Duly noted as one of Canada’s top film festivals, The Atlantic Film Festival happens yearly, in Halifax, and attracts big names in the business, and a big crowd. One of the guests and filmmakers this year was actress and former Bond Girl, Famke Janssen. She made her directorial debut with the mother-son road drama, Bringing Up Bobby. Oscar winner Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot, A Time To Kill) was also present, and despite the big deal it’s become, AFF strives to keep it the festival an “intimate and unpretentious atmosphere for watching some of the best international, Canadian and Atlantic Canadian films, while showcasing some of the best musical talent the region has to offer.”
This year, not one, but two tri-named Newfoundland novelists, Kenneth J. Harvey and Joel Thomas Hynes, had movies in the festival — I’m 14 and I Hate the World, and Clipper Gold, respectively. And the real news is they both reeled in awards.
Kenneth bagged the Best Atlantic Short, earning $3,000 in film stock, and for her role in Joel’s short, the lovely Ruth Lawrence won the Joan Orenstein Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress.
And Newfoundland singer-songwriter Andrew James O’Brien has been poping up at all kinds of festivals lately, like Mixed Type, WInterset in Summer, and now the AFF … so I’ll leave you with a song of his, “LA La La.”
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