devin: This incredible filmmaker and visual artist, Ellen Morton, who does these analogue, lens-based, kind of experimental films while taking these very like remote expeditions out to Iceland and Greenland and in northern Canada. Her films are just stunning.
She had this film last year, "Crash Between Ocean and Sky", that I really wanted to program so badly, but it was 25 minutes and we just didn't have a spot for it, which was kind of devastating. But I would love to have some of her work in somewhere at some point.
We face this issue both with IFFO and with [Ottawa International Animation Festival]. Because of the shift towards streaming, obviously there is a push for shorts to be more, like, medium-length.
But again, that's the nature of kind of the shifting funding model and the shifting ways in which people watch cinema.
There's not really much we can do about that aside from, you know, just do our best.
The International Film Festival of Ottawa runs from March 12th to March 23rd. Information about the festival is available on the festival's website, and you can purchase tickets and passes there as well.
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