It’s been about a month since the Vancouver International Film Festival ended but there’s more than enough going on to keep your calendar full.

Film festivals galore

The Vancouver Asian Film Festival just got into gear last night with its first screening and party, and runs until Sunday.

Next week, the Vancouver Serbian FilmFest (Nov. 12 to 15) gets started at the Ridge.

And on November 28, the European Union Film Festival launches, with two weeks of screenings of 25 European films from 25 countries. Magnifique!

Then from December 4 to 7, the Whistler Film Festival lights up the mountain with 92 films.

Family fare

Meanwhile, on Sunday (Nov. 9), the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth starts up a new montly series, Family Film Screenings, which will run until January (the Reel 2 Real festival will be held February 21-28 in 2009) with a screening of Bluebird, a Dutch film about bullying, at 1 p.m. at the Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour).

After the screening, there’ll be a free film criticism workshop from 3 to 5 p.m. for youth aged 10 to 19.

Screenwriting stuff

Screen scribes, jot these down.

Georgia Straight movie reviewer Ken Eisner will be speaking with actor, writer, and director Guinevere Turner (American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page, The L Word) in an evening presented by the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters entitled “Psychos, Vampires, and Vamps”.

It’ll be held on Wednesday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. at SFU Harbour Centre (Room 1800, 515 West Hastings). Believe it or not, it’s free!

Then on Tuesday, November 18, screenwriter and instructor Jana Williams will be launching her new DVD Wordsmythe: Screenwriting Essentials. It’ll be held at Biz Books (302 West Cordova Street) from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Williams has taught at Emily Carr University and has worked as a post-coordinator and visual effects producer for feature films.