The South Western International Film Festival (SWIFF) was an annual film festival in Sarnia, Ontario, staged from 2015 until 2022.
History Launched in 2015 along with the Toronto International Film Festival, the South Western International Film Festival (SWIFF)Louis Pin, "Local film festival touts bigger-than-ever lineup". Sarnia Observer, October 7, 2019. programmed a lineup of Canadian and international films in November each year,Barbara Simpson, "Film festival hopes to reel in new industry". Chatham Daily News, October 17, 2015. at the city's Imperial Theatre and Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery.Carl Hnatyshyn, "Film festival marks five years of bringing the world to Sarnia". Sarnia & Lambton County This Week, October 9, 2019. The inaugural festival opened with a gala screening of Into the Forest, a film by Sarnia native Patricia Rozema.Paul Morden, "Rozema still calls Sarnia 'home'". Sarnia Observer, October 31, 2015.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the 2020 festival was staged online."Festival will home stream films to counter winter blahs". Sarnia Journal, August 27, 2020. The 2020 festival included a retrospective program of the work of Sami Khan, a filmmaker from Sarnia whose short documentary film St. Louis Superman was an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 92nd Academy Awards."Sarnia film festival offering retrospective of hometown director". Sarnia Observer, October 20, 2020.
The festival's longtime executive director was Ravi Srinivasan,Paul Morden, "Sarnia film festival supporters step up". Sarnia Observer, September 23, 2020. until his death in January 2023.Barry Hertz, "Ravi Srinivasan, TIFF programmer and ‘champion’ of Canadian film community, dies at 37". The Globe and Mail, January 16, 2023. He was also an associate programmer with the Toronto International Film Festival, specializing in South Asian and Philippine films. His death resulted in the festival cancelling the 2023 edition, stating that Srinivasan's wider industry connections had been too essential to the festival's operations for it to continue without him.Paul Morden, "Sarnia's South Western International Film Festival ending". Sarnia Observer, September 22, 2023.
References
External links