A Perfect Balance At The 72-Hour Filmmaker Showdown at WSSF - Watch The Winning Film In Full

A Perfect Balance At The 72-Hour Filmmaker Showdown at WSSF - Watch The Winning Film In Full

Wow, Whistler: we sure are a talented bunch!
 
It turns out that our community excels at a lot more than mountain sports—we also happen to house more than a few talented directors, producers, actors and filmmakers (and sometimes, we even host individuals who can do ALL of those things).

The hottest ticket in town!

 
I’m talking, of course, of the Olympus 72-Hour Filmmaker Showdown, that World Ski and Snowboard Festival event that, despite not having much to do with skiing and snowboarding, is always the first event to sell out.

Why is the event so popular? Probably because, year after year, teams churn out incredible productions, many of which are worthy of the “big league” film festivals. It’s often easy to forget that the teams who produced these films had only 72 hours to shoot and edit the entire movie.

Lots of art to enjoy in the lobby as part of State Of The Art. Kevin Sansalone
enjoying 33MAG contributor Taylor Godber's work

 
Before they get a chance to battle for the $8,000 cash prize (plus a ton of extras, like Scandinave Spa passes, a little catskiing action, outrageous quantities of Olympus gear, and even a Thuggie), teams have to survive the first cut. Before the show, a panel of reviewers whittled down the 30+ submissions to a well-rounded selection of ten films.
 

Standing in line to buy tickets, so you can stand in line to get a drink. Classic Festival

To the reviewers, I say this: BRAVO. This year, the top ten films that were screened at the event were perfectly balanced. Genres ranged from sci-fi/horror to a musical rap to legitimate documentaries to joke mockumentaries to classic Whistler-life comedies and parodies. Finalists were a mix of locals, transplants and out-of-towners, and included both first-timers and seasoned veterans of the event.
 
The judges crowned Squamish’s second-time finalist Darcy Turenne the winner for her film, The Trip. This movie had it all: fancy filming (the entire film was a single, continuous long-take scene), ethereal editing, and a simple drug-induced storyline that the crowd ate up.
 

Host Feet Banks did a killer job as always

Using the classic vote-for-your-favourite-by-ping-pong-ball method, first-timer Oliver Popley’s wildly funny Stalk and Peel took the People’s Choice.
 
Major kudos to Olympus for sponsoring the event and encouraging the people of Whistler to exercise their creative skills. If you missed out on the action, sorry for spoiling it for you, but you can still check out the films at the Encore show and at the 2nd Cuts Filmmaker Screening (which also includes the films that didn’t make the first cut).

People's Choice voting by ping-pong ball

Check out "The Trip" in it's entirety in this Day 5 highlights video below:
 

P.S.: I would argue that the best film of the night was the intro to the event, a little number that featured all kinds of people across Whistler enjoying a happy dance. That was the best Whistler life film I've ever seen-- even better than those scenic Olympic promos. Good job to whoever made it!

The winning team and the traditional shot-ski:

Psssttt ! Envoie-ça à ton ami!

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