Theatres continue to be packed in just the first few days of Cinéfest Sudbury’s International Film Festival. The nine-day event kicked off on the night of Sept. 19 with packed audiences at SilverCity for the CTV-sponsored gala film ‘Run Terry Run.’ “Crowds have been very large, which is what Cinéfest is known for,” said executive director Patrick O’Hearn, adding that “momentum is growing.” O’Hearn said he expects that momentum to continue all week, adding that even after 38 years, they still see new audiences. “I’ve met people from Pittsburgh, I’ve met people from Ottawa, I met people from Perth just earlier today,” he said. Film to film to film “They’re amazed that you can go from film to film to film. You can see as many as five films in a day, which seems challenging, but these are film lovers; these are people who just want to be able to take in the most current new films.” Some Cinéfest attendees take the entire week off work and spend a good portion of that time taking in movies at the festival. Carolyn Stevens was heading into one Monday afternoon. “Over the last five years we’ve been here religiously, however, we’ve never gone to the galas. We’ve just gone to the films,” Stevens said. “I really appreciate the effort that has gone into this. My husband’s father was in the film industry and it’s nice to know that it’s very active here in Sudbury … And we want to keep it that way.” Daniel-Wilfred Rhéaume is a long-time attender of what he calls an “annual cinematic extravaganza,” offering films “you cannot see in normal theatres.” ‘We have those films’ “We can have films that just were shown at TIFF in Toronto recently, a week or so ago,” Rhéaume said. “We have those films … and it’s avoiding the hustle and bustle and the exorbitant prices of going to TIFF.” He was especially looking forward to watching the Canadian-Belgium co-production drama called ‘Nina Rosa,’ which screened at Cinéfest on Tuesday. “I like films that talk about artistic, creative people,” Rhéaume added. O’Hearn expects huge crowds for both ‘I Play Rocky’ (Friday gala film) and ‘Fjord’ (Tuesday gala film). “As people are starting to hear what films have done really well at TIFF, they start to track what we have here and we’ve got a lot of the same really big titles that TIFF was able to showcase,” O’Hearn said. He reminded moviegoers that it’s not too late to purchase a week-long pass or even just take in one or two films at Cinéfest. The film festival runs until Sept. 27 at SilverCity.
