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Category: 2023

Peanut Butter – Maxime Divier (QC)

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Artist in the 3D Animation field, I write, direct and experiment, guided by my passion for storytelling and visual composition. Interested in all the formats that allow to tell stories visually, I challenge myself by directing and creating project that are dear to my heart. Through my films, I always try to bring a new look and spotlight on societies subjects that I feel are too often ignored, so that the viewer leaves the film with a new vision, a new reflection. I truly believe that a better world is possible, and that art in general have something to do with it.

Instagram

Dan is fed up. Fed up with his misfortunes, fed up with his bad luck and fed up with his life. He decided to end it by eating his last ban: peanuts.

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Peanut Butter delighted our screening panel, and we absolutely adore the fact we are able to include it in our 2023 festival. It's closing out the show, in fact! Be sure to join us for our final chapter.

Tickets are on sale now! Friends take friends to see good movies!

The Dragon Awakens – Paul Johnson (BC)

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Paul is currently employed directing video game cinematics and has worked for more than 25 years in TV and theatrical animation. Paul divides his time between studio work and personal work, including music composition, concept, design, marketing, and animation for film #10 of "20 short films in 20 years".

Paul found an animation career in 1995 at the age of 24, and has evolved from creating hand-drawn animation through digital 2d, 3d, and video game cinematics.

Paul also taught animation part time for 15 years.

Youtube

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3 friends relegated to the vitrium mines must escape and return to the wilds of their homeland through the power of their minds, absorbing the kung-fu skills of the Sparrow of Shaolin and dancing and kung-fu-ing their way from pixels to cartoons and ultimately to freedom.

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Animation has always been a keen interest here at Cinema Spectacular. We're always excited to see the medium pushed and pulled and experimented with! The Dragon Awakens is a great addition to our 2023 program.

In-person or virtual, we've got you covered! Grab your tickets!

Cameo – Daniel Jeffery (BC)

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Daniel Jeffery is a lifelong independent filmmaker whose comedy and documentary short films explore subjects like pet euthanasia, adult circumcision, family, and friendship. His absurdist talking-dog comedy, A New Leash On Life, has screened at over 30 international festivals (VIFF 20’; EIFF 20’; DC Shorts 20’) and broadcast Canada-wide on CBC, while his impromptu home movie, Free Range, premiered at DOXA Documentary FF 21’. In 2022, he was a recipient of the DGC Award for Best Director at Vancouver’s Run N’ Gun Film Competition for his team’s short film, Stanley Kubrick’s The Moon Landing. Daniel holds a B.F.A. in Film Production from Simon Fraser University and currently works in-house as a filmmaker for Lush North America.

Website - Vimeo - Youtube - Instagram - Twitter - IMDb

Lucy discovers home movies of her older siblings and wonders why she never received the same video legacy herself.

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Daniel Jeffery is another very familiar face to Cinema Spectacular. Sad Hill with Sad Hill took home our Audience Choice Award in 2016 and had an encore screening at Choice Cuts in 2021. Free Range took at-home audiences by chicken-storm in 2021. We're very excited to be able to include more of Daniel's work in our final chapter.

Don't miss the antics of the Jeffrey Family! Get your tickets today!

Wok Hei – Joel Salaysay (BC)

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Joel Salaysay is a Canadian filmmaker based in Vancouver. His work ranges from live-action, to documentary, and 3D animation. His directing credits include the award-winning Lifers and Last Night, and the Netflix series Sonic Prime.

Instagram

Wok Hei follows an Asian-Canadian mother restoring a rusty family wok, and in-so-doing, reconnecting with her cultural roots.

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Joel Salaysay is a very familiar face to the festival. He took home the Audience Choice Award in 2017 with his short Last Night, which also screened as part of our Choice Cuts online event in 2021. At our virtual fest in 2021 we also programmed his documentary short Home Cooking. We are excited for the opportunity to present Wok Hei as part of our final festival!

There's more than one way to experience Cinema Spectacular this year! Check out ticket info and more here!

Marry – Fiona Cully (QC)

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Fiona Cully is an emerging filmmaker from Montreal. After getting her degree in Film Production at Concordia University and completing her third year short film, she went on to direct some music videos as she worked as a production coordinator at the documentary production company Intuitive Pictures. While writing and directing Marry, she reconnected with her love of fiction and storytelling as well as the thrill of collaborating with actors. She is now developing a web series project with funding from the CALQ.

After a few drinks in the park, two friends wander the streets and stumble upon life's toughest questions.

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We are very excited to be presenting Marry as one of our programming selections for our final year. Fiona Cully has crafted some very nuanced performances from her team!

In-person and virtual ticket packages are available here!

Milkshakes – Rob Hunt (BC)

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Rob Hunt is a filmmaker based in Vancouver, Canada with roots in Victoria. With experience as a camera assistant on big budget productions and a member of Iatse 669, Rob brings technical expertise to his work as a director. His portfolio includes a variety of short films, web series, and music videos, showcasing a diverse range of styles and genres. However, Rob's most notable project to date is the fantasy comedy web series "Standard Action." In addition to his film work, Rob is also an avid fan of board games and Dungeons & Dragons. This love for fantasy and gaming is evident in his creative projects, infusing them with a unique sense of humor and imagination.

Website

She hadn’t made a milkshake in years for fear that they would return.

She starts the blender reluctantly.

In the distance, screams

The boys had returned. They were coming to her yard.

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Milkshakes has a lot of local spirit and we love it! We're positively pumped to have it in our 2023 program, we can't wait for you to see it!

Tickets bring all the boys to the yard!

Damned Supper – Ariel Hansen (BC)

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Ariel entered the entertainment industry as an actor, but being a passionate connoisseur of horror, she absorbed as much knowledge as she could while acting on various film sets in order to learn how best to bring her own nightmares to life. The first fright she birthed into the world was Ready to Burst, a pregnancy-based horror short that acted as her writer-director debut and led to her co-founding Bad Cookie Pictures. Since then she’s directed The Man in the Rabbit Mask, Paint the Town Red, Relaxing Rituals ASMR, Nepenthes, Clout, and most recently the Halloween horror Damned Supper. Behind the camera, Ariel seeks to create a collaborative atmosphere and is always excited to hear the new ideas others bring to the table in order to craft the most terrifying tale possible.

Twitter - Instagram

Bad Cookie: Website - Youtube - Twitter - Instagram

On Halloween a group of wannabe witches seeking visions of their future loves conjure up more than they bargained for during their dumb supper ritual.

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If you've hung around in Vancouver's indie film scene at all, you've certainly heard of Bad Cookie and their genre exploits! We're pumped to be able to include this damned delicious selection in the fest this year!

Tickets! Get your tickets!

Under the Full Moon – Lynn Dana Wilton (ON)

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Lynn Dana Wilton’s (Sheridan, Classical Animation -2001; Ryerson, BAAID - 1991) commercial work includes directing & animating stop-motion for TV series, specials, docs, ads, and interstitials including "Ultra City Smiths", "Sesame Street", "Angakusajaujuq: A Shamen's Apprentice", "Book of Dog", "Biidaaban: the Dawn Comes", “Scout & the Gumboot Kids”, "Four Faces of the Moon", “What’s Inside?”, “Glenn Martin, DDS”, “Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All the World”, “A Miser Brothers’ Christmas”, and “Lunar Jim”. Indie shorts including “(Re)Cycle” and “Celestial Red & Blue” have screened around the world and she conducts workshops & lectures at home and abroad. She’s also very proud of her former involvement in Scratch Track, a cameraless film project performed live with hand-drawn sound (yes, drawn sound!) at the 2002 OIAF.

Website - Vimeo

Is anyone sleeping well, lately?  What is real and what is dream?

I didn't set out to make a pandemic film but ...  A short animated with vine charcoal on 4" x 6" cards based on a pair of anijams for TAIS and AFX.

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Lynn Dana Wilton first screened with us at Cinema Spectacular 3 in 2017 with her two shorts Robot Monster Us and Celestial Red and Blue. We're so happy to have her unique animating style in our program once again with Under the Full Moon for 2023!

Get your tickets here!

Torch Narrows – Simon Garez (SK)

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Simon Garez is a Saskatoon-based actor and director who works in French and English. Raised in Saskatchewan, he holds a BFA in theatre performance from Simon Fraser University, a diploma in acting from the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, and is a recipient of the RBC YFF Mentorship Program. His directorial debut, Torch Narrows, won the Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards for Best Short Film and Best Technical Achievement. His films examines themes of rural life and humanity’s interactivity to its ecological environment. Alongside his art practice, Simon works with bees and honey production.

Website - Instagram

Two small-town friends revisit a traumatic memory they shared on the Saskatchewan River.

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We are excited to be able to include Torch Narrows in our program this year! Simon has another short, The Gentle Hum of Spring, that is currently taking the festival circuit by storm. You may also recognize the name of Torch Narrows' producer, Nathan Douglas who won our very first Audience Choice Award in 2015 with his short Son in the Barbershop, which screened again virtually as part of our Choice Cuts program in 2021!

Tickets available for our hybrid event here!

Santa’s Homophobic – Michelle Tran (AB)

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Michelle Tran graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She has been drawing since she was four years old. Nowadays she draws a bunch of little consecutive pictures in the hope that it makes something that sort of looks like an animated short film. When she’s not animating, she loves being with her friends and hamsters.

Vimeo - Instagram - Art Instagram - Youtube - Website

Animated Music Video of Left at London's comedic single; "Santa's Homophobic", made with express permission of the musical artist. The music video details the story of Nat (Stage Name: Left at London) coming to a troubling conclusion about Santa Clause after not receiving gifts on Christmas Eve.

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2023 marks the second year Michelle has screened work with us and the first time we get to present it in person! Our virtual fest in 2021 gave us the opportunity to program another animated piece of Michelle's, voice memo 9.

See this film in-person or virtually! Get your tickets here!