Cinéfest Sudbury Dispatch #2: The Shout Out

Somebody we know who works for TIFF and travels widely to attend festivals said to us, "Enjoy Cinéfest, it's one of the best festivals in Canada, no BS."

Yesterday afternoon, we found out one more reason why.

We were sitting in the half-dark theatre a couple rows back, waiting for PRIMARY to start, when a suited gentleman came up to us and said,

"Excuse me, are you guys from THE VOLUNTEER?".

Uh. YES. HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

It was Patrick O'Hearn, Managing Director of Cinéfest!! He had recognized me from our poster and our screener! He thanked us for coming and assured us we would connect over the next couple days to talk about our premiere and Q&A to follow. Seconds later, he was in the spotlight at the front of the theatre, introducing the film and at the end he pointed us out and told everybody to go see our film on Thursday. We got a nice round of applause.

The point is this - how cool is it that the Managing Director of a major film festival would recognize a couple of no-name indie filmmakers in a dark theatre full of people and give them a shout out?

Cinéfest for the win!