The Atlantic International Film Festival is celebrating its 45th anniversary this September with a weeklong program of screenings, panels and parties — and a strong focus on homegrown talent.
The festival, running Sept. 10 to 17 at Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane, will showcase 108 films from Canada and around the world. Thirty per cent of the selections come from Atlantic Canada, with five Nova Scotian filmmakers among those featured in key festival slots.
“This year promises innovative, emotional, nostalgic and diverse stories that our audiences are hungry for,” said Lisa Haller, director of programming and interim executive director. “If you have never been to a film festival before, this is a vibrant event. There is a unique feeling of watching a film on a big screen, and to watch a film with an audience.”
The Opening Night Gala will feature Bretten Hannam’s At The Place of Ghosts (Sk+te’kmujue’katik), a genre-bending drama about two estranged Mi’kmaq brothers haunted by a malevolent spirit. Hannam, who grew up in Nova Scotia, has built an international reputation for telling Indigenous stories rooted in the land and culture of the region.
Their latest film draws on Mi’kmaw language and storytelling traditions, blending elements of horror and myth with contemporary themes of reconciliation and identity.
Other local highlights include Mary Walsh’s Dancing on the Elephant, a comedy-drama that celebrates resilience, friendship and the joy of aging boldly. Walsh, the celebrated actor and comedian, stars alongside Sheila McCarthy in a story about two women in a seniors’ home who refuse to stop chasing adventure.
“It was great to be transported to Cape Breton while we were in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and we were prepping for our film. Halifax is like my second home. It is always fun to be back,” Walsh said.
“It is a very hopeful and somewhat inspirational film, and when you are an old woman in Canada you tend to believe that there are no older women around, but in Canada we have been late in the game to recognize older women on the screen. It feels good to be that representation. It is going to be refreshing for people to see actresses above the age of 40 in a film, and the best part is they are Canadian, and they represent Canada.”
For Sherry White, whose career has spanned both film and television, Blueberry Grunt is an unusually personal project.
“I work in television a lot, and the singular vision of this film was rewarding, and the fact that it was two characters, and there were no subplots, it was very personal, intimate and dialogue driven,” White said. “I did not have to serve a lot of other persons’ needs like I was used to when making content for television. For me this process was a lot more like making art.”
White explained that the setting itself became a character in the film. “The vast majority of the film happened outdoors, in total we had only one shooting day that was indoors. I have recently started moving my life back to Newfoundland, so this film felt like a coming home for me in a bigger way. I think the audience should be prepared to embrace the unknown, and be a little voyeuristic with this couple and just kind of go with the flow. I think the performances, the look and feel of the film — it is a mirror of a relationship, and anyone who has been in a relationship at any point of time will resonate. I am super proud of it, and I cannot wait for the festival.”
Halifax-based filmmakers Katrina Bakolias and Amy Trefry are presenting Vermilion, a road-trip romance about two women who reconnect during a summer drive across Nova Scotia. Their work represents a new generation of queer voices in Atlantic film, emphasizing stories of belonging and identity against the backdrop of familiar coastal landscapes.
Meanwhile, emerging filmmaker Ally Bowes brings a different perspective with Promise in the Ground, a short documentary that began as a university project before growing into a festival-ready featurette. The film follows a farmer in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley rebuilding after a devastating greenhouse collapse.
“I am a huge fan of almost all parts of the process … but I do really love that editing process at the end where you’re putting things together, trimming off the parts you’re not so sure about and realizing you have some good content there,” Bowes said. She credits her filming mates and her faculty for helping in the making of the short film. “If you want to hear a beautiful story about someone pushing through then you should come see mine.”
Haller said this year’s anniversary program reflects not only the festival’s past but also its future. Alongside the galas and international features, there will be free public events, including three days of panels and workshops at Cineplex Park Lane, as well as screenings of classic Atlantic works such as Andrea Dorfman’s Parsley Days and Kevin Sullivan’s Anne of Green Gables.
To mark the 45th milestone, the festival is also reviving “Clappy,” a playful unofficial mascot inspired by the clapperboards used on film sets in the 1980s and 1990s. Festival merchandise and creative branding pay tribute to the festival’s roots while celebrating how far the industry has come.
“We are trying to make it accessible,” Haller said. “At the same price as watching a movie, we are also offering other add-ons, events, parties. The theme is it is a film festival for everyone. We have something for everyone.”
For Bowes, that sense of accessibility is part of what makes the Atlantic festival unique — and why audiences should take a chance on films by first-time or emerging directors.
“Make a movie if you can or come out and watch others do,” Bowes said. “If you feel a creative spark, just go for it, because that’s what most people who are going to be in this shorts program did and it’s working out for me and it’s working out for them.”
This article appears in Aug 1-31, 2025.