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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, July 8, 2016 | 18 John Bkila Editor jbkila@oakvillebeaver.com Art activities, music, shows and more on tap for festival continued from p.3 "Giving kids the opportunity to engage in arts and culture at an early age strengthens our cultural community and makes Oakville a better, more liveable place for residents of all ages." This year's theme is "A passport through our Town," with activities aimed at infants to children aged 12 and their caregivers. The festival, which runs from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., rain or shine, will include hands-on building and art activities, dance and music lessons, interactive shows, City Parent Fun Zone and Scavenger Hunt, skateboard ramp, face painting, vintage fire truck, seed planting, robotics, and Oakville Hydro bucket rides, among other events. For a full list of features and map of the festival grounds, visit http://goo.gl/3n24Js. But entertainment won't be the only thing on the festival menu, with various food options available, including: the Kinsmen Club of Oakville barbecue lunch and popular food trucks Dairy Kings, Gotham Grill, Green Machine Smoothies, Kona Ice, Ice Cream 4U, Luchador Gourmet Streatery, Meltdown Cheesery, The Mighty Cob, and Tim Hortons. Festival-goers are reminded there will be no parking inside Coronation Park and onstreet parking is extremely limited. Free bike parking will be available at the event, while residents and out-of-town Artscene "Connected to your Community" I am so pleased to see yet another opportunity for children and families to get involved in this tremendous event, free of charge. Giving the kids the opportunity to engage in arts and culture at an early age strengthens our cultural community and makes Oakville a better, more liveable place for residents of all ages. Mayor Rob Burton Town of Oakville guests are encouraged to take the free Oakville Transit shuttle. Free shuttle from Bronte GO Service from the Bronte GO Station, 2104 Wyecroft Rd., (west-end bus loop) begins at 9:30 a.m. with buses operating approximately every five minutes to and from the festival. The last shuttle leaves Coronation Park at 5 p.m. Organizers advise anyone attending the smoke-free festival to bring sunscreen, a blanket and reusable bottle for the free water refill stations. Because of the large crowds and excitement from the events taking place, visitors are encouraged to leave their pets at home. Festival sponsors this year include: City Parent, FirstOntario Credit Union, Knowledge First Financial, Whole Foods Market Oakville, Brockton Collective, Curbex Media, Creative Marketing, DrainStar, Pizza Pienza, SB Simpson Industrial Supplies, and SOCAN Foundation. For more information, visit oakville.ca. Film festival announces Film.Ca Audience Choice Awards winners by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff Before officially calling it a wrap on the third annual Willson Oakville Film Festival (WOFF), organizers announced this year's Film.Ca Audience Choice Awards. The festival, which is put on by the Oakville Festivals of Film and Art (OFFA), was held June 24-26 at lead venue sponsor Film.Ca Cinemas and the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, which hosted two gala premieres. According to organizers, this year's festival attracted record numbers and had four sold-out screenings. The winner for Best Feature was Canadian indie film Scratch, which was a world premiere for WOFF and had a sold-out audience. The crime action flick, directed by Maninder Chana and produced by Michael Dragnea, tells the story of a female rookie armoured truck guard caught in a robbery plot gone wrong between her co-workers and greedy gangsters. "This is amazing," said Chana. "Thank you so much for putting Scratch into the festival. This is the best result moving forward with this film that we could have hoped for.... This has been one of the best festival experiences I've had and I've had films screened around the world. "For three years in, you (WOFF) have (had) your act together better than those that have been doing it for decades. Continued success. Keep going," he continued. Chana noted he intends to release the film theatrically later this year. · · · The winner of Best Short was local producer/director Jeremy McCracken's 10-minute short film, Fastball, where a young boy deals with his grief over losing his mother by playing baseball. "We really enjoyed the experience of screening our short film Fastball at the Willson Oakville Film Festival. It was the North American premiere, so this was the first time we were able to view it in a theatre, on the big screen," said McCracken. "Hearing that we won the audience award for best short film Oakville Festivals of Film and Art (OFFA) announced Thursday (July 7) the winners of the Film.Ca Audience Choice Awards from the third annual Willson Oakville Film Festival, which ran June 24-26. Canadian indie film Scratch took Best Feature, while Fastball was named Best Short. At Film.Ca Cinemas, are, from left: Maninder Chana and Michael Dragnea (Scratch director and producer, respectively), Film.Ca CEO Jeff Knoll, OFFA executive director and co-founder Wendy Donnan, Film.Ca's Tori Nixon, and Fastball director Jeremy McCracken. | photo by Nikki Wesley ­ Oakville Beaver was just incredible. Fastball is a very personal film created with the hopes that the audience would connect with it, so it's meaningful to get that feedback." McCracken added Fastball will continue on the festival circuit as it has been selected for three international festivals, including a screening at the Rivne International Film Festival in Ukraine, at the end of August. Jeff Knoll, CEO of Film.Ca, said he was excited about the calibre of this year's winners. "We were thrilled to host the festival at Film.Ca again this year. We always love supporting local and independent filmmakers and think that the Film.Ca Audience Choice award winners show off some of the best of what the very talented filmmaking community has to offer," he said. Award winners receive a cash prize and certificate from WOFF . OFFA, co-founded by executive director Wendy Donnan and artistic director Judah Hernandez, is a non-profit organization that brings Canadian and world premieres and screenings to local cinephiles.