Kelowna

Landmark Cinema's head office in Calgary has made it official. They are not the 2012 Okanagan Film Festival (OFF) venue.

Photo: Grant Scott

Landmark Cinemas has not reached an agreement with the OFF to use the Paramount Theatre on Bernard as their venue.

In a statement released Friday, Landmark officials revealed they would not reach an agreement with the festival after controversy arose when Castanet reported that festival organizers had included the controversial documentary "Donkey Love" on October 13.

"We have never agreed to nor would we ever agree to playing a film of this nature. We value both the creative community and our customers tremendously and we were very concerned to learn we were associated with this movie when we had no previous knowledge of it," says Neil Campbell, COO of Landmark Cinemas of Canada.

A recent poll by Castanet shows more than 50 per-cent say the film should not be shown.

Festival organizers say they had a deal almost worked out to show OFF films at the Paramount Theatre on Bernard from October 11-14.

Landmark says they were never booked and only had brief discussions with OFF.

"We have, in the past, been a tremendous supporter of the Okanagan Film Festival," says Director of Filmed Entertainment Kevin Norman.

"At this specific time, we have not signed a contractual agreement with the festival organizers due to contractual and ratings classification agreements not being met."

Norman added they are supporters of film festivals and have allowed their theatres to be used as a venue many times previously. However, they always maintain control of what is eventually shown on their screens and all films must be rated.

"In the case of the Okanagan Film Festival, agreements had not been reached with Landmark Cinemas of Canada and therefore publicizing the dates, films and show times by the organizer of the event was an unfortunate mistake."