Matt Wymer’s first year as executive director of the Oxford Film Festival is a special milestone for the organization. “This is our 20th Anniversary edition and we’re celebrating the audiences that allowed the Oxford Film Festival to inspire and entertain our community for the past two decades. To show our appreciation, we are providing more free screenings, more panels, and bigger parties than ever before.”
This year’s festival includes 15 narrative and 18 documentary feature films, 93 shorts, and 18 music videos. The opening night feature is Little Richard: I Am Everything, Lisa Cortes’ portrait of the R&B iconoclast. This film is so new it doesn’t have a trailer yet, but here’s the director talking about tackling the story of an often misunderstood musical genius.
In a festival year with history on its mind, OFF goes way back into the archives. The first film shot in Mississippi is believed to be The Crisis from 1916. It’s the story of an ill-fated love triangle between a St. Louis lawyer-turned-Union officer, a Southern belle, and her Confederate fiancé. The Mississippi Film Commission is sponsoring the screening as part of their own 50th anniversary celebration.
Oxford’s most famous native is brought to life by the present day Mississippi production William Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead by director Michael Modak-Truran.
The closing night feature is The Banality, a Southern Gothic tale of recurring nightmares, small town eccentricities, and murder.
You can buy tickets and passes, and get more information about all the festival screenings and events, at the Oxford Film Festival website.
