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Dear friends of the Beach Blanket Film Festival, Thank you for supporting sixteen years of Canadian cinema! Looking back, I know we achieved all of that, and much more. Nature works in cycles, and where there are beginnings there are also endings. This year it’s time for the festival to take a bow, say “Thank you very much!”, and to come to an end. As founder of the festival, I am proud of all that the Beach Blanket team has brought to our community. These volunteers have overcome numerous and ongoing obstacles and logistics in staging such an ambitious event in the outdoors, in the wind, on sometimes stormy nights. 49 Canadian feature films and almost 200 short films, many from the Okanagan have been screened to appreciative audiences. Writers, directors and producers have dropped by and talked to our audiences and let us in on the challenges and excitement they face in brining their stories to life. Many fine musicians and performers have entertained audiences who arrived early and waited for the sky to darken. Many local business gave of their time and resources to make the event appear each year on the shores of Okanagan Lake. And of course all of this would not have mattered if we did not have thousands of wonderful people come out and watch the films, which they did, year after year! But things sometimes need to come to a close in order to be reborn into something new, and this is where I feel we are at with the festival, allowing the curtain to close on the Beach Blanket Film Festival as we knew it. Thank you again to all who were part of creating and appreciating the magic that was the Beach Blanket Film Festival, we certainly have a lot to be proud of. Nikos Theodosakis, Founder.
Produced and maintained for the Beach Blanket Film Festival |