The Victoria Film Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a record 156 films starting Friday. 

The festival has come a long way since CineVic, an independent film society, first launched it with only a few features and short films. 

"The first one I did was [in 1998] and I've been there ever since and we've grown and grown," said film festival director Kathy Kay. 

When she took over the festival in its fourth year, attendance went from a few hundred people to more than 2,000, Kay told On The Island host Gregor Craigie.

"But we had lots of empty theaters at that point," said Kay. "Now, we have 35 feature films sell out."

Film variety
The festival features a variety of films from Canada and other countries.

"I think because we bring so many more films, we have a lot of diversity," said Kay. "We've actually started to have niche programs."

The 10 day festival features Japanese, Chinese and Indian films, a new Nordic program with a collection of Danish films, as well as an Indigenous program curated by local Indigenous filmmaker Barbara Hager. 

"I think there's more diversity just because of the size and because our focus is quite broad," she added. 

Highlights
Kay said this is the biggest comedy lineup they have ever had.

Comedies screening at this year's festival include, Old Boys, Wild Nights With Emily, and Easy.

 "They're all great films and all from a different place around the world," she said. "I think those are some of the fun ones that people will think about."

However, Kay is most looking forward to bringing back Smoke Signals, which originally screened at the festival in 1998 after showing at Sundance.

Director Chris Eyre and actors Evan Adams and Tantoo Cardinal will be at the screening to take part in a panel discussion about the impact the film had on sharing Indigenous stories in the film industry.

"This [film] seemed to really be a marker in the history and the growth of the festival in Victoria," said Kay.

"So I think that's a real special highlight."