The Nickel Independent Film Festival has announced a stacked line up for their 17th annual Festival. The Nickel will host five days of screenings and filmmaking workshops from June 17th to 24th at The LSPU Hall.

Festival Director Ruth Lawrence pointed out that the province’s film industry has been flourishing recently, serving as home base for a number of big television and feature film productions. This success means there’s a lot to celebrate at the Nickel this year.

“The film industry has been robust in this province in recent years and we can strengthen our economy with even more production,” Lawrence said. “The Nickel has been gaining strength each year as we showcase our talent in an international context.”

The Festival will be hosting nine screenings of independent short and feature films. The line up includes I Heard The Birch Tree Whisper In The Night, a feature-length documentary by Kenneth J. Harvey about celebrated Newfoundland artist Gerald Squires. The film explores how Squires understands the relationship between creation and illness.

There will also be a screening of Away From Everywhere, a hugely successful feature based on a novel by a local author. The film stars Jason Priestley and Labrador-born Shawn Doyle, and screened at Telefilm Canada’s Perspectives Canada program as well as at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival in France.

The program highlights short films by emerging local talent like Melanie Oates, Emily Bridger, Andrea Dunne, Devin Shears, and Jenina MacGillvray. There will be some special programs of themed shorts including a Horror Night at the LSPU Hall and a free Family Matinee screening at The Rooms.

The Festival is also offering a full roster of filmmaking workshops, covering everything from fast filmmaking (facilitated by Mike Fardy, winner of the 2017 CBC Short Film Face Off) to video journalism (facilitated by Zach Goudie of CBC NL).

There will be a unique workshop for beginner filmmakers called Film School in A Day – A Crash Course in DIY Filmmaking. The workshop will consist of six hour-long sessions taught by different industry professionals, each outlining a specific element of the filmmaking process. Confirmed registrants will have an opportunity to vote on which topics get covered.

More seasoned filmmakers will be interested in the editing master class with Wiebke von Carolsfeld. Von Carolsfeld’s directorial debut, Marion Bridge won Best First Canadian Feature at TIFF, was included in Canada’s Top Ten, and was a Best Direction nominee at the Director’s Guild of Canada.

Since then she has written and directed three other films; Walk With Us, STAY, and The Saver, which have all received significant accolades. Von Carolsfeld’s class will address questions about the editor-director relationship, editing with acting performance, visual rhythm, sound and music.

Other workshops include How To Youtube with Matt Shea, Exploring CNA’s Animation Program with Jim Grace and the 13th annual Nickel Screenplay Series. The Screenplay Series is a Festival favourite, three selected screenwriters get an opportunity to revise their script with the help of a professional team before creating a one-minute preview for their film.

The strong selection of features and shorts, along with the exciting workshop programming, promise to make this year’s Festival a special one.

Screening tickets and workshop bookings are now available at The Nickel Independent Film Festival website at www.nickelfestival.com.