Hope everyone is enjoying the first half week of festival. We have just finished our agreement with the venue to extend the festival to its final date of March 16.
Attendance has been down for our first few films, we need to raise the attendance numbers if we hope to come back to Calgary again next year. The feedback that we have received from patrons has been amazing, and it saddens us to think that you could sell out "Toxic Avenger IV", at the Calgary International Film Festival, but only get 30 for a screening of an amazing film like the German "Tattoo".
We feel that the films we are presenting will become some of your most loved and favorite horror films. All you have to do is give these films a chance. We have a bunch of "TBA's" still listed, the reason being, is that we have been given offers for some fairly large name films, unfortunately they are also very expensive films as well. We would love to present these films at the festival, but it is coming down to dollars and cents. Because of the delay in the festival and the issues with the prior venue we lost our all of our sponsors; because of this, the festival can only be successful if we see some more faces at the movies.
We have some great films slated for this week with VIP's in attendance. Tonite, Tuesday March 4, we offer Takashi Miike's "Ichi the Killer". After Ichi, we offer something truly amazing; the anime origins of "Ichi the Killer". This film has never been seen outside of Japan. Calgary will be the first city in North America to view this Japanese subtitled only film.
On Wednesday, March 5, we offer "Raaz" at 9pm. This is the first of what we hope to be many Bollywood film to explore the horror genre. This is also a North American premiere of this film, so if you like Bollywood films, or strange musicals, you are in for a treat! For the 11pm film we offer "Slashers", truly a festival favorite. It was the favorite of last year's Exofest in Edmonton. Maurice Devereaux offers you a Japanese feel to where reality television could be taking us.
Thursday night, March 6, we have an encore screening of "Battlefield Baseball" at 7pm. With the response we have received with it's first screening, this film will likely become the festival favorite of Exofest II. The 9pm film, "Thirteen Seconds" will have the director in attendance, so let's give a great big Calgary welcome to Jeff Thomas, and show him Calgary knows how to throw a party - at his North American film premiere. Fangoria magazine declared this film "creepy".
On Friday night, it gives us great pleasure to screen both "Off Duty" by Calgarian son, Blake Horobin and the world premiere of "Searching for Haizmann". The star and producer of "Searching for Haizmann", Luke Eberl, will be in attendance. Let's show Los Angeles that we have better festivals than anything south of the border!
We would like to make a call for volunteers. Anyone wishing to help out with ticket-taking or concession stand, please report to Mark Schulz. You may give him a call at 780.907.2480 (cellular) to ask for more information. There is currently no phone-line in the theatre, but Mark would be more than happy to answer any questions at the above number.
We have added 2 incentives to our ticket program, the first being - every extra warm body brought in (dead one's don't count unless they use gold cards) we will take one dollar off your ticket price. Eg. 150 people dragged in nets you a free festival pass to view all the movies for free... The second incentive is that if our numbers are really big, we will give Calgary a truly amazing closing night, as all revenues from the festival go back into the festival (not-for-profit).
For the film community and press, we still need people to act as jury for the festival screenings. Again, please approach Mark Schulz for more information.
We have finalized a contract with Garry Theatre. (1229 - 9th Ave SE). The new festival dates are from February 28 thru March 9th. New film list and schedule should be posted shortly.
If you require more information, please contact our festival offices in Edmonton at 780-990-1912
