Annapolis Film Festival will be held virtually again
No big screens again this year but more than100 films will be available to watch from home at the ninth annual Annapolis Film Festival starting next week.
The film festival is running virtually for the second year in a row because of COVID19 but this year the organizers are more prepared.
The festival will be 10 days, April 8-18, 2021. Each night there will be a premiere of a spotlight film at 7 p.m., beginning with the Opening Night film, “Marvelous and the Black Hole” starring Rhea Perlman and Miya Cech. This was one of the organizer’s favorite films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“This year, more films mean more spotlight films than ever, Spotlight films are high-profile films that feature famous actors or celebrities or have won awards at other festivals,” programming director Derek Horne said in a statement. “And it is exactly the type of marvelous and uplifting film that can help all of us to heal after the black hole of 2020.
Festival Co-Founders Patti White and Lee Anderson are bringing back more Q&A sessions this year with actors and directors, starting with Pearlman and Cech. There will be two live Q&As for The Sailing Showcase featuring “Race to Alaska” with well-known Annapolis sailor Gary Jobson and “Paper Spiders” with the filmmakers and Kathy Millers, a therapist at the Oasis mental for services center in Annapolis.
Since its inception in 2013, the Annapolis Film Festival has continued to grow. Last year it sold more than 3,000 virtual tickets and White and Anderson year they want to surpass that.
The film festival is partnering with Visit Annapolis to highlight a restaurant each night for dinner and movie, Anderson said. Some of the participating restaurants and caterers are Palet Pleasers, Boatyard Bar and Girl, The Metropolitan, Lemongrass, Cafe Normandie, Miss Shirley’s, Pauls Homewood Cafe and Reynolds Tavern.
The co-founders both enjoy popcorn and dark chocolate while watching movies as well.
“We’re so excited our restaurant partners are sticking by us this year and providing takeout to the community,” White said.
Anderson said they wanted to find a better platform than last year that is more userfriendly.
The festival is accessible by downloading the eventide app on OTT devices with ROKU, AppleTV, Amazon and laptop.
“You are immersing yourself in a film festival in the way you would if you were coming in person, we are curating an entire slate that is built around people at home watching movies,” White said. “We extended it to 10 days so the audience will have time to watch films at home, you are more distracted so we set up the films to work around that.”
This year’s program contains 23 featurelength narrative films, 17 feature-length documentaries and 66 short films. The films come from 35 countries. White and Anderson have watched all the films.
White said they had to look “above and beyond” to find films this year, due to the pandemic and fewer films being made.
Anderson added, “It was way harder. There is a lot of mediocre stuff out there but we are pretty picky and we have a high standard for our slate. We know we have a smart audience as well.”
Next year the co-founders are hoping for a big celebration for their 10th film festival and to be back in person.
“A film festival is successful in communities because they bring people together, It takes on such an important role in the community and that is important to us,” White said.
Passes allow for unlimited viewing to over 100+ films and are currently $115 per household. Individual tickets will be $10 each and four-packs will be $35. A Shorts Pass is available to nine shorts programs for $50.
To find out more visit: annapolisfilmfes tival.org.