VIFF Announces New BC Filmmaker Awards

As one of the largest and most established film festivals in North America – 142,000 admissions at 643 screenings in 2012 – the mandate of the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society (VIFF) is to encourage understanding of the world’s cultures through the art of cinema, foster the art of cinema and facilitate a convergence in BC of creative industry professionals from around the world that will stimulate the province's motion picture industry.  Furthering its commitment to showcase local filmmakers on our world stage and supporting the development of creative industry talent in our province, VIFF 2013 will introduce the BC Spotlight, a dedicated program of films, adjudicated competition and the BC Spotlight Industry Party.  VIFF has announced two new awards: Each award will be selected by a jury of industy experts who have close ties to the BC film industry (jury to be announced by Sept. 15, 2013). The eligibility crieteria for each award is as follows:  BC Emerging Filmmaker Award $7,500 cash prize sponsored by UBCP / ACTRA and AFBS Awarded to the director of a BC feature film, narrative or documentary, selected for VIFF 2013 Director has not had a commercially released feature film (at the time of submission) The film is signatory to a UBCP agreement (if applicable) Best BC Film $10,000 development bursary provided by the Astral’s Harold Greenberg Fund (The Fund) Awarded to the producer of a BC narrative feature film selected for VIFF 2013 Submission deadline for BC productions has been extended to July 15. For submission guidelines, please visit viff.org or send an email to viff@viff.org.