It wasn’t exactly the feel-good news New Brunswick filmmakers were looking for.
With the cancellation of the NB film tax credit, there was a shadow hanging over the Silver Wave Film Festival this year.
“Axing that tax credit is stupid,” said Ryan O’Toole, a Fredericton-based film director who had two short films in this year’s festival.
“Especially at a time when film in New Brunswick is growing so quickly. It’s such a slap to the face.”
Tony Merzetti, the executive director of the New Brunswick Film Co-op, the organization that puts on the festival every year, says the tax credit cancellation won’t necessarily affect everyone. The independent side, the volunteers who work through the co-op, do it for love not money.
“But for the commercial industry like TV series, feature films, and stuff like that, the loss of the tax credit is going to have huge impact unless something else comes into replace it.”
Still, the festival, which ended Sunday, showed more than 60 New Brunswick films this year compared to only five in its debut 11 years ago. STU’s Sam Kamras won best actress in a short drama, while her director, Ryan O’Toole, took best art direction honours for That Cowboy Kid. O’Toole is a third-year student at UNB.
“Watching myself was an awkward experience,” said Kamras. “I was shaking the whole time, and as the credits rolled, the release of tension made me realize just how much I had been shaking. I can’t even explain why.
“But I was also just really proud of the movie. When the lights came up, I looked over at Ryan and David [her co-star] and we all had these huge smiles on our faces.
“As tense as I felt, it was still amazing hearing the applause and appreciation of what we had worked on.”
Merzetti says it’s these young filmmakers who are going to ensure film thrives in the province despite the loss of the film tax credit. The 25-year film co-op veteran says directors who start at Silver Wave, like O’Toole has, sometimes start to make waves in the industry a few years later.
“We’re seeing sort of a growth from the people who started out making small films and showing them at Silver Wave where they’re actually getting credibility. They’ve made contacts with people at CBC, the National Film Board and maintained those relationships and they’re sort of reaching a point where they could break through to the next level.”
The festival started in 2000 because so many New Brunswickers submitted films to the Atlantic Film Festival, but were turned down by the Halifax-based festival.
“If you have a bunch of films, the festival model seemed to be a good way to try and build audiences.”
And he says many New Brunswick filmmakers now make films with the goal of having it shown at Silver Wave.
Merzetti says not only is the festival growing, it’s starting to be noticed.
“Canadian filmmakers from elsewhere are already sending stuff in, actually. So my bet is it will only get bigger and bigger and bigger.”
O’Toole says he owes a lot to the festival and that it means a lot to him as a filmmaker in the New Brunswick.
“It’s a reminder that people want to see what you’re so passionate about.”
