The ninth annual Whistler Film Festival will inspire and educate people while providing a platform to discuss the changing landscapes of cinema, according to the festival’s artistic director, Stacey Donen. “I want to help create a festival that really means something to people,” Donen told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview from the festival’s headquarters in Whistler.

This is Donen’s first year helming the festival, which runs from December 3 to 6, and he said he concentrated his efforts on providing thought-provoking movies. As well, he highlighted the role the festival plays in shining the spotlight on emerging filmmakers, specifically through the Borsos awards. “We’d like to think of it [the WFF] as a discovery film festival,” Donen said, noting that two of the six films nominated for the $15,000 prize—Sook-Yin Lee’s film Year of the Carnivore and Corey Adams and Alex Craig’s Machotaildrop—were created by B.C. filmmakers.

This year’s festival will feature 80 films, with 66 of them making their B.C. premiere and five of those having their Canadian debut.

Three films making their world premieres at this year’s WFF are Andrew Nisker’s Chemerical: Redefining Clean for a New Generation, a documentary that explores the consequences of living in a chemical-laden world; Brian Nash’s Out of the Woods, which explores the negative effects of the logging industry; and René Brar’s Taylor’s Way, a feature-length thriller inspired by stories of women who disappear in the Canadian wilderness.

With Whistler as the picturesque backdrop to the festival, several films, unsurprisingly, take on the subjects of skiing, snowboarding, and the city itself, including the documentary Edge of Never, which follows a tribe of skiers who challenge the most dangerous mountains in the world.

Although Donen spoke about the festival being an opportunity for movie lovers to explore new film, he also stressed the importance of the festival for industry members. Each year, an industry-led forum takes place in conjunction with the festival, and this year’s version will tackle new technological developments and the changing landscape of cinema in the digital world.

“I’m very optimistic about the state of cinema right now, and I think there are great films being made in the world,” Donen said. “We don’t normally have the opportunity to see these films.”¦hopefully, this festival will allow people to discover some of them.”