Which is more important: the Vancouver International Film Festival or the Whistler Film Festival? 

A film industry leader made his choice clear when the Whistler Film Festival kicked off their countdown to their 15^th anniversary with a fundraising event and lineup preview at the Blue Water Café in Yaletown on August 28.

At the Celebrate WFF event, festival cofounder Shauna Hardy Mishaw honoured two film industry leaders who have been a part of WFF for over a decade and are on the WFF board of directors: Brightlight Pictures chairman Shawn Williamson and chartered accountant Neal Clarance who helped create the film tax credit program.

Williamson, who has produced over 90 productions in last 15 years including White Noise, The Interview, and Horns, launched Brightlight in 2011, whose films include Frankie and Alice, starring Halle Berry; Kari Skogland's Fifty Dead Men Walking; and Uwe Boll films. 

Williamson talked about the importance of the business side of the film industry, which he said the WFF gets.

"What I loved about Shauna and the film festival was the opportunity to take the Whistler Film Festival into what Sundance is and…[it] has become a festival that actually matters to the film community," he told the attendees in a speech, "and I love the Vancouver [International] Film Festival and they're awesome, but they don't really matter to the film industry. Shauna matters….At the end of the day, all that really matters is that we finance things that people are going to buy. What Shauna actually remembers is that it's a business. We can try to make all we want and I've made many, many films that nobody will see. But at the end of the day, it's a business….Art is awesome but if no one sees it, it doesn't matter."

The WFF features the Industry Summit, an annual conference for film industry professionals that runs at the same time as the festival. This year's Summit will run for three days from December 3 to 5 and focus on the business and future of Canadian films in the digital age.

However, the Vancouver International Film Festival, which runs from September September 24 to October 9, also has an annual conference for industry professionals, VIFF Industry, that will run this year for five days from September 29 to October 3 in tandem with the festival. Incidentally, the WFF kick-off event was held just prior to VIFF's festival launch, which will be held on September 8.

Hardy Mishaw also honoured chartered accountant Neal Clarance, one of the architects of the film tax credit program.

"I've always thought that film festivals should be something where people can enjoy film and business together in a specific destination where you immerse yourself in that joy and business, like Cannes or like Sundance, unlike ones that are sort of run all over the place and they're just one of many, many events in big cities," Clarance said in a speech. "At Whistler, you can actually get there and that's the event of that weekend or those five days and everybody gets involved."

Meanwhile, the first 18 titles from the festival's 2015 lineup were also revealed. This year's festival runs from December 2 to 6.

Among the more unique offerings, there's the world premiere of a cinematic one-man show, Nestor , which is written, produced, directed, and edited by Daniel Robinson, who also stars in this feature film about outdoor survival.

The screening of Canadian filmmaker Ingrid Veninger's South American–shot feature He Hated Pigeons, which chronicles a young man's journey into adulthood, will feature a spontaneous score performed live by musicians.

Numerous titles feature local names and connections.

Vancouver stars Camille Sullivan and Gabrielle Rose portray a mother and daughter trying to reconnect in Siobhan Devine's The Birdwatcher while B.C. actor Fred Ewanuick stars in Patterson's Wager, about a man with short-term precognitive abilities.

Elsewhere in the program, Vancouver actor Tianna Nori stars in the psychological thriller The Sublet, about the mental breakdown of a new mother after moving into an apartment, and B.C. filmmaker Jeffery Lando's horror Suspension will have its Canadian premiere.

In Jan Foukal's documentary Amerika, Vancouver's Barbara Adler takes viewers on an exploration of an Eastern European movement called tramping, in which people escape urban life to live in the wilderness with a lifestyle inspired by the American Wild West.

Vancouver filmmaker Melanie Jones offers a look at a female DJ searching for love in a world of social media and raves in FSM (Female Seeking Male).

Among other Candian productions announced, director Jane Hui Wang's documentary Last Harvest, captures the dilemma of an elderly Chinese couple who are forced to relocate for a water diversion project in China.

For more information about the festival, visit the Whistler Film Festival website.