Canadian wine makers strike gold in the Hunter...

Ascella Pure Wine is the official wine of the Canadian Film Festival. You will have sampled it at Opening Night, or one of our drink receptions throughout the Festival in August.

It hails from the Hunter Valley's largest organic vineyard. The family-owned business is run by Canadian-Australians Geoff & Barb Brown. It recently won 3 medals in the 2011 Hunter Valley Wine Industry Awards, and Ascella wine maker Liz Jackson is the Hunter Valley Wine Maker of the Year.

Geoff Brown was born and raised in Wagga Wagga, but moved to Canada some 43 years ago to do his PhD in engineering. He met Barb, who is from Vancouver. Barb & Geoff made Australia their home six years ago and now run the largest organic vineyard in the Hunter Valley. (They're also on Facebook!).

Barb & Geoff are committed to health, wellbeing and protecting the environment. The choose not to spray harmful herbicides, fungicides and pesticides on the grapes in their vineyard, nor on their orchard or vegetable garden. The result is an award-winning organic wine of the highest quality, that not only tastes better but is better for our health.

If you'd like another chance to sample Ascella's pure wines, head on out to the 9th Spirit Of The Vine Festival in the Broke Fordwich Wine Region. Ascella will be holding wine tastings alongside live music and art, jewellery, food and coffee stalls at Catherine Vale Vineyard, on the weekend of October 22nd-23rd. Download the flyer.

Friends of Ascella have access to great prices, and become eligible to purchase Ascella Pure Wine Tasting Packs which have even better value and free shipping Australia-wide for a limited time. Find out more here!

Our programmers in Toronto!

Karina & Matt at the TIFF Opening Night party

Possible Worlds co-programmer Karina and I recently traveled to the Toronto International Film Festival thanks to Air Canada, to scout for new Canadian films and meet with Canadian filmmakers and producers. 

Between us, we saw over 30 new Canadian feature films and they both agree it was a stellar year for films made North of Hollywood. This means you're in for an amazing line-up at Possible Worlds, Sydney's 7th Canadian Film Festival, hitting Sydney in August 2012.

The cast of A Dangerous Methodsome of Canada's most acclaimed directors had new film in the festival this year, including David Cronenberg (A DANGEROUS METHOD) and Guy Maddin (KEYHOLE).

One of the highlights among the Canadian films was Philippe Falardeau's moving classroom drama MONSIEUR LAZHAR, which won the prize for Best Canadian Feature, and was subsequently chosen to represent Canada at the Oscars (fingers crossed!). 

Karina's favourite Canadian feature was Sarah Polley's new film as a director TAKE THIS WALTZ, the follow-up to the much-loved Away From Her. Michelle Williams delivers a stunning performance as a young woman who must choose between her kind, loving husband (Seth Rogen) and the exciting, handsome new neighbour (Luke Kirby). The film displays Polley's trademark emotional honesty and gorgeous, colour-saturated photography. It's like a love letter to Toronto in the summer...

My favourite was Anne Emond's debut feature NUIT #1. The film is a two-hander set entirely in a dingy Montreal apartment, and it unfolds in real time. It charts the one-night stand between Clara & Nikolai, who've just met in a club. The film moves from sweaty sex to frank discussion as the couple decide to talk until dawn. Voicing the anger, frustration, fears and aspirations of an entire generation, this raw debut feature is both a slap across the face and long, tight hug... it establishes Quebec's Anne Emond as a talent to watch.

We got to brush up against a few celebrities (Willem Dafoe and Kevin Spacey, for example), but more importantly, we met some fascinating Canadian filmmakers, many of whom are chomping at the bits at the idea of coming to Australia to present their work at the Festival and meet you, the audience! We're already hard at work raising funding for next year's festival and compiling a wish list of the best films made up north. Keep your eyes peeled!

Sarah Polley presents Take This Waltz

And the winner is...

Possible Worlds, the 6th Sydney Canadian Film Festival, wrapped last night with the Sydney premiere of Small Town Murder Songs, capping an intense, successful week of screenings, Q&A's, live music and parties.

20 feature films were shown at the festival, including 14 Australian premieres. Visitors were encouraged to rate the films they saw at the Festival, entering into a draw to win a PlayBook courtesy of BlackBerry. All the votes have been counted and the results are in!

We're thrilled to reveal that with an average score of 3.83 stars (out of 4), the winner of this year's Audience Award for Best Film is LIBERIA '77 by Jeff Topham. Vancouver filmmaker Jeff Topham was was in town to present the Australian premiere of the film.

Jeff & Andrew Topham in Liberia '77

The film follows the brothers Jeff and Andrew as they return to Liberia, the land in which they spent much of their childhood, to rediscover the places and people photographed by their father. Their expectations of the journey rapidly change as they realise their father’s photographs don’t just represent their memory of Liberia, but a stimulus for collective memory. This poignant, thought-provoking documentary illustrates how photography can unite us across time, distance, culture, even war.

You can find out more about the film and the associated crowdsourcing photography project at www.liberia77.com. 

Read interviews of Jeff over at SBS Documentary and Trespass Magazine, or listen to his chat with Kate Jinx on FBi Radio's Too Much podcast.

Jeff Topham with PW artistic director Matt Ravier & filmmaker Jay Cheel 
(Photo by Jayda Tham)

Live & work in Canada!

Looking for a new challenge? A change of scenery? Or perhaps you want to gain valuable international work experience in a bilingual country, travel across Canada while working at stops along the way, or simply intern abroad for your work placement.

Why not participate under International Experience Canada and spend a ski season on the slopes of Whistler, in the beautiful ski town of Banff? If snow isn’t your thing, spend warm sunny days working by a crystal clear lake in one of Canada's famed wilderness, or get that competitive edge by furthering your career in the urban locales of Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto.  

The International Experience Canada offers 18 to 30 year old Australian passport holders a permit to work anywhere in Canada, currently for up to two years. No job offer is necessary. 

The possibilities and opportunities you can gain out of a travel, work and cultural experience in Canada can be life changing.  

Click the image below for more info.

St Ambroise is the beer of the Festival!

McAuslan Brewing is one of Quebec's best known and most successful microbreweries. We are thrilled to announce its star beer, St Ambroise, is the Official Beer of Possible Worlds 2011!

Established in January of 1989, on St-Ambroise Street in Montreal's St-Henri district, the brewery launched its first beer in February 1989. St-Ambroise Pale Ale was an immediate success. Its distinctive hoppy-ness and clear reddish hue set it apart and gained it an instant following. 

Each McAuslan beer is lovingly nurtured and brewed without compromise from only from the best available ingredients. This care and attention to detail has earned McAuslan a place in the heart of many a beer aficionado worldwide.

St-Ambroise Pale Ale is the brewery's flagship beer. It is a hoppy, amber, full-flavoured ale. In the definitive Great Beer Guide, beer critic Michael Jackson described it in the following way: "very perfumy, outstandingly hoppy in aroma and flavor, dry and appetizing. It has a light, soft body, but full, long flavors, developing lemony-orangey notes, and an elegant dryness in the finish.

Once only produced as a seasonal brand, St-Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale, meanwhile, is a light-bodied wheat beer flavoured with apricots. Pale gold in colour with the taste experience of an aromatic, quenching drink offering a balance of flavourful wheat beer character with a dry, prominent, apricot finish. Enjoyed by both the discerning beer drinker and those who prefer fruity, less traditional beverages and beers.

Try a St-Ambroise for free at selected screenings!