Film Festival News

Reporting on film festivals

Sally Aitken’s Playing with Sharks Opens Dallas’ EarthxFilm 2021 for the environmental fest’s 5th outing

By John Wildman 6 years ago

“Over the course of the past year, EarthxFilm has worked to adapt and innovate the way we present environmental stories and messages to the world,” said Michael Cain, Co-Founder and President of EarthxFilm. “With over 12 million views since EarthxTV’s launch in September, we have seen great success with our online presentations, and we are excited to safely share these inspiring films with audiences in a public space once again.”

Xuan Liu’s BLOOM leads San Luis Obispo Intl Film Festival 2021 awards; SLO FF Growth as arts activist event and organization

By John Wildman 6 years ago

San Luis Obispo International Film Festival Director Skye McLennan, said, “We were thrilled to welcome back so many from our film festival family and have the opportunity to see several at the drive-in and in-person, just as it was exciting to once again introduce people from all over the state of California to see our films and get a taste of what makes SLO Film Fest so special. We look forward to some of them making the trip to join us in beautiful San Luis Obispo next year.”

Courtney Haile Short Films, Big Stories: A Program of Diverse Voices at San Luis Obispo International Film Fest puts inclusion and racial equity front and center

By John Wildman 6 years ago

San Luis Obispo Film Festival Director Skye McLennan said, “The intent of this program is to continue to be a platform for diverse voices in our community of San Luis Obispo. The murder of George Floyd last year and the increase in the Black Lives Matter protests that followed only amplified the need for more diversity within the arts and how crucially important representation can be. We designed this program to be free and accessible to all and an opportunity for all audiences to fall in love with film festivals and power of the cinema. This collection of films and panels aims to inspire, stimulate and engage our community and others to participate in creating change. Through the grant received by the City of SLO we are able to pay the filmmakers, programmers and panelists and this is something we hope to continue to expand and grow and be able to offer more opportunities in the future.”

Megan Petersen and Hannah Black ’s Drought Opens Oxford Film Festival; full lineup of virtual panels and in-person passholder events

By John Wildman 6 years ago

Oxford Film Festival Executive Director Melanie Addington, said, “These three films exemplify the best of what the Oxford Film Festival offers with its programming. Drought is a multiple award-winner on the circuit, Not Going Quietly gives rare insight into the experience of living with a disability, and Breaking News in Yuba County is a certified crowd pleaser courtesy of Tate Taylor. In year one, we showcased his talents as a young filmmaker, and eighteen years later we are all grown up and can’t wait to once again showcase his work on this Mississippi made film. Add to that, a full lineup of in-person and virtual panels and passholder parties to underline the festival experience side-by-side with our films.” Addington added, “As well as requiring all films to have closed captioning this year, our open and closing films shine with great disability representation which is something we strive to celebrate at Oxford.”

Women Texas Film Festival wraps a bow around it after 5 years

By John Wildman 6 years ago

Walford said, “From the beginning of WTxFF, I said that we would only do the film festival as long as we saw a need for it. While there is still much work to be done to give a platform to the work of women directors, producers, writers, editors, directors of photography, and composers, we have seen much headway made during the past five years. Our goal was to show the range of the female storyteller, and to celebrate great and distinctive work in every genre, every style. WTxFF sought to achieve a place where the notion of gender behind the camera could take a backseat to the grit, emotion, and vision projected on the screen. And in a lot of ways, we saw that increasingly happen at our film festival.”

Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, Out on Film announces Call for Entries for this year’s 34th edition

By John Wildman 6 years ago

“Last year presented with us with one of the biggest challenges we ever faced – how to pivot an 11-day film festival into a mostly virtual one,” says Jim Farmer, festival director of Out On Film. “We were able to not only successfully do so without having to scale down our event, but actually added to the number of filmmakers that could participate in virtual Q&As from all over the world.”

Greta Hagen-Richardson joins Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival: starts 30th Anniversary preparations by adding new Director of Programming and Executive Director

By John Wildman 6 years ago

Gerber commented, “We could not be more delighted to add Greta to our team. She has quickly made a mark through her work at a number of prominent film festivals with a reputation for unearthing new voices and championing inclusion. We look forward to her bringing that curatorial vision to Hot Springs. Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic last year, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival continued growing in reach, impact, and innovation.

Anne Rapp’s documentary Horton Foote: The Road to Home: for Oxford Film Festival 2021 rolls out big tent lineup of films for in-person, drive-in, and virtual screenings

By John Wildman 6 years ago

“As we continue to prepare for next month’s film festival, we want to be very clear about the aggressive steps we are taking in order to make our film festival safe so our patrons can begin to get back to enjoying the movie going experience in the company of other people again,” said Executive Director Melanie Addington.

Jim Brunzell Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival Festival Director announces Call for Entries for 2021

By John Wildman 6 years ago

Call for Entries have opened exclusively on Film Freeway for the 22nd edition of the Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival, which will take place November 10-14, 2021. The film festival will once again be offered virtually to both Minnesota and Texas, with the potential to expand to a hybrid approach with in-person screenings in Minneapolis and Austin.

Philippe Falardeau ’s MY SALINGER YEAR Opens 2021 San Luis Obispo Film Fest: hybrid film fest including Surf Nite at the Drive-in

By John Wildman 6 years ago

San Luis Obispo Film Festival Director Skye McLennan said, “Following last year’s whirlwind experience to shift our film festival to an online presentation seemingly overnight due to the onset of the pandemic, it’s a gift to know that the same dedication we put into selecting our films is matched by the SLO Film Fest audience’s anticipation to see them – virtually or in-person. But safety is still the priority, so while we will all go to the drive-in for Surf Nite, the rest of the time, we will once again be coming into our film faithful’s homes to deliver the best movies we could find.”