Vancouver International Film Festival

Vancouver, British Columbia
October 15, 2010

Good evening, Ladies and gentlemen,

I want to begin by congratulating the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society on another highly successful year.

Thanks to your efforts, enthusiastic film lovers in and around Vancouver have had an opportunity to see some of the very best in contemporary Canadian and international cinema as well as some fine retrospectives.

Since it began almost 30 years ago, this festival has grown to the point where it is one of the biggest of its kind in North America, and one of the biggest annual showcases of Canadian film in the world. This year, the Festival will feature 359 films from 80 different countries, and 87 of these films are from Canada.

VIFF is really an excellent example of how significant the audiovisual industry is to our society--culturally and economically.

This festival definitely plays an important role in stimulating the motion picture industry in British Columbia and Canada. In the range of 150,000 people attend each year, spending money on films, in restaurants, at hotels, and just generally around town. At the same time, VIFF provides professionals working in cinema from around the world with an outstanding venue to get together to discuss their craft.

VIFF is an important festival, and we are pleased to invest in it. In fact, our Government has provided over $250,000 in funding to the Festival for 2010.

Canadian filmmakers compete among the best in the world and our Government is committed to helping them market their films to audiences at home and abroad. A stunning example of such talent is featured in tonight's presentation of The Illusionist, and I would like to congratulate Mr. Sylvain Chomet and his entire creative team on this achievement.

In closing, I want to thank all of the staff and volunteers who worked so hard at organizing the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Keep up the great work!

Enjoy the film!