The Whistler Film Festival celebrates 25 years.
In the mountains, not much good ever comes from peaking early. Because—in this theatre of knife ridges and wind-packed cornices, where route finding, instinct, intention and awareness of self and surroundings can separate life and death—experience matters.
Which is exactly how Angela Heck feels about the Whistler Film Festival (WFF), which this winter celebrates a quarter century of bringing cinematic joy—and stars—to Whistler’s silver screens. “I think a film festival takes a while to hit its stride,” the WFF executive director says. “But Whistler is friendly, people want to come here, and we hear again and again that this is a great festival for filmmakers. That’s something worth building on.”
With a consistent focus on Canadian film, the festival found an early champion in George Strombolopolous, one of the country’s most respected arts and culture journalists and media personalities. Strombo, as he’s known, has attended almost every year since 2005, when he set up his CBC talk show The Hour in the Garibaldi Lift Company during the festival and the vibe of it all made a real impact.
“It wasn’t slick or overproduced,” George says. “It was a real, vibrant and rugged mountain experience, and I made a lot of really good friends. Whistler and this festival have that rare energy: a mix of creativity, chaos and mountain air that’s hard to find anywhere else.”
“It wasn’t slick or overproduced, It was a real, vibrant and rugged mountain experience, and I made a lot of really good friends.” –Strombo
A top Hollywood trade publication, Variety magazine, was another early fan. A partnership established in 2011 brought industry visibility and street cred to the fest and helped usher it into a new era.
Which isn’t to say the WFF doesn’t understand where it is. Back in 2001, when local tour-de-force founders Shauna Hardy and Kasi Lubin screened the very first WFF opening movie, they chose the now-classic locally filmed John Zaritsky documentary Ski Bums. Twenty-five years later, mountain culture and films remain an important part of the festival, with local filmmakers like Mike Douglas and Darcy Hennessey finding early success here.
“The mountain culture program speaks to the Whistler audience and who we are as a community and a festival,” says Angela Heck. “We lost the Village 8 theatres this year, which limits our screening opportunities, but we’ve made sure to preserve this program as well as the short films program. All in all, this year will see the same number of films as prior years, but some won’t have second showings.”
Taking the reins from festival co-founder Shawna Hardy in 2021, Angela says this year the festival is building on previous drives to empower more Canadian and women-driven films, and this year the festival is leaning into accessibility for the disabled and deaf community—both on-screen and at the fest itself.
“Last year we had some deaf filmmakers,” she says. “We had ASL [American Sign Language] translators here. This year we are partnering with Whistler Adaptive Sports on the premier of Forward, a mountain culture film we think the Whistler audience will love.”
New ideas, old friends and the efforts of a huge number of festival volunteers have enabled the WFF to evolve sustainably and create its own identity in a crowded film festival industry.
“It’s unpretentious, creative and real,” Strombo says, adding that Whistler is also the perfect expression of being, “Canadian, independent and proudly unconventional.”
All this and only 25 years young. “The Toronto Film Fest just had its 50th year,” Angela says. “Cannes is 78. Whistler can be proud of where this festival is right now.” – MJ Castor
The Whistler Film Festival runs December 3 to 7, 2025. whistlerfilmfestival.com
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