The 2015 New Orleans Film Festival takes place on October 14-22, and from the preliminary details the festival looks to be a strong one. NOFF is the flagship event of the New Orleans Film Society, and their executive director, Jolene Pinder, came on The nsavides Podcast to tell us more about the festival.
Born to Be Blue, the film opening the New Orleans Film Festival
Now an Oscar-qualifying festival, NOFF opens with Born to Be Blue, the biopic of jazz legend Chet Baker, starring Ethan Hawke. That’s a fitting start to the largest film festival in Louisiana: not only does the film pay tribute to a genre of music born in New Orleans, but it is produced by Louisiana-based Plantation Village Studios, and it will be screening in the Orpheum Theater, the city’s newly renovated landmark.
Other film highlights include Brooklyn, the historical period drama starring Saoirse Ronan that was well received at its Sundance premiere, and I Saw the Light, the Hank Williams biopic starring Tom Hiddleston that was shot in Shreveport, Louisiana. This is also the first year that the festival will include the #CreateLouisiana grant, a $50,000 grant provided to an eligible filmmaker team for shooting a short film in Louisiana.
Jolene goes over the festival highlights in more detail and offers some fundraising and submission tips to filmmakers. As a bonus, Jolene also shares a special Matthew McConaughey memory, and I reflect on some of my past film-festival experiences.
Listen to the Podcast
Related Things
- New Orleans Film Festival: neworleansfilmfestival.org
- Festival highlights
- Matthew McConaughey’s love letter to New Orleans
- My blog-post tribute to New Orleans from 2012
As some of you may know, I recently put together an actor challenge with Laura Cayouette called #KnowMonologues. We had close to 90 submissions, and many of them came from Louisiana actors. Some of the best actors in the area submitted to us, so it is not surprising that a couple of them have films in the New Orleans Film Festival.
To support our actors and encourage a sense of community, I’m including the actors, details about their films at the festival, and their monologue submissions. This isn’t a comprehensive list, just the ones some actors mentioned to me.
If you or someone you know has a film in the festival, whether connected to our #KnowMonologues challenge or not, mention the details in the comments section, I’ll include a shout out to you here, and I’ll make an effort to see your film.
The names are arranged alphabetically by first name.
Anastasiya Rul: Rite, short film (Anastasiya produced/edited) – October 21 at 6:30 PM, Prytania Theatre. Anastasiya also produced Us Against the World, which is also showing in the same film block.
Conway Solomon: Us Against the World, short film – October 21 at 6:30 PM, Prytania Theatre
Jenn Forman: Tough Love, short film – October 20 at 6:00 PM Prytania Theatre
Russell Giacontiere: Us Against the World, short film – October 21 at 6:30 PM, Prytania Theatre
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