After two years wracked by the pandemic, the Oxford Film Festival is returning for 2022 with parties, events, and a full program of more than 118 films. “We are excited to present this year’s films and special events to our local film fans here in Oxford, the state of Mississippi, and nearby in Memphis, as well. We have diligently built a program that includes discovery titles; award winners; festival favorites from Venice, Toronto, Sundance, Berlin, and SXSW film festivals; enlightening, innovative, and entertaining features and shorts that should inspire everyone to immerse themselves in the Oxford Film Festival world once again,” says Jim Brunzell, interim executive director, who took over the running of the festival after longtime director Melanie Addington accepted a position with the Tallgrass Film Center in Wichita, Kansas.
The 19th annual festival begins on Wednesday, March 23rd, with The Automat by director Lisa Hurwitz. The documentary is about a unique piece of American culinary and cultural history: Horn & Hardart, a beloved restaurant chain that proved highly influential to the development of American fast food. The tiny lunchrooms scattered from coast to coast served half a million patrons a day during their peak in the 1940s. They pioneered the “automat” concept, where fresh dishes were kept warm in small cubicles, and patrons could insert coins into slots to buy individual servings of staples like Salisbury steak and mac and cheese. Horn & Hardart are often cited as the inspiration for what would become Starbucks. The film features a new song by film comedy legend and longtime automat fan Mel Brooks.
Thursday night’s film is intimately connected to Memphis. Soul Kids, a documentary by French director Hugo Sobelman, opens the festival’s opening night. Soul Kids tells the history of the Stax Music Academy, which moved into its permanent home next door to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music 20 years ago this June. The academy helps carry on the tradition of Memphis soul and gospel music by providing high-quality music education to Bluff City high schoolers. The school’s alumni include music stars like MonoNeon. The opening night screening will be followed by a Stax Records-themed party at The Atrium at Mike Overstreet Properties (265 North Lamar in Oxford) featuring the Stax Music Academy Alumni Band, who will show you exactly how they keep the sound alive.
Another intriguing film in this year’s lineup mixes two things the city of Oxford is famous for — literature and music. Lover, Beloved, directed by Michael Tully, is an adaptation of a one-woman show by Suzanne Vega. The “Left of Center” and “Tom’s Diner” singer produced the show based on her ninth studio album, which is a tribute to the life and work of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter novelist Carson McCullers. Vega will be on hand for the screening at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Among the Memphis-related films that will screen during the festival weekend is “Jesus Is Lord,” a new comedy by director Mark Jones. The short film is a hilarious take on Rashomon as various members of a church search committee recall their roles in a selection process that ended with the hiring of their first female minister. “Jesus Is Lord” screens on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. with Carl Andress and Charles Busch’s camp caper comedy The Sixth Reel.
Friday night’s marquee film is the political comedy 18 1/2 by director Dan Mirvish and screenwriter Daniel Moya; it is a period piece set during the Watergate hearings of the 1970s. A transcriptionist named Connie (Willa Fitzgerald) decides to leak her knowledge of Nixon’s missing tapes but can’t get anyone to take her seriously. The cast includes Jon Cryer as H.R. Haldeman and indie film legend Bruce Campbell as Richard Nixon.
The official closing night film is A Love Song, which features a rare lead role by Dale Dickey, a beloved actress who has appeared in True Blood, My Name Is Earl, and Breaking Bad. In A Love Song, she appears as Faye opposite Native-American actor Wes Studi as Lito. The two lost souls, who were lovers long ago, reconnect for a single night at a lakeside campground in this acclaimed film which debuted at Sundance earlier this year. Dickey and director Max Walker-Silverman will be on hand for the film’s Mid-South premiere.
All screenings will take place at Malco Oxford Commons Cinema March 23rd-26th. The virtual aspect of the festival, which the Oxford Film Festival pioneered during the Covid emergency, will run March 27th-April 3rd on the Eventive platform. Visit
ox-film.com for more details and for both in-person and virtual tickets.