At a time when many corporate Christmas and New Year’s parties were marked by smaller attendance and cutbacks to the social funds that fuel the festivities, the Alberta film industry recently celebrated the new year with a bang. And with good reason — amid turmoil, bleak forecasts and layoffs for many Alberta industries, the province’s filmmakers, actors and crew members are experiencing an unexpected period of growth.

Alberta Film maintains that the outlook is positive in spite of multiple market forces working against it. The high Canadian dollar, the recent writers’ strike in the U.S. and continued fallout from the actors’ strike a few years ago are still affecting investment, and the number of film productions in progress is down across the country. The number of projects being filmed in Alberta, in particular, has decreased dramatically, with estimates ranging as high as 25 per cent fewer productions in the works. The budgets of the TV series and films that are being filmed in Alberta, though, have risen dramatically in the last year, to a total of $130 million, up from $100 million this time last year.

Alberta Film commissioner Jeff Brinton points to CBC’s Wild Roses and Heartland as two major series being produced in the province. Films and made-for-TV movies are also spending bigger bucks, activity he attributes to Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett’s expansion of the Alberta Film Development Fund and other incentives that the province has created to stimulate the industry. The fund, which is fed by lottery revenues and goes towards helping produce films that use Albertan crews and locations, grew by $14 million in 2008, and the per-production cap was doubled to $3 million.

Brinton doesn’t think that it’s strictly the actions of the government that have led the industry to flourish. He applauds the work of the local film community itself, stating “We have world-class crews and actors in the province that, alongside the incentives that we provide, make it very appealing to film here.”

Alberta has a nearly limitless talent pool for western and period pieces. The province has some of the best animal wranglers, horsemen and horsewomen around, as well as ready-to-use film sets and a diverse natural landscape that is ideal for frontier movies. In addition to the CBC’s two series, other western-themed productions being created in Alberta — the upcoming films The Last Rites of Ransom Pride and Valley of the Wild Roses — continue to borrow from Alberta’s western image, made famous by blockbusters like Brokeback Mountain and The Assassination of Jesse James.

It’s not all a dog-and-pony show, though. Productions such as the upcoming Flirting with 40, Daughter of the Bride and Screamers 2 showcase the diversity and adaptability of the province’s film industry.

Amidst all of this optimism, though, there is still room for growth. In an interview with Fast Forward earlier this year, Blackett insisted that the next step was to encourage more movies that originate in Alberta. “We have a lot of movies and series being filmed here, and that’s great,” he said, “but not enough scripts and directors from Alberta are coming to light.”

Industry union members echo this sentiment. Several members of both IATSE and ACTRA — the unions representing film crew technicians and actors, respectively — said at the party that, too often, Alberta has other people coming here to tell our stories, and not enough Albertans.

Wild Roses is a prime example, and has been criticized by some as being offensive and playing to regional stereotypes. The show centres on two feuding Wrangler-and-Stetson-wearing families (oil and cattle barons, no less) in modern Calgary. The show is seen by some critics as out of touch with what the city is really about.

While the government agrees that having more Albertan stories being told by Albertans is a priority, it doesn’t see anything wrong with the series’ portrayal of the province. “I’ll let the critics be the critics,” Brinton says. “The numbers are healthy and the CBC is happy with the product.”

When it comes to the future of Alberta film and television, happy is an understatement.