OFF 2016

Orlando Film Festival bigger than ever

te-ata

“Te Ata,” the opening-night film. Image copyright Chickasaw Nation.

From The Orlando Weekly, October 19, 2016

The Orlando Film Festival is getting big – really big. Although it’s considered the city’s #2 movie event (after the Florida Film Festival, which is twice as long and twice as well attended, and considered more prestigious), the OFF has grown into a monster, with 327 movies, the most in its 11-year history. That makes it the biggest in Central Florida, and possibly the state, judged by number of offerings.

Held at downtown’s Cobb Plaza Cinema Café, the festival is taking over six screens and running through Sunday. Most of the films are short ones: 258 spread over 35 programs. Of the 69 features, 44 are narrative and 25 are documentaries. Nine are foreign-language films.

Highlights include the opening-night film, Te Ata; a Kevin Smith double feature on Saturday, including the world premiere of the biopic Shooting Clerks; and several films with an LGBT theme. The festival also offers parties, discussion panels and a tour of the DAVE School on the Universal Studios backlot.

The festival does not sell individual-film tickets, so you must buy a one-day ticket for $20, a festival pass (good for all films) for $50 or a VIP pass (good for all films and almost all other events) for $100. And because the schedule allows one to see no more than about a fifth of the offerings, you’ll also need to do your homework, or just hope you get lucky. Viddy well!

For more information, visit www.orlandofilmfest.com.

© 2016 Orlando Weekly / MeierMovies, LLC

 

Friday blogorlando-film-festival-2016-outside

The Orlando Film Festival continues through Sunday at downtown’s Cobb Plaza Cinema Cafe. I enjoyed my time there yesterday, although, as with all festivals, the films were a mixed bag and one was missing its subtitles. (I knew I should have learned Spanish in college.) But their hospitality was definitely appreciated, and it was nice to see some filmmaker friends. My favorite shorts were Circle (directed by Markus Kaatsch, from the Surreal Shorts program) and Life Sentence (directed by Alfredo Huereca, from the Foreign Drama #2 program), both worthy of 4 stars (on my 0-5 scale).