I'm very excited to share that I'm attending my first film festival as a member of the press next week. Film Fest 919 is back for its second year and I'll be there covering quite a few films for Next Best Picture. For those that aren't being reviewed by me for Next Best Picture, I'll be writing a short review here on my blog (partially to help me remember my thoughts so that I can be on the NBP podcast reviews of them). I will also be writing a piece for Next Best Picture recapping the festival so make sure to keep an eye out for that.
I attended a couple of screenings last year at Film Fest 919 ("Boy Erased" and "The Favourite"), but wasn't able to do more because it was the weekend that I was apartment hunting in New York City. I'm thrilled to be in town for the whole time and there four out of the five days. Last year, they had movies like "Roma" and "Green Book" that went on to win major awards so it seems that this might be a good year for their opening and closing films, "Marriage Story" and "Jojo Rabbit."
Film Fest 919 has an impressive array of films, many of which have great reviews from Cannes, Sundance, TIFF, and other previous festivals. One of my favorite things about it is that it is run by two women, Randi Emerman and Carol Marshall. It takes place at the Silverspot Cinema in Chapel Hill and runs from October 9 to 13.
I'm thrilled to get to see these films, some of which I'm not sure we'll get here in Raleigh in cinemas like "The King" which may skip us and go straight to Netflix or foreign film "The Truth." Here is a list of the films I'm planning on seeing:
- Marriage Story
- The Report
- Honey Boy
- The Truth
- Clemency
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire
- The Two Popes
- Motherless Brooklyn
- Just Mercy
- The King
- Jojo Rabbit
Is anyone else planning on going to Film Fest 919? Does anyone have tips for attending a smaller film festival as a member of the press? Let me know on Twitter. x