11th Annual Festival Collects Copious Cans!

Eleventh Annual Festival Collects Copious Cans!

Another impressive haul of canned food was collected for The Salvation Army Christmas food banks at the eleventh annual Hoyts-Wattie’s Cans Film Festival last week.

Festival Patron Carolyn Robinson from TV3’s Nightline says the support for the event was heartening. “The evening is a great occasion for families to get together, watch a movie and donate towards a very worthy cause. The generosity of thousands of movie fans who exchanged a can of food for a seat to a range of selected movies has made this festival highly successful again this year.”

In addition to the generous contributions from movie-goers, Wattie’s matched the number of publicly donated cans to assist The Salvation Army food banks to help families and individuals through what can be a difficult and stressful time of year. The total number of cans donated was more than 60,000. The Salvation Army spokesperson Gerry Walker says, “After celebrating a decade of Hoyts Wattie’s Cans Film Festivals last year, it’s fantastic to see another successful event this year. The contributions are warmly received by The Salvation Army, because this time of the year brings increased demand on our food banks. We are grateful, as ever, for the tremendous support of Wattie’s, Hoyts and other participating cinemas and the spirit of generosity displayed by so many around the country.”

The festival involved more than 125 screenings at Hoyts, Village and selected independent cinema locations around New Zealand.

Elizabeth Trotman, Marketing Director at Hoyts Cinemas says, “Demand for the festival screenings is always very high across the country and several additional screenings were held. We continue to be grateful to Village Sky City, Reading, independent cinemas and others who helped co-ordinate this year’s event.”

Gerard McAleese of Wattie’s says, “New Zealand is an extremely generous nation – donations of cans always exceed the number of people actually attending the festival and Wattie’s is very proud to play its part for such an important cause.”

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