Winnipeg International Feline Film Festival celebrate cats and the pet parents who love them

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

The cats have come back to the big screen.
• Winnipeg International Feline Film Festival
• Gas Station Arts Centre, 445 River Ave.
• Saturday, June 28; 6:30 p.m.
• Tickets $25 at catsmanitoba.com
The second edition of the Winnipeg International Feline Film Festival, or WIFFF, takes place Friday at the Gas Station Arts Centre with 13 short films celebrating all things cat.
Hosted by the Cats Advocacy Team of Manitoba, the event is part-fundraiser and part-animal welfare campaign.
'It seemed like a fun way to get some information out, but also to entertain and remind people how much fun and joy these little guys can bring to our lives,' says board chair and festival MC Amanda Heslop.
The local advocacy group was founded in 2024 with the goal of improving the lives of cats and kittens in Manitoba by educating pet owners and the general public on responsible animal stewardship.
The organization also provides funding for animal rescue agencies and trap-neuter-return programs, which aim to manage the growing feral cat population locally.
'Overpopulation is really, really rampant,' says Heslop, a lifelong cat lover.
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Local feline influencer Littlefoot is a guest judge at Saturday's cat film festival.
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Local feline influencer Littlefoot is a guest judge at Saturday's cat film festival.
Last year's festival raised $5,000 for the group's efforts.
There will be several celebrity judges in attendance at this year's screening, including Ace Burpee Show co-host Chrissy Troy, Métis singer-songwriter Brandi Vezina and — drumroll please — local feline influencer Littlefoot.
Boasting more than 38,000 followers on Instagram, Littlefoot, a.k.a. Footie, is looking forward to his first foray into film critiquing, according to owner Harlyn Mitchell.
The animated shorts are expected to be a hit.
'We were watching all the videos and found that he liked the cartoons because things were flying around the screen and they were a bit more playful,' says Mitchell, who will be acting as translator and handler to ensure the 'spicy' two-year-old cat behaves himself.
While cat videos exist on social media as a rare form of positive online escapism, this year's WIFFF lineup celebrates the human-feline bond and the challenges faced by cats around the world.
On the docket is a French animated flick about a lost kitten, an Icelandic horror comedy about 'Krampuss' and a documentary about a cat who escaped war-torn Ukraine.
Littlefoot's own story isn't an entirely happy one.
Mitchell found him as a tiny black kitten behind a dumpster near her workplace. He had been left behind after his mom, a feral stray, moved on with the rest of her litter.
All of the local rescues were full, so Mitchell scooped him up and started researching how to bottlefeed young kittens.
Her husband wasn't thrilled about the new addition to the house, which already contained two cats, but it didn't take long to win him over.
'As soon as he fed him for the first time, he was like, 'I would die for this cat,'' Mitchell says, laughing.
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Krampuss was directed by Gudni Linda Benediktsson.
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Krampuss was directed by Gudni Linda Benediktsson.
To avoid annoying friends with cat spam, she made Littlefoot — named for his funny sleeping posture and the Land Before Time character — his own Instagram account (@littlefootwpg) with no intention of finding internet fame.
He quickly amassed a large following thanks to his origin story, quirky personality and unique appearance (a floofy mix of Maine Coon, ragdoll and Abyssinian, according to DNA test results).
Littlefoot and his humans have started attending cat conventions and animal welfare events, such as the Winnipeg International Feline Film Festival, in the hopes of helping other young strays.
'We're always trying to encourage people to donate to shelters so they can do their best to help and advocate for pregnant cats and cats with babies, especially ones that are stray,' Mitchell says.
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Eva WasneyReporter
Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva.
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