There is one rule for the European Union Film Festival happening this year at the Library and Archives Canada building from Nov. 13 to 30: The films must be Ottawa premieres. Tom McSorley and Jarrett Zaroski, two organizers that choose the films, travel around the world scouting out exceptional films that haven’t been screened in Ottawa. This year, they’ve even managed to snag some serious Oscar contenders.
“We try to offer as many different film experiences as we can, to keep it as diversified as possible,” says McSorley, executive director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Film Institute.“We sometimes tend toward challenging films,” adds Zaroski, CFI’s programmer. “We always look for something we’ve never seen before.”
Force Majeure, a Swedish family drama about rifts that arise after an avalanche, won the Jury Prize at Cannes and is Sweden’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category at this year’s Academy Awards.
Rocks in My Pockets, an animated film from Latvian director Signe Baumane, is similarly that country’s Foreign Language Oscar entry, as well as being on the Best Animated Feature shortlist. It is also EUFF’s first animated feature in its 29-year history.
“It’s a very interesting history of (Baumane’s) family,” McSorley says about the Latvian film, which has not been screened in Canada. “It’s a moving personal and national history that she weaves together in a very funny and whimsical way.”
Zaroski notes how Ottawa used to have many independent theatres, showing all types of movies from around the world.
Now, the Bytowne and Mayfair do their best to challenge the major chains who show nothing more than Hollywood fare, but the two independents struggle.
Baumane, the Latvian director, will be on hand to speak about her film, as will Slovakian director Jonáš Karásek, whose film, The Candidate, Zaroski calls a “very slick, very cool thriller,” a commentary on money and politics.
The opportunity of having his film shown in Canada was one Karásek couldn’t pass up.
“I’ve never been (to) Canada,” he says, “but I’m looking forward (to it). Money is behind everything, which is also true in Canada.”