Winter incentives Winnipeg Free Press [Video]

At least producer Kevin Downes knew what he was in for when he touched down in Winnipeg in December of last year to make the comedy The Best Christmas Pageant Ever over two wintry months.

Downes is the CEO and co-founder of Kingdom Story Company, specializing in making positive faith-based films. It was his second journey to Winnipeg following the making of Ordinary Angels, which shot here from March to May 2022. The fact-based drama starred Hilary Swank and Alan Ritchson and climaxed with a dramatic rescue operation during a blizzard.

The province famously obliged with a real-life blizzard during the movie shoot.

Downes says he deemed real winter conditions an essential part of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, an adaptation of a 1972 bestselling book by Barbara Robinson.

In the film, loving parents Grace (Judy Greer, 13 Going on …