By R. Paul Dhillon

The annual Whistler Film Festival was held in the main Whistler village amidst the beautiful surroundings of the snow capped mountains from Nov. 30-Dec. 4. If you can't get to Sundance then Whistler is your best bet and for us local filmmakers – it's literally in our back yard. I'm was there with my buddy Don Fiorvento, an actor and hope to be a producer but happy as a lawyer. The festival has been on both of our bucket lists and so finally this year we made it up there. The festival is small but if offers up some big events like the prestigious Variety's 10 Screenwriters to watch panel, which was a really delight for me as a filmmaker and screenwriter. The Hollywood bible Variety brought up 5 of the their Top 10 Screenwriters to watch, including a few of my favourites – Todd Komarnicki who wrote the Tom Hanks starring and Clint Eastwood directed Sully and Jonas Cuaron who wrote Desierto and Gravity with his famous director Dad Alfonso Cuaron. Great insight from the top writers in the Hollywood Game and this is where all cinema comes from – the Writers.

Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta was also there with her perfunctory annual film (let's get more government funds) Anatomy of Violence which was a sort of a look at the infamous 2014 Delhi gang-rape but seemed more like a sympathy for the Devils (rapists) poverty porn and she got some criticism on that front from the audience Q&A. The festival gave her an obligatory Trailblazer Award but the film was another lame vehicle for her.

Also being honoured at the festival was former NHL hockey star Theo Fleury, who received the Spotlight on Saturday and was bestowed the Humanitarian Award for his work in the field of helping sexual abuse victims live again after his own ordeal of being sexually exploited by a former coach came to light. Sled Dogs took the top Film Prize at the festival and it was party time for all the attendees Saturday night at the Longhorn Pub.