The Festival of Words has been hosting its CineView film series for over 20 years, and this fall features yet another impressive lineup of films to catch.
The first show was featured on Sept. 11, titled POMS and starring Diane Keaton — in which a group of women form a cheer squad and prove that age is just a number.
Amanda Farnel, from the Festival of Words, said the first night saw around 100 people take in the film, a number that indicates the continued increase in interest from the Moose Jaw community.
“We always try to bring in a variety of films, and usually they're films that look interesting to us or that we know our audience would love,” said Farnel. “We saw a turning point a couple of years ago, when we really started trying to curate a better line up and people have really caught on and it's become really popular.”
The CineView series will continue on Oct. 2, with Wild Rose, a movie about a girl from Glasgow who dreams of being a star in Nashville.
On Oct. 23, a showing of Photograph will tell the story of a photographer who convinces a stranger to pose as his fiancé to appease the pressure to marry from his grandmother.
The final film, playing on Nov. 13, is The Farewell. A Chinese family, upon learning their grandmother doesn’t have very long to live, schedules a family wedding to all be together one last time — except they haven’t told the grandmother she is going to die soon.
Each film was chosen because of its interesting and different story, and because they are films that would be unlikely to come to the local Galaxy Cinemas theatre otherwise.
Festival representatives actually spent a week in Toronto recently, where they were able to participate in the Toronto International Film Festival.
“We've really been working hard with TIFF this year, which is where we get our films from,” said Farnel. “We were able to do some research on what films were popular this year among people, so then hopefully we can bring those in next season.”
Farnel encourages people to come out and try one of the films, as they all have fantastic reviews and will be worth the night out.
The CineView series offers tickets to individual shows for $10 each, or a series pass for $20 that can be purchased either from Post Horizon Booksellers, the Festival of Words office in the Cultural Centre, or in the theatre lobby before the movie.
“We always say that if you come to one, then you're going to end up buying a pass. We just need to get you here,” said Farnel.
