The winner of the first Sarnia Onscreen competition sponsored by the South Western Ontario International Film Festival is filmmaker Carly Balestreri.
The winner of the first Sarnia Onscreen competition sponsored by the South Western Ontario International Film Festival is filmmaker Carly Balestreri.
Balestreri, a York University film grad, has been awarded up to $15,000 to make her own 15-minute movie in just one month and show it at SWIFF’s opening night gala Nov. 3.
SWIFF is excited to introduce the Sarnia Onscreen contest for emerging filmmakers and to showcase Sarnia-Lambton as a place where movies can be made, says project manager Adam Cook. He is one of four SWIFF judges who chose Balestreri’s idea for a short film from a pool of 12 submissions.
“We had very diverse applications that included both fiction and documentaries,” said Cook. “It wasn’t easy to choose a winner and we are very happy it wasn’t.”
Balestreri’s award-winning concept is called Petrolia and tells the tale of a young mother traveling with her twin boys in a wagon across town in order to get diapers. The film explores the challenges as well as the fulfillment of single motherhood, according to a SWIFF press release. Petrolia stars Balestreri’s real life older sister and her actual children, and will be using imagery shot across Sarnia-Lambton, not just within Sarnia.
“I’m so grateful to be given the chance to set a film in this community,” she said. “The people and geography of this place are unlike anything I’ve seen and I can’t wait to share them with the world.”
Balestreri is originally from Brampton and graduated from York University with degrees in Film and Social Anthropology. She is a filmmaker and photographer whose work explores sex and adolescence. It’s rare for a film festival to co-ordinate a filmmaking competition but SWIFF hopes it will become a regular feature, said Cook.
“We want to give filmmakers a chance to be original but we encouraged applicants to think of Sarnia-Lambton as part of their project,” he said. “It will be so fun at the gala to show the premiere of a film shot literally around the corner.”
The judges were impressed with how personal her vision is for her film. “We’re excited about helping bring her story to life and to share it at this year’s festival,” said Cook.
“Carly is a promising filmmaker with a bright future and we’re proud to support her at this stage of her filmmaking journey.”
Production and editing will take place at lightning speed since Balestreri’s win was announced mid-September and the contest requires her film to be complete by Oct. 21.
The 2022 Southwestern Ontario Film Festival is returning to a full-scale, in-person program for the first time since the pandemic, however, a virtual version will also be accessible across Canada. Passes are on sale now and individual ticket sales will start early October. New this year is free passes for all students.
Films showing at SWIFF 8 will be announced this month. But patrons can expect a number of choices from the recent TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), where founder Ravi Srinivasan is a programmer. The South Western International Film Festival runs Nov. 3 – 6.
For more information, visit www.swiff.ca.
