Reporting on film festivals
The intense cold and threat of rain did little to combat the warmth and excitement of the Oxford Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala screening of THE LAST MOVIE STAR at the Gertrude Ford Center. Several filmmakers attended and made their presence known on the red carpet as the 15th Anniversary edition of the fest kicked off in style.
The 2018 Oxford Film Festival celebrated the best of the fest with an entertaining awards ceremony emceed by Crooked Marquee’s Eric D. Snider, often comically channeling Oxford literary legend William Faulkner, at the Powerhouse (413 S. 14th Street) on Saturday, February 10, highlighted by the announcement of Hoka awards for Arturo Perez Torres and Aviva Armour-Ostroff’s THE DRAWER BOY for Best Narrative Feature, Nick Taylor’s THE ORGANIZER for Best Documentary Feature, Itako’s BOYS FOR SALE for Best LGBTQ Feature, and the presentation of the Lisa Blount Memorial Acting Award to Catherine Eaton for her performance in THE SOUNDING.
The Indie Memphis Film Festival today announced that journalist and film programmer Miriam Bale has been hired to be the film festival’s Senior Programmer. Indie Memphis also seized the occasion to announce the festival will start accepting submissions on Monday, January 15, for its 21st edition, which will take place November 1-5, 2018.
The Tallgrass Film Association today announced a Call for Entries for the 16th edition of the Tallgrass International Film Festival presented by Consolidated Equities Trust, which will take place October 17-21, 2018 in and around downtown Wichita, Kansas.
The 2018 Oxford Film Festival (February 7-11) has announced the full schedule of films for this year’s 15th Anniversary edition. On opening night, writer/director Adam Rifkin will present his latest effort, THE LAST MOVIE STAR, starring Burt Reynolds and Ariel Winter, while Carlos and Jason Sanchez’s intense drama, ALLURE, starring Evan Rachel Wood, will screen at the festival’s Centerpiece Selection and Robert Mullan’s 60s biopic MAD TO BE NORMAL, starring David Tennant Elisabeth Moss and Michael Gambon, serves as the closing night selection.
Brooke and Doug Purdy’s comedy/drama hybrid about a couple managing her reoccurrence of breast cancer at the same time her father is on the decline with Alzheimer’s and possibly most alarmingly, their daughter has an all-important 8th birthday party coming up, made its Los Angeles premiere at NewFilmmakers L.A. on Saturday, December 16.
The heads of prominent Dallas and North Texas Film Festivals announced their selections for the Top Ten Films of 2017 during WFAA’s Midday at 8 news broadcast today with Edgar Wright’s BABY DRIVER, Jordan Peele’s GET OUT, and Guillermo del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER taking the top three spots among films released in 2017.
At a special preview party on Sunday, December 3, the Oxford Film Festival announced initial details of next year’s 15th Anniversary edition, including a special work-in-progress screening of Cassidy Friedman’s CIRCLES, the winners of OFF’s inaugural screenplay competition and Artist Vodka contest, as well as this year’s Magnifying Glass Fellowship recipient. The festival also announced the official selections in the feature film, short film, and music video categories produced in the state of Mississippi.
This year’s 20th Anniversary Indie Memphis film festival featured a street closure for the first time in their storied history, adding a big festival tent to expand the fest’s presence and footprint on the city. After the Opening Night red carpet featuring THOM PAIN and Rainn Wilson, and Thursday’s photo call with Mark Webber – two of indie films’s best examples of the actor’s actor, the red carpet under the tent on Friday night encouraged the attending filmmakers, as well as the notoriously photo and press-shy Memphis filmmaking regulars to allow themselves to be corralled for their moment in the fake-sun, while others still managed to dodge it (we’re looking right at you, Morgan Jon Fox).
Karl Jacob’s COLD NOVEMBER won the jury award (and a $1000 cash prize) for Best Narrative Feature, Landen Van Soest and Jeremy Levine’s FOR AKHEEM took home the jury award (and $1000 courtesy of Classic American Hardwoods) for Best Documentary Feature, and Laura Jean Hocking and Melissa Sweazy’s GOOD GRIEF received the nod (and a $1000 cash prize) as Best Hometowner Feature.
