Atlantic Film Festival programming manager Andrew Murphy says he’s not keen on sounding cliché, but it seems he just can’t help himself, stating this year’s event may very well be “the best one yet.”
“When you put on an event like this, you always worry that it’s either going to go really, really well or really, really badly,” he said by phone Thursday.
Fortunately, Murphy said, the 29th festival is ending up on the “really well” side of that equation, although the box office numbers won’t be added up until next week, after organizers can officially call it a wrap.
“We just have a really amazing team this year and I think it’s lent itself to a really successful festival,” he said of the annual Halifax event, which started last Thursday with a screening of Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day at the Oxford Theatre and ends at the same spot this Saturday with The Trotsky.
“Everyone is just a little run down, but very happy,” he said with a chuckle.
In fact, Murphy said last Saturday’s midnight screening of the Best Worst Movie brought out “one of the most vocal” audiences he’s ever witnessed.
“These people were just wild, they were yelling out loud and laughing and talking back to the screen,” he said. “People were completely absorbed in this film.”
Murphy credits this year’s success to “a combination of the staff being really dedicated to pulling this off (and) the calibre of films.”
