November 8, 2022 at 6:00 pm
A woman living in Walkerville keeps Windsor International Film Festival.
Executive director Vincent Georgie said the woman had watched 77 films.
That’s 11 days of the festival, which ends on Sunday.
“We’ve got a lot of people who’ve seen 20-plus, 30-plus, 40-plus, and 50-plus movies. Oh yeah! One hundred percent!” he exclaimed.
George wraps up his book about another successful festival by saying that after two years of pandemic restrictions, it’s great to be back in full force.
(Image courtesy of Windsor International Film Festival)
“Seeing the whole community coming back, downtown is buzzing. Fun! People watching movies, drinking coffee, going to dinner, meeting old friends,” he gushed. “The amount of reunions and high fives you see in the lineup is just beautiful.”
This year’s festival has not only been extended to 11 days, but it has also broken ticket sales records. Georgie said it sold 45,000 tickets, more than 2,000 more than in 2019.
Many of these ticket holders are first-time festivalgoers.
“So many tourists. We have a lot of people from all over Canada, but also from all over the United States,” he said.
This year’s locally made products include “Boblo Boats” and “Walkerville’s Willistead Manor: The Home That Shaped A Community”. Both are sold out.
“There is no doubt that our audience watched both films in droves. As they did for the WIFF local short and the film A Year in the Woods by local filmmaker Michael Evans That way,” George said.
Georgie and his team worked on demolishing the display on Monday, and over the next few days they will discuss what works and what doesn’t during the holiday season, but he said preparations are already underway for next year’s event.
WIFF 2023 will take place from Thursday, October 26th to Sunday, November 5th.
