Calgary International Film Festival adds screens, announces new strategy as 25th anniversary nears

Ahead of it's 25th anniversary, the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) says it will adapt and restructure after losing space due to the demolition of Eau Claire Market.

The festival will be losing its central hub this year with the razing of the old downtown mall, taking the Cineplex theatre along with it.

On Tuesday, CIFF acting executive director Katherine Penhale took to the stage at the Plaza Theatre in Kensington to answer a question that's long been on the mind of festival goers and cinephiles: how and where will the festival screen movies when Eau Claire meets its end?

"Take the remarkable cultural spaces that already exist in Calgary and make it possible for them to show film," she said.

Penhale and CIFF unveiled a three-year plan they said will ensure the ability for cinema to grow and thrive in the city.

This year marks the start of the plan, with venues showing films for the 2024 film festival that include Contemporary Calgary, the Globe Cinema, the Plaza Theatre and the Cineplex theatre in Chinook Centre.

"I'm so thrilled to finally be able to share [the plan] publicly," Penhale said. "This approach is exciting to me because, at its core, it centres on community and collaboration."

Along with the new venues, CIFF has also committed to buying six industry-level digital cinema projectors and other related equipment over the duration of the plan to be used across a number of venues in Calgary's downtown by 2026.

It's an attempt to expand venues where movies can be shown, Penhale said.

The organization said it also plans to use the projectors as a community resource that will be accessible to arts and community groups throughout the year.

While the strategy is a solution to an immediate problem, it will also tackle a lingering space issue for Calgary's film community.

The closure of the Eau Claire Cineplex decreases the city's dwindling cinema capacity. According to CIFF, more than 85 per cent of cinema-ready screens in downtown Calgary have closed over the last 25 years. 

"When we talk to people about this plan, it prompts big excitement, and inevitably, a lot of big ideas," Penhale said.

"This plan lays out a roadmap for how to support media arts in Calgary and how to continue to invest in our burgeoning
screening industry and infrastructure."