About Reel Shorts

Grande Prairie’s Annual Short Film Festival

15th Reel Shorts Film Festival: Apr 26 – May 1, 2022 (In-Person) | May 2-8, 2022 (Virtual)

PURPOSE

The Reel Shorts Film Festival celebrates short films and the filmmakers who make them by screening gems of storytelling brilliance from around the world, across Canada, and here in the Peace Region. The goals of the Reel Shorts Film Society are: (1) to entertain, educate, and engage audiences; and (2) to grow the filmmaking community in the Peace Region of northwest Alberta and northeast British Columbia by inspiring, developing, and showcasing its filmmakers.

Watch Fest Favorites and Films Awarded at the Fest here.

HISTORY

Early Years

In the fall of 2006, Terry Scerbak attended the Edmonton International Film Festival where a film she had written and produced was screening. She came back to Grande Prairie with a desire to share great short films. The Reel Shorts Film Festival began in March 2007 as a production of Grande Prairie Live Theatre, one of Canada’s largest nonprofit community theaters.

In 2007, the fest screened 1 feature and 37 short films over 3 days. In 2008, 44 short films. The years 2009-2011 had programs of 62-72 films. In 2012, the fest screened 101 films from 26 countries over 5 days.

The 2009-2012 festivals screened the results of the Youth Filmmaking Challenge workshops – 11 films made by junior high and high school students during 2½-day workshops led by Scott Belyea, Scooter Corkle, and Michael Bourree (scroll down to view them).

Growth of a Filmmaking Community

The Youth Filmmaking Challenge workshops were retired after the 2012 festival and replaced with more ambitious training programs led by Scott, Scooter, and Michael: the two-week Shoot for Reel internship program in July 2012, and the seven-week Youth Film Mentorship Project leading up to the 2013 festival.

As a result, two of the films in the 2013 fest’s program of 102 films from 22 countries were produced by the festival: The Horizon Project directed by Scott Belyea, and HB directed by Nathan Fast (scroll down to view them). After having their world premiere in Grande Prairie, these films went on to have a successful festival tour including festivals in Europe and North America. HB won the Best Overall Youth Short Film at the 2013 Calgary International Film Festival and it was the first international film to win the Young Filmmakers Program Competition Grand Prize at the Austin Film Festival in 2013.

Shoot for Reel led directly to the formation of PRIMAA (Peace Region Independent Media Arts Society) in 2013 and the creation of a filmmaking community in Grande Prairie and the Peace Region. Also in 2013, Reel Shorts became a qualifying festival for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, one of four in Alberta and 39 film festivals across the country at that time to be recognized as such.

The first Screenwriting Competition was held in 2013 with a prize of $2,500 in production funding won by Chris Beauchamp for his script The Device which screened at the 2015 fest.

In 2014, Reel Shorts became competitive, bringing in three jury members to select the Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Shorts, and Best Documentary Short. Grande Prairie sculptor Grant Berg designed the award to reflect the fact that the festival takes place in Grande Prairie which is known as the Swan City as a result of having adopted the trumpeter swan as an official symbol. The birds return every spring to nest much to the delight of residents. Similarly, the festival takes place at about the same time the birds arrive. The award’s flame shape symbolizes the passion of the filmmakers whose work we celebrate as well as the volunteers who make it possible to do so. As well as being locally designed, the award is made locally. Decca Industries in Clairmont fabricates the aluminum award by cutting it on their water jet table, and DR Sales Woodworking in Grande Prairie makes the wooden bases which are engraved and presented to the winning directors.

Two screenwriter mentorship projects were offered in 2014:

• SCaMP (Screenplay Competition and Mentorship Program – $2,500 in production funding won by Susie Winters for her script “Little Thailand”
• Youth Screenwriter Mentorship Project & Screenplay Competition – $2,500 won by Devon Burbank for her script Julian which screened at the 2015 fest

In 2014, Reel Shorts partnered with PRIMAA on the first annual Frantic48, a 48-hour film challenge for Peace Region teams to write, shoot, and edit a short film on a weekend in late April. The qualifying films screen at the fest and are eligible to win cash prizes and awards. Including the 11 Frantic48 films and 1 feature, the 2014 fest screened 111 films from 28 countries.

In 2015, the fest screened 121 films from 25 countries including 13 Frantic48 films. In collaboration with PRIMAA, the fest also introduced the first Filmmaker Insights Day with 1 workshop and 2 panels.

In 2016, the Oscar Shorts packages (the Oscar-nominated animated and live action shorts) were pulled from the festival to become their own event preceding the Academy Awards telecast. As a result, the number of films screened at the festival dropped to 79-90 programmed films for a total of 90-105 films including the Frantic48 films.

In 2016, with the support of Grande Prairie Live Theatre, the Reel Shorts volunteers formed the Reel Shorts Film Society. The 2016 festival was the 10th festival and the last one produced under the umbrella of GPLT.

In 2018, Reel Shorts partnered with The Distillery Film Company on the second Shoot for Reel, a 5-day internship for 12 Peace Region interns (8 adult and 4 youth aged 16-18) during the production of Aeternitas, a 16-minute film shot in and around Grande Prairie. Chris Beauchamp, co-owner of The Distillery Film Company, was an intern during the first Shoot for Reel in 2012. The film was nominated for six 2019 Alberta Film and Television Awards (known as Rosie Awards) from AMPIA (Alberta Media Production Industries Association) and won two Rosies: Gordie Haakstad for Best Director (Drama Under 30 Minutes) and Chris Beauchamp for Best Cinematographer.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 14th Reel Shorts Film Festival that was originally scheduled for May 4-11, 2020 was rescheduled to April 26 to May 9, 2021. Since in-person events were still not allowed at that time, the fest became an online free event with 73 films from 20 countries including 6 from the Peace Region.

Growth of the School Program

The school program of screenings, workshops, and class visits is an important part of the film festival. In 2017, more than 2,400 Grade 1-12 students from 19 schools in the region came to one of six film packages programmed specifically for them. These screenings introduce students to short films from around the world that help to broaden their world view while providing a basis for further classroom discussion. Over the first six years of the fest, filmmaking workshops for junior high and high school students introduced them to the most collaborative art form in the world and to the experience of sharing their films with an audience. Filmmaker class visits give students the opportunity to meet a filmmaker, watch his/her short film, and then participate in a discussion of the film and the filmmaking process.

With the jump in school attendance, 2017 was the first year that Grade 1-12 students outnumbered the general public at screenings. Total attendance at the 2017 fest was 3,600. Comments from teachers can be read here.