Guides
3 Calgary and Edmonton trivia rounds built on Alberta film festival history
Three ready Alberta celebrity trivia rounds drawn from Calgary and Edmonton film festival history, with answer keys and sourcing checks for hosts.
What to take away
- Three rounds of ten questions eachCalgary, Edmonton and Alberta-wide, with a source line on every answer key.
- Ten questions fill a fifteen to twenty minute slot and leave time to mark.
- The Calgary round anchors on the Calgary International Film Festival, founded in 1999 and first held in 2000.
- The Edmonton round anchors on older eventsthe Fringe from 1982 and the film festival from 1986.
Build a round from one verified fact
Start with a festival and a year, not a name you half remember.
- Pick the festival and the year.
- Open that year's program or press release.
- Find one named credit in it.
- Write three questions from that fact and paste the source line into the key.
Round one: Calgary
Answers 1 to 5 come from festival and venue records. Answers 6 to 10 are Calgary city and music history, not festival-derived, so label them that way.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Year the Calgary International Film Festival was founded? | 1999 |
| Which Calgary filmmaker directed Waydowntown? | Gary Burns |
| Which 1930s Kensington cinema has hosted festival screenings? | The Plaza Theatre |
| Which Calgary festival programs underground and genre film? | The Calgary Underground Film Festival |
| Which Calgary folk festival fills Prince's Island Park? | The Calgary Folk Music Festival |
| Which Calgary festival fills July with rodeo and celebrities? | The Calgary Stampede |
| Which Calgary-born twin duo has recorded since the 1990s? | Tegan and Sara |
| Which Calgary-born singer had a 1994 hit with Insensitive? | Jann Arden |
| Which Canadian singer was raised in Calgary? | Feist |
| Which Calgary-born actor starred in 24 and Happy Endings? | Elisha Cuthbert |
Source line: Calgary International Film Festival program archive and City of Calgary arts records, including Arts and Culture in Calgary.
Our Canadian Celebrity Trivia Questions set gives a wider Canadian base to localize.
Round two: Edmonton
- Which Edmonton festival has run at Gallagher Park since 1980? Answer: the Edmonton Folk Music Festival.
- In what year did the Edmonton International Film Festival begin? Answer: 1986.
- Which repertory cinema programs out of the Garneau Theatre? Answer: Metro Cinema.
- Which Edmonton rapper was named the city's poet laureate in 2009? Answer: Cadence Weapon.
- Which Edmonton jazz pianist and Juno winner later served in the Senate? Answer: Tommy Banks.
- Which concert hall, home to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, opened in 1997? Answer: the Winspear Centre.
- In what year was the Edmonton Fringe founded? Answer1982.
- In which two years have the Juno Awards been held in Edmonton? Answer: 2004 and 2023.
- Which Edmonton-born actor played Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly? Answer: Nathan Fillion.
- Which theatre on Whyte Avenue dates to 1915? Answerthe Princess Theatre.
Source line: Edmonton International Film Festival archive, Edmonton Fringe program history and Juno records held by CARAS.
Music answers need a date, not only a name. Our Music Celebrity Trivia directory shows how to pin a performance to a year and a venue.
Venue questions that hold up
- Which venue hosted a named festival's main stage in a given decade?
- Which artist opened or closed a named Edmonton festival in a given year?
- Which festival moved location, and in what year?
Example: the Winspear Centre
"Which Edmonton concert hall opened in 1997 and houses the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra?" has one answer and one record. A harder follow-up asks which Edmonton festival fills late June, the Edmonton International Jazz Festival.
Round three: Alberta-wide
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Which Edmonton-born actor became famous as Marty McFly? | Michael J. Fox |
| Which Edmonton-born comedian found fame in a stoner duo? | Tommy Chong |
| Which Calgary-born Glee actor died in 2013? | Cory Monteith |
| Which Alberta-born singer recorded Constant Craving? | k.d. lang |
| Which Alberta town is Nickelback associated with? | Hanna |
| Which Alberta-shot film won Leonardo DiCaprio a Best Actor Oscar? | The Revenant |
| Which Alberta-shot western won Clint Eastwood a directing Oscar? | Unforgiven |
| Which Edmonton-based filmmaker directed Loyalties? | Anne Wheeler |
| Which Alberta-shot HBO series premiered in 2023? | The Last of Us |
| Which Alberta film awards are known as the Rosies? | the Alberta Film and Television Awards |
Source line: production credit lists, Alberta Film and Television Awards records from AMPIA, and Library and Archives Canada holdings.
Funding and award records sit behind many of these credits, and Culture, history and sport programmes on Canada.ca cover that paper trail.
Spread questions across acting, writing and technical credits, as our Movie and TV Trivia by Profession guide sets out.
Scoring, ties and running order
Mark one point per question, no half points. Collect sheets at the end of each round rather than at the end of the night.
Announce before the first round that the hardest question, placed last, decides a tie. Keep a printed key with a source line beside each answer, and number the questions on both sheets so a disputed answer is easy to trace.
Sourcing: the archives that settle an answer
Calgary records sit at the City of Calgary Archives, the Calgary Public Library's local history collection, the Glenbow holdings and the festival's own program archive.
Edmonton records sit at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, the City of Edmonton Archives and Metro Cinema's program listings. Festival press releases and venue listings carry dates you can quote directly, and a program corrected after publication is the version to cite.
National records run through Library and Archives Canada, whose mandate comes from the Library and Archives of Canada Act. When a ceremony year and a release year differ, the key needs both, which is where our Awards Trivia by Decade piece helps.
