Guide to Ottawa
OIAF
Official links#
Getting to OIAF by transit#
Take Line 1 to Rideau station.
At Rideau station, go through the William St exit. All OIAF venues are in a walkable distance from there. (The other exit is also fine, but very slightly further away.)
Tickets and passes#
If you only care about screenings, you can just buy tickets. You can buy singles for a specific screening or buy a six-pack, which you can redeem ahead of a screening.
If you want to attend a social event or see a lot (like really a lot) of screenings, get a pass. There are single-day passes as well as multi-day ones. Buying passes on-location is possible. Beyond a certain threshold, a pass is better value than tickets.
| Type of admission | Cost | Admits to | Value threshold |
|---|---|---|---|
| One ticket | $16 | One screening | - |
| Six tickets | $80 ($13.33/ticket) | Six screenings (redeem ahead of a screening) | 6.0 |
| Wednesday pass | $60 | All screenings and events during pass's time period | 4.5 |
| Thursday pass | $80 | 6.0 | |
| Friday pass | $90 | 6.8 | |
| Saturday pass | $80 | 6.0 | |
| Sunday pass | $65 | 4.9 | |
| Weekend pass (starts Fri 3 pm) | $155 | 11.6 |
The “value threshold” column shows the cost of a pass relative to a ticket from a six-pack[1]. During a pass's time period, if you attend more screenings and events than this threshold, the pass is better value than the ticket six-pack.
Events#
Most events at the festival admit both tickets and passes. Social events are pass-only.
Screenings#
Overview of screenings and what films are in each
Screenings are usually run twice, so if you miss the first, there's still a chance to catch it.
Most screenings don't fill up.
Types of screenings:
- Official competition
- the films eligible to win
- some short film screenings are marked as “*Gala” on the schedule, meaning the filmmakers are in attendance and you get to vote for one to win the Public Prize
- Canadian Panorama, Detours
- submitted films that didn't qualify for the official competition but were still worth screening
- Special screenings
- films curated by theme or presented by sponsors
Talks#
Social events#
Social events require a pass to enter.
Some social events you may be interested in:
- Thursday night: Salon des Refusés Party
- At the back of the room, you can watch the films rejected from the main festival, while hanging out with their animators
- General partying at the front
- Friday afternoon: Animators' Picnic
- Catered lunch and pumpkin carving at a park
- Saturday night: NightOwl Party
- General partying, a quiet room, and a room where everyone is sketching cosplayers
- There's also Pique (free admission), a separate whole-building art festival that happens to take place during OIAF. Electronic music and "out there" art, and this year, apparently also a sauna somehow
- Sunday night: Closing Night Party
- low-energy, chill hangout that usually only has about a dozen people
- the very last event of the festival
- ^
So the value threshold is the pass's cost divided by $13.33, the cost of a ticket from a six-pack.