X-Files creator Chris Carter receives VIFF award

David Duchovny, left, as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully in the 'Founder's Mutation' season premiere, part two, episode of 'The X-Files,' airing Monday, Jan. 25, 2016.

Chris Carter, the creator of the award-winning television show X-Files, was honoured with the VIFF Industry Builder Award Friday night in Vancouver.

Carter’s popular sci-fi show was filmed in Vancouver, ran for nine seasons and is still seen in over 60 countries. The success of the series led to Carter being named one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People in America in 1997.

“To be associated with Vancouver’s success is maybe one of the highest honours I’ve even received, because this place means so much to me and it really is my home away from home,” he said.

Carter said X-Files was initially supposed to film in Los Angeles, but B.C. quickly became the ideal location because of the province’s unparalleled natural landscapes.

“Nearly 25 years ago I came up here primarily for one location, which was the forest. The pilot of the X-Files had some work in a forest and nobody has forests like B.C.,” Carter said. “As David Duchovny says, ‘It was two weeks that turned into five years.’”

When X-Files first began filming in Vancouver, the production was only the 13th of its kind in the city, Carter said. Now there are more than 60 projects filming in the area.

“I really come back up here for the crew, for the locations, for the facilities. It’s really the overall package, you sacrifice nothing when you come to Vancouver,” he said.

Fans of the show can potentially look forward to another season, which is currently in “serious negotiations.”

“The plan is to come back to Vancouver. The negotiations are underway but I can tell you everyone’s intention is to come back and do another round of X-Files,” Carter said.

The VIFF Industry Builder Award was presented by the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of B.C.