The Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival (BITS) was first created in 2012 with a mandate to highlight the best in contemporary genre film making in Canada.
The festival will run this year from November 24 to the 27th, 2016 at Cineplex Cinemas (Yonge and Dundas) in Toronto, Canada with its unique program of premieres of features, shorts and seminars. Early bird festival passes for BITS 2016 are now on sale for only $75.
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BITS 2016
Thursday, November 24th
9:00 pm - OPENING PARTY @ Duke’s Refresher + Bar (382 Yonge Street, Unit 8 - near Yonge & Gerrard)
Friday, November 25th
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm BITS SEMINARS
Three one-hour seminar panels on entertainment law, film funding and film distribution followed by a networking mixer. Guests to be announced soon!
7:00 pm - OPENING FILM: 24x36: A MOVIE ABOUT MOVIE POSTERS Dir. Kevin Burke -- TORONTO PREMIERE
This new documentary looks to explore how the beautiful movie posters from decades past gave way to the generic designs of today, and how fans and inspired artists have resurrected the art form.
Opening with the short film GHOST CAN Dir. Jordan Barnes-Crouse -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Following a date gone awry, Josie returns home with an unwanted souvenir and an unexpected visitor.
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9:30 pm - CAPTURE KILL RELEASE Dir. Nick McAnulty -- TORONTO PREMIERE
A couple plots to murder a random stranger just for the thrill of it, but things turn ugly when one of them decides not to go through with it.
Opening with the short film: MY BROTHER CHARLIE Evan Hamza -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Bored and without a friend in the world, a young boy eagerly waits for his little brother to return home from a psychiatric facility for violent children.
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9:30 pm - CAPTURE KILL RELEASE Dir. Nick McAnulty -- TORONTO PREMIERE
A couple plots to murder a random stranger just for the thrill of it, but things turn ugly when one of them decides not to go through with it.
Opening with the short film: MY BROTHER CHARLIE Evan Hamza -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Bored and without a friend in the world, a young boy eagerly waits for his little brother to return home from a psychiatric facility for violent children.
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12:00 am - BITS GRINDHOUSE AT MIDNIGHT: HOLY HELL Dir. Ryan LaPlante -- TORONTO PREMIERE
HOLY HELL is the over-the-top, outrageous, sexually-deviant, blood-drenched story of Father Augustus Bane: a priest pushed too far who begins praying to a revolver and hunting down the gangsters who killed his parishioners. Having been described as "DEATH WISH meets THE TOXIC AVENGER, by way of HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN", HOLY HELL is a modern take on classic Action, Horror and Exploitation film tropes. The goal of this feature length movie is to break through every limit set by film, taste and reasonable societal behavior: all with anarchic glee.
Opening with the short film: INFERNO Dionne Copland -- TORONTO PREMIERE
The new girl at club INFERNO, Bambi, struggles to fit in with the other dancers. Meanwhile, Jason, arriving to celebrate his 18th birthday, is nervous, but wants to fit in with his boisterous, much more experienced friends. Bambi and Jason cross paths, with Bambi finally able to take the plunge, but this lap dance may be more terrifying than Jason originally expected.
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Opening with the short film: INFERNO Dionne Copland -- TORONTO PREMIERE
The new girl at club INFERNO, Bambi, struggles to fit in with the other dancers. Meanwhile, Jason, arriving to celebrate his 18th birthday, is nervous, but wants to fit in with his boisterous, much more experienced friends. Bambi and Jason cross paths, with Bambi finally able to take the plunge, but this lap dance may be more terrifying than Jason originally expected.
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Saturday, November 26th
2:00 pm - LIVE TV PANEL: MAKING MOVIES THE CANADIAN WAY
2:00 pm - LIVE TV PANEL: MAKING MOVIES THE CANADIAN WAY
Join host Thom Ernst for a special panel with some of the legends of Canadian genre cinema. This panel will be recorded for a two-part TV special for Bell tv-1. Guests to be announced soon!
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4:30 pm - 3 DEAD TRICK OR TREATERS Dir. Torin Langen -- WORLD PREMIERE
Four years in the making, this film combines the highly acclaimed segments Fondue and Malleus Maleficarum along with 3 other new segments into the first silent horror film anthology.
Opening with the short films: STILLBORN Dir. Tyson Carlson -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Follow the back roads. Look for the signposts that guide you to her. Find the old house in the shadow of a dying oak. The house of pleasure. The house of sin. Don’t forget to bring an offering.
NO TRESPASSING Dir. Charlie Lawton -- WORLD PREMIERE
A girl walks into the woods, and feels like she is being followed by a unseen evil.
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7:00 pm - BITS SHORT FILM SHOWCASE
THE FIGHT Dir. Clint D'Souza
A couple having a fight in parallel timelines, but what is really happening?
A QUIET MOMENT Dir. Steve Villeneuve
A mother learns that, even on a quiet night, parenthood can be full of dark surprises.
IT WANTS TO BE BORN Dir. Fil Santos
Following a traumatic incident, a young woman embarks on a journey of sex, violence, and self-discovery.
THE JOGGER Dir. Jay Randall
An overweight man, obsessed with shedding some pounds and calorie counting, has his sanity destroyed by evil fitness freaks on the jogging trail with horrific results. This oddball comedy will make you question ever going for a jog again.
STORM OF THE CENTURY Dir. Renaud Gauthier
From the Director of BITS14 Best Feature, Discopath, a young man’s tropical dreams are shattered by a violent change in the weather.
MRS. RAFFERTY'S RED RED ROSES Dir. Greg Kovacs
The Post-Lifers team are back in their record 5th entry in BITS. Mrs. Rafferty meets an intriguing door-to-door salesman who might help her to solve a little problem.
BROTHER(S) Dir. Nick Pusic
A young boy who has lost his brother, wishes him back to life.
SPREAD Dir. Samuel E. Mac
A woman with a dark secret preys on prowling single men through dating apps. Body horror meets hook-up culture.
EVERYBODY KNOWS ME Dir. Reuben Ward
Struggling with the realities of marriage, fatherhood and the spectre of his past, Don Biggs does all he can do maintain his reputation, and his sanity.
ENGINEERS Dir. Tyler Williams
A short snapshot of a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world, where 3 engineers conduct an experiment... on a dead body. An ode to the silent era of horror, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
WHAT DO YOU SEE Dirs. Charlie Hamilton and Zach Ramelan
A damaged, young woman visits a hypnotist to get answers for a recent string of hauntings.
MADRE DE DIOS (MOTHER OF GOD) Gigi Saul Guerrero
A woman wakes up bound to an altar, helpless as she is transformed into a flesh and blood statue of Santa Muerte by two elderly Brujos whose sole purpose is to conjure the anti-Christ into our plane of existence.
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9:30 pm - THE UNSEEN Dir. Geoff Redknap -- TORONTO PREMIERE
A man who abandoned his family now risks everything to find his missing daughter, including exposing the secret that he is becoming invisible.
Opening with the short film: INGRID AND THE BLACK HOLE Dir. Leah Johnston -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Ingrid and her best friend Conrad experience a lifetime of memories together when they imagine what it would be like to travel through a black hole.
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12:00 am - BITS UNDERGROUND AT MIDNIGHT: STREAMER Dirs. Jared Bratt & Vincent Pun -- WORLD PREMIERE
A loner develops a mind-bending obsession with an online cam girl.
Opening with the short films: GLIMPSE Dir. John Nicol -- TORONTO PREMIERE
A madcap horror short exploring the damaged mind of a cinephile and the madness he succumbs to.
CONSTANCE Dirs. Ian Pozzebon & Kevin Prystanski) -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Following a break-up with long-term boyfriend, Sam moves into a basement apartment with a friend. A series of terrifying dreams and sleepless nights leave Sam exhausted, disturbed and determined to figure out what exactly is in her bedroom wall.
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Sunday, November 27th
2:00 pm - KIDNAP CAPITAL Dir.Felipe Rodriguez -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Illegal immigrants to the United States are kidnapped, tortured, and forced to call home for ransom money.
Opening with the short film: TIK TIK Dir.Larica Perera -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Fearful villagers gather at the bedside of a woman nearing labour as they prepare for the presence of a sinister creature.
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4:30 pm - INSPIRATION Dir. Jason Armstrong -- WORLD PREMIERE
When a young author moves to an isolated town to return to her horror roots, bad things begin to happen. An accident leaves her questioning her grip on reality, but perhaps something more sinister at work?
Opening with the short film TAKING POSSESSION Dir. Peter Campbell -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Powers within an isolated century-old farmhouse force its new owner to battle his mind, his conscience, and the memories of the house itself.
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Powers within an isolated century-old farmhouse force its new owner to battle his mind, his conscience, and the memories of the house itself.
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7:00 pm - CLOSING FILM: THE SUBLET John Ainslie -- TORONTO PREMIERE
Joanna, a new mom coping with her baby in an odd sublet apartment as her husband neglects her to focus on his career. Joanna begins to question her sanity as she suspects that the building is haunted. As the walls literally close in on her, she discovers a violent past to the apartment, but is it postpartum depression or does this building want Joanna to give the most ultimate sacrifice?
Opening with the short film CAUCHEMAR CAPITONNΓ Dir. Jean-Claude Leblanc -- TORONTO PREMIERE
When J.-F. is inexplicably drawn to the chair in which a man committed suicide, style isn’t the only thing the leather antique brings to his home.
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10:00 pm - CLOSING PARTY @ Duke’s Refresher + Bar (382 Yonge Street, Unit 8 - near Yonge & Gerrard)
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