The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) embarked on an ambitious plan in 2024 to celebrate their 25th anniversary, and one that carried some risk for the organization.

With the closure of the Eau Claire Cineplex, the annual film festival was forced to find other venues to host movies. This resulted in a constellation strategy that saw films shown across the city at a number of venues like The Globe, The Plaza, Contemporary Calgary, and Chinook Cineplex.

Released this month, the festivals’ 2024 final report indicated that the strategy was a wild success for the organization and for movie lovers in Calgary.

During Sept., CIFF 2024 drew more than 30,750 attendees, up 10 per cent from 27,911 in 2023.

“We’ve been building up to this festival for going on to two and a half years—really, of thinking about what we were going to do with the closure of Eau Claire, and there was a lot of other changes that happened this year, all at the same time,” said Katherine Penhale, Executive Director for the Calgary International Film Festival.

“To see it be such a massive success, both in terms of attendance and film submitted and film screened, it was a really, really positive, positive festival.”

The number of films submitted to CIFF 2024 was also up four per cent, with 4,305 films submitted from 109 countries. The festival accepted 220 films for showing.

Penhale said that there was a lot of confidence in the constellation strategy going into the festival and that having Chinook as one of the venues helped to continue CIFF’s success.

“The access to that kind of space for a lot of people, free parking, the ability to not have to drive downtown was great—but there was just as many people who came downtown and went between the venues,” she said.

“I got to talk to an audience member who told me all about how he went to a film at the Globe, and then he went and sat at the park, and then he walked to the Plaza for his next film. That exact experience, that ability to really make the festival your own and engage in all these different spaces throughout Calgary, that was exactly what we wanted, and to see it live and in practice, it was spectacular.”

One of the statistics released by CIFF was attendees said they used Calgary Transit 33 per cent of the time to travel to venues.

“This was the first year we were able to do a partnership with Calgary Transit, and that was a massive push, and a massive lift from both sides to make sure that we could make that function and to see it work so positively. We thought it’s not a long train ride between downtown and Chinook, but we also know that people’s habits are variable, and there was no guarantees,” Penhale said.

“But to have that be a really positive experience for everyone, and to make sure that that partnership was beneficial, and also to reduce the amount of cars in the road, reduce the amount that people had to find parking and make it easy to move between venues, it was great.”

Success at CIFF 2024 means bigger festival goals in 2025

The successful outcome of the constellation strategy meant that the organization’s push to purchase more cinema projectors has been on an upswing, Penhale said.

“What we had to do this year was really demonstrate that both we could pull it off operationally and that audiences were engaged and interested in this new model. Both of those, we were able to prove true,” she said.

“They got to understand what our goal is and what the shifts look like for CIFF, and there’s been an outpouring of support. We had a very successful holiday campaign, which is directly to help fund our new projector acquisitions. Seeing that support, I think it’s a direct correlation to people’s experience and understanding of the festival’s future.”

Other successes included the return to the Jack Singer Concert Hall for the opening night gala and the growth of the film industry side of the festival.

Penhale said that Bow Valley College students were able to run a mock film set at Chinook, and they were able to have several industry events and panels at the University of Calgary’s Downtown Campus.

“We’re certainly planning for it to be being able to continue to grow, and the constellation continues to grow. What we’re doing is going to be wonderful,” she said.

“So, now we can expand from there, and we’re able to really access new streams of programming as we’re looking at these unique spaces and we’re really excited for what we’ve got on the docket for 2025.”