Vote for Your Favourite #OIFF72 Film by February 20

The #OIFF72 films are in – let the voting begin!

Filmmakers had a gripping 72 hours to complete the Ottawa International Film Festival (OIFF) 72 Hour Film Challenge over the weekend. Through endless creativity and a lot of winter insulation, 20 great films have been submitted for this year’s competition. “What’s great about this challenge is that it sharpens the veteran contenders each year and draws out the new filmmakers, which makes for an excellent selection of films,” says Nina Bains, OIFF’s Executive Director.

Fans, we invite you to cast your vote online at www.oiff.ca for the Audience Favourite Award – all it takes is clicking “like” on your favourite film. Voting will be open until midnight on February 20.

The competitors are on thin ice – but literally in this case, as the wildcard location was “ice”. Other wildcard requirements filmmakers had to use included the theme happy accidents/unexpected blessings, props from Kichesippi Beer and Purple Urchin and the timely dialogue, “Bud, the mailman’s not coming.”

For music wildcards – which can become the inspiration for an entire short – this year, we had hip-hop, rock, and a lot more folk inspired music than before. The Strain, the 2012 Big Money Shot Winners, released an exclusive world debut of their song “Tearing up the Streets” through the music wildcard selection provided by Ottawa Rock Lottery. From Samantha Everts, Ottawa Rock Lottery director: “Bands that have participated in this event have their music exposed to a huge audience that might not ever have discovered them otherwise.” A 2013 wildcard song by Shannon Rose and the Thorns wound up introducing the artist to the filmmakers who would film her song, “Little Bird”. It went on to win the OIFF 2013 Music Video Challenge.

The first, second and third placed winners, and the top 10 films, will be determined by our judging experts.

Some of the illustrious judges include Adele Cardamone-Martel, Executive Producer at CBC Ottawa, Saad Bashir, Director Economic Development and Innovation at City of Ottawa, Robert Menzies, Producer at Zed Filmworks, Michael Baker, Producer at Bunk 11 Pictures, Jennilee Murray, Ottawa artist, Ilona Smyth, Casting Director at Smyth Casting, Samantha Everts, Organizer at Ottawa Rock Lottery and Bains.

Join us at Mercury Lounge on February 26 at 6 pm for the official #OIFF72 Awards Ceremony, opened by our very own Mayor Jim Watson. There will also be a special performance by Ottawa’s indie-folk darling Her Harbour and a welcome cocktail courtesy of Beam Global Spirits & Wine.

Admission is $5 or three cans of food, collected at the door. All proceeds go to the Ottawa Food Bank.

Official hashtag: #OIFF72

RSVP to the Award Ceremony on Facebook