Congratulations to the award winners of the 2016 Reel Shorts Film Festival! These films were showcased in the Best of the Fest package presented by Big Country and Hansen Ford Lincoln. For a pdf of the 56-page program, click here. You can watch two of the award-winning films below! Jury members (from right to left)…
For a printable pdf of the Schedule, click here. For a pdf of the 56-page program, click
On Sun, Feb 14, the Oscar Animated Shorts package of 9 films will screen at 3:00 pm and the Oscar Live Action Shorts package of 5 films will screen at 7:30 pm at Grande Prairie Live Theatre. See below to view the trailers for all 14 films and the wonderful poster designed by Photographer/Filmmaker Chris…
How do we evaluate films? “How do we find films?” is Part I of our Programming Process series of blogs and can be read here. Scroll down to watch some films that illustrate the 4 criteria that we use to evaluate films: is it a good story is it beautifully crafted is it memorable does…
How do we find films? What process do we use to find and select films? How does that process differ from other film festivals? While I will answer the first question in this and subsequent blogs, I can’t answer the second. Even though one could assume that the process of picking the “best” films would…
You’ve Got Male is a package of 7 films screening at 7:30pm on Sunday, Sep 27 at Grande Prairie Live Theatre – FREE admission – as a Sneak Preview of the 10th fest May 10-15, 2016. Whether in the modern world or a post-apocalyptic one, it’s not easy being a guy. A uniquely male perspective…
Calling all filmmakers! We are accepting submissions until Monday, December 14. Submission details can be found on our Submit page. There is no submission fee and we pay screening fees to filmmakers for selected films. Official Selections are eligible for three juried awards: (1) Best Live Action Short, (2) Best Animated Short, and (3) Best…
Congratulations to the award winners of the 2015 Reel Shorts Film Festival! You can watch the Audience Choice winning film below. Jury members Cody Blue Snider, Brian Morey, and Josh Miller (from right to left in the photo below) selected the following winners from the 95 films that were eligible for juried awards: Best Peace…
The 9th Reel Shorts Film Festival, presented by Hansen Ford Lincoln, is very pleased to announce our program of 108 short films from 25 countries in 19 packages. Check out the Schedule where you can find a pdf of our 68-page program book. In addition, we will screen the films from the Frantic48 Film Challenge…
Calling all Peace Region filmmakers and anyone else who’d like to register a team for an adrenaline-filled weekend of filmmaking in the Peace Region! PRIMAA and the fest have joined forces to put on the second annual Frantic48, a 48-hour film challenge the weekend of April 24-26, 2015 (early bird registration deadline April 1; final…
We are very pleased to announce the jury members who will determine the award winners for the Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Peace Region Short: Josh Miller, an award-winning writer/producer and President of Panacea Entertainment, an independent film and TV production company in Edmonton, Alberta Brian Morey, Head…
The theme of this year’s festival – may the shorts be with you – seemed a natural choice considering the first package we put together for the fest was Time Warp which screened on Sep 26 and 28 as part of Alberta Culture Days. It will screen again during the fest. Chris Beauchamp took that…
The second feature film in this year’s GPLT Movie Series is Force Majeure screening at Grande Prairie Live Theatre at 7:00 pm, Sunday, Jan 18 – check out the trailer below. It has won multiple awards including the Critics Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film awarded by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the…
The 16th Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour runs January 11-13 at the Douglas J. Cardinal Theatre at the GPRC (Grande Prairie Regional College) with a different line-up of films each night starting at 7:00 pm. This is a major fundraiser for the Wapiti Nordic Ski Club so it’s a chance to see some great…
Is a filmmaker a customer, a supplier, a beneficiary, or a gambler when it comes to film festivals? As our festival approaches 3,000 submissions (2,847 as I write this) with two weeks left until our submission deadline of Dec 15, several members of our Filmmaker Advisory Council have said to me that it’s time to…
The GPLT Movie Series begins its 13th season at 7:00 pm, Sunday, Nov 2 at Grande Prairie Live Theatre with Pride, a wonderful film from the UK that was inspired by true events. At the height of the Thatcher era in 1984, a group of gay and lesbian activists in London decide to raise money…
Congratulations to Susan Winters who won SCaMP, the Screenplay Competition and Mentorship Program, with her screenplay entitled Little Thailand! She is shown here at the Sneak Preview on Sunday, Sept 28 after Grande Prairie Live Theatre Board of Directors President Sandra Pippus (standing behind her) presented her with a $500 cheque and an award held…
As part of Alberta Culture Days programming in the city, we are happy to present the following FREE screenings: Friday, Sep 26 @ 7:00 pm L106 (Collins Recital Hall), GPRC (Grande Prairie Regional College) Time Warp, a unique package of films featuring time travelling misadventures, mind-twisting and hilarious scenarios, dystopian futures, and a western with…
Calling all filmmakers! We are accepting submissions until midnight on Monday, December 15. Submission details can be found on our Submit page. There is no submission fee and we pay screening fees to filmmakers for selected films. All Official Selections are eligible for the Audience Choice Award and three Juried Awards: Best Live Action Short,…
Two filmmakers who had films in our 2014 fest are using crowdfunding campaigns to raise money for their next projects. Not only are the projects interesting on their own merits (I’ve contributed to both), but they’re about as different as they can be (one’s a children’s Christmas TV special and the other is a horror…
Calling all screenwriters and filmmakers 18 years of age and older who are current or past Peace Region residents! Announcing SCaMP, the Screenplay Competition and Mentorship Program! Write a script, rewrite it, make a movie. This opportunity is made possible with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. Submit your short screenplay (maximum 15…
Congratulations to the award winners of the 2014 Reel Shorts Film Festival! Jury members Scott Belyea, Meaghan Brander, and Gordie Haakstad selected the following winners from the 15 animated shorts, 15 documentary shorts, and 57 live action shorts that were eligible for juried awards: Best Animated Short – Oh Sheep!, a 7-minute film from Germany…
With 37 films from 15 countries screening in 5 different film packages, our school program is one of the largest in the country. Over 1,000 students attended screenings in 2013. The festival also coordinates filmmaker class visits and offers mentorship programs. The following films were selected by teachers on our programming team. The public is…
Three big announcements! The Presenting Sponsor of the 8th Reel Shorts Film Festival is Hansen Ford Lincoln in the Gateway Centre. Look for some really cool things to happen during the fest as a result! Secondly, check out the Schedule where you can find a pdf of our 60-page souvenir program and our program of…
Get your fest passes to the 8th Reel Shorts Film Festival May 7-11 – available to purchase online at www.gplt.ab.ca! Only $60 gives you priority access to a “spectacular” selection of many of the world’s best short films – see our Testimonial page for quotes from past attendees. We will announce the full line-up and…
Calling all Alberta Peace Region screenwriters and filmmakers between the ages of 16 and 24! Announcing the Youth Screenwriter Mentorship Project and Screenplay Competition! Write a script, rewrite it, make a movie. This opportunity for youth is made possible with the support of Encana as the presenting sponsor of the Best Youth Screenplay Award, and…
Calling all Peace Region filmmakers and anyone else who’d like to register a team for an adrenaline-filled weekend of filmmaking in the Peace Region! PRIMAA and the fest have joined forces to put on what we’ve affectionately called the Frantic 48, a 48-hour film challenge the weekend of May 2-4, 2014 (early bird registration deadline…
[Here’s a great April 3, 2016 article – The seismic shift in the world of film festivals – which includes recent research about Withoutabox and FilmFreeway. It’s well worth reading!] Withoutabox is the Goliath when it comes to platforms that connect filmmakers to film festivals and make digital submissions to multiple festivals an easy process,…
The Alberta Media Production Industries Association is offering a great incentive to new members – a 25% discount on a two-year membership which includes FREE access to the annual Professional Development Day on March 15 at NAIT in Edmonton. Get a crash course in all the industry essentials, including producing, networking, and pitching. Check out…
The GPLT Movie Series returns with the award-winning PG-rated documentary Spinning Plates at 7:00 pm on Sunday, January 19 at Grande Prairie Live Theatre. I saw this film at the Edmonton International Film Festival and loved it. It’s about three very different restaurants and the people who bring them to life. To quote from the…
George Lucas in Love is such a wonderful spoof of how the script for Star Wars was created that I included it in our 2008 fest even though it was nine years old at that point. Directed by Joe Nussbaum and produced by Joseph Levy, both USC School of Cinematic Arts graduates, the film was based…
The 15th Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour runs January 12-14 at the Douglas J. Cardinal Theatre at the GPRC (Grande Prairie Regional College) with a different line-up of films each night at 7:00 pm. Hosted by the Wapiti Nordic Ski Club as one of their major fundraisers of the year, all proceeds go to…
With less than 3 weeks remaining until our submission deadline of Dec 16 for the next Reel Shorts Film Festival May 7-11, 2014, we’ve received 282 submissions. There’s usually a big batch that come in just before the deadline and our programming team is eager for more! New this year is that we’re accepting online…
Congratulations to Director Nathan Fast (right) and the rest of the HB production team of (from left) Writer/Producer Imogen Pohl, Cinematographer Chillton Alstad, and Editor Mike Evans for winning the Calgary International Film Festival’s YYC (Youth by Youth Cinema) Best Overall Youth Short Film! HB was the short film created during our first YFMP (Youth…
FREE SCREENING! Friday, Sep 27 @ 7:00 pm Grande Prairie Live Theatre Life is short. So are films. See nine of the films that will be in our 2014 fest. Celebrate the world premiere of a Grande Prairie film while exploring the globe with cinematic delights from Canada, the US, Europe, and Iran. Enjoy a…
The Calgary International Film Festival opens Thur, Sep 19 and closes Sat, Sep 29. Our own festival-produced HB, created during the Youth Film Mentorship Project with the support of Encana and the Stanford Hotel, is competing in the Youth by Youth Competition at 2:15 pm on Sunday, Sep 22 at the Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire…
Calling all filmmakers! We are accepting submissions until midnight on Monday, December 16. Submission details can be found on our Submit page. We don’t charge a submission fee and we pay screening fees for selected films. For our 2013 fest, we received 365 submissions from 41 countries and considered another 619 films that were seen…
Our festival has been recognized as an ACCT (Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television) approved festival which means that Canadian filmmakers whose films were accepted into our 2013 festival can use that acceptance towards their application requirements for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards (submission deadline Oct 18, 2013). Kirsten Goruk of the Daily Herald-Tribune wrote…
CONGRATULATIONS to Michelle Davidson, Writer/Director of A Senior Moment which won the 2013 Reel Shorts Film Festival Audience Choice Award. After HB, the film created during the Youth Film Mentorship Project, led off the Best of the Fest film package, the countdown of the top audience choice films began with Kidnapped (Gekidnapped) at #5, The…
For filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers who have a love for filmmaking and a desire to better understand the artistic world of editing, we have a great workshop for you! Taught by Gordie Haakstad, the Editing for Filmmakers: Exploring the Final Rewrite workshop will be an excellent chance to delve into the artistic and emotional concepts…
With 45 films from 14 countries screening in 5 different film packages, our school program is one of the largest in the country: Flights of Imagination (Gr 1-3) with 3 screening times suitable for schools as well as a screening time on the weekend: Tues, Apr 30 @ 9:30 am Tues, Apr 30 @ 1:00…
Our 60-page program can be viewed by clicking Reel Shorts Program. For a printable schedule, click Reel Shorts Schedule Special thanks go out to Kate Foote who whipped this together in record time! It’s going to be a great fest – hope you can join us!!
Announcing the Reel Shorts Screenwriting Competition for Peace Region filmmakers! Write a script and win a $2,500 production package to make your short film! The submission deadline is noon on Monday, April 29. In an on-going effort to develop filmmaking in the region and to showcase more Peace Region films in the festival, we are…
I am thrilled to announce our program of 102 films from 22 countries in 16 packages screening 30 times the week of the fest. That’s the largest program of shorts of any film festival in Alberta. Half are premieres – world, North American, Canadian, or Albertan – and half are award-winners. We considered over 1,000…
The Youth Film Mentorship Project production team led by Writer/Producer Imogen Pohl has announced their casting call for their short film HB, a comedy about a high school student who tries many crazy and out-of-the-box strategies in an effort to retrieve the pencil that he accidentally dropped but desperately needs in order to complete an…
I am delighted to announce that the winner of the $10,000 production package that’s included as part of the first Youth Film Mentorship Project is a production team from the Grande Prairie Composite High School with a comedy script called HB: Writer/Producer Imogen Pohl (Grade 11) Director Nathan Fast (Grade 12) Cinematographer Chillton Alstad (Grade…
Get your fest passes now! Only $50 for 5 days of unlimited viewing of many of the world’s best short films including a great selection of 5 Peace Region films! Each Peace Region film will premiere on a different day but we’ll have an encore screening of them in a Best of the Peace Region…
If you’re looking for something completely different from the sentimental sweetness of Valentine’s Day, here’s one of the blackest comedies I’ve ever seen. It’s so dark that I cried the first time I saw it, and yet 2 months later, while I was telling someone about it, I found myself laughing as I told the…
In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a wonderful film from Sweden that was in our 2009 fest. It’s not a typical love story, but it’s a perfect fit for Valentine’s anyway.
Thanks to the incredibly talented Chris Beauchamp of Beauchamp Creative, we have the coolest fest poster that I’ve ever seen! It totally captures the spirit of the fest-produced films we’ll be presenting: The Horizon Project on opening night which was shot during the Shoot for Reel internship program last summer, and the film that will…