A small budget British/Canadian movie shot in Wawa, Ont., with big name movie stars, opened the 18th edition of Cinéfest, Sudbury's film festival Sunday night.

British actor Alan Rickman and American movie star Sigourney Weaver appear in Snow Cake, a film about the unusual relationship between an articulate autistic woman and the man who was driving when her daughter was killed in a car accident.

The movie was shot over 28 days in Wawa, and the town is part of the script. There is no attempt to make the Northern Ontario community look like somewhere else.

The movie's producers Niv Fichman and Gina Carter, and its Welsh director Mark Evans, as well as Canadian actors Emily Hempshire and James Allodi, attended the opening of the festival.

The opening night gala attracted about 750 people.

A member of the audience asked Fichman,  during a question and answer session following the film, why he chose Wawa as the location.

Fichman, a Canadian who immigrated here from Israel as a young boy, explained the film could have been set in any small town in North America. After reading it, he thought of Wawa, a place he visited as a child. He called it the quintessential Canadian town.

He never forgot the giant goose at the town's entrance.

Fichman, who also produced Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, released in 1993, said he learned the late pianist often went to Wawa when he wanted to get away from the pressures of the big city.

Director Evans said it was important for the location to have snow since Weaver's character enjoys eating snow.

A member of the audience who has an autistic child told the producers and director that she had never seen a film which  depicted autism with so much authenticity.

The script was written by Angela Pell, who has an autistic son.

Evans said Weaver did research on the part and was in telephone contact during the shooting of the film with a British woman on whom she based her character.