The movie theatres may be closed, but the Windsor International Film Festival is not letting the pandemic stop movie night.
Between Friday, August 28 and Saturday, September 12, organizers plan to turn the Festival Riverfront Plaza into a drive-in theatre.
"I think we've all had a really, really hard summer, lots of cancellations, but we wanted to show a bright spot in the summer and actually give people something to cheer about," said WIFF Executive Director Vincent Georgie.
After being forced to cancel this fall's festival, Georgie said organizers had to get creative. Over three months, the team partnered with LiUNA, St. Clair College, the University of Windsor, the Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare Foundation, the Toldo Foundation, the City of Windsor, and others.
"We normally wouldn't have thought of doing a drive-in because we were so busy working on the main festival -- but with everyone being safe in their car -- I think it makes people appreciate having great events all the more when so many of them over the summer have not happened," he said.
Already a wide-ranging repertoire of fan favourites and classics are lined up.
"We've got a ton of great ones," explained Georgie. "We've brought back A League of Their Own, the baseball comedy with Tom Hanks and Geena Davis. We've got a James Bond night. We've got lots of Disney films for families -- It was meant to be kind of an escapist summer and just let people enjoy themselves."
The cost is $40 per vehicle for the evening double-features or $20 per vehicle for family matinees. Movie-goers will be able to use an app to listen in or tune in on a radio be handed out to those who go.
Georgie expects the tickets to go fast.
"We are not selling tickets the day of. Everything is pre-purchased, so we're expecting tickets to be flying for this," he said. "It's going to be a really popular thing, just from the people we're talking to," he said. "We definitely recommend grabbing your tickets ahead of time."
If the drive-in is as successful as Georgie hopes, he said he might consider making it an annual event in addition to the Windsor International Film Festival, which is held each November.
"We're just trying to get through the first one, but we're having so much fun doing it, and people have been so positive about it already, it's something we would look at," said Georgie.
