72 films, three panels, two parties and a juried awards program arrive in historic Downtown Bozeman
The inaugural Bozeman Film Festival has announced the complete program for its debut edition, running Thursday through Sunday, October 8th–11th, at three historic downtown venues. The slate features 72 films across short-film blocks and feature-length programs, spanning documentary, narrative and animated work, with filmmakers representing 58 of the selected films traveling to Montana for the Festival.
Screenings take place at The Ellen Theatre, the Rialto and the Armory, all within a few blocks of Main Street. Passes have already sold into 14 states and 4 countries, before the schedule was released. The Festival opens Thursday, Oct. 8th with Baby Love, the story of a self-destructing MMA fighter sidelined by concussions who reluctantly enters equine therapy and must choose between the cage and a new life. Other anticipated screenings include Hard Twist: Through the Lens of Barbara Van Cleve, a documentary on the pain and beauty of ranch life as captured by the iconic Montana photographer, and One Plant, which examines how a single plant intersects with some of today’s most pressing issues. All three are premieres with deep Montana roots.
“The inaugural Bozeman Film Festival is not a new idea arriving in town. It is the same habit, compressed into four days, in a town that has grown into it,” said Lisa McGrory, Executive Director of the Bozeman Film Society. “The audience that kept those arthouse nights alive is still here, joined by new generations who want the same thing on an October weekend.”
Two blocks belong entirely to student filmmakers, drawn from submissions across the country. One is a high school shorts program supported by Montana PBS Media Mavericks; the other showcases college work. Both play on the same screens as the rest of the program.
“One of our submissions was a feature-length documentary about homelessness in Los Angeles called The Row,” said Lincoln Sevier, Programming Director. “I avoided watching it for a while. I expected it to be difficult in all the familiar ways. It is not. What surprised me most was how hopeful the filmmaker made it feel. I was overwhelmed by the filmmaker’s compassion, and by the dignity and humanity he reveals in people whose lives are too often reduced to their circumstances.”
Three panels sit inside the schedule: ‘Montana Through Her Lens,’ ‘Cinema Soundscapes’ and ‘Reel A.I.,’ each featuring working industry professionals. Cinema historian Dr. Andrew Patrick Nelson delivers a talk titled “You Can’t Escape the West(ern),” on how a century of Western movies shaped the way the country imagines this place, and what happens when filmmakers point a camera at the West as it exists now. Live music anchors both signature parties. The Craig Hall Trio plays the Kick-off Celebration at the Baxter Hotel Grand Ballroom on opening night, and Tsunami Funk plays Shake the Marquee at the Rialto on Saturday.
The Festival presents awards two ways. A jury of nine industry professionals ranks the 72 selected films by category, with the Juried Awards presented Sunday morning at the Ellen Theatre. The Audience Award for best feature and best short is decided by ballots cast by audiences as they exit each screening, with winners announced by email and social media at the close of the Festival.
“It’s a really great lineup and variety of storytelling,” said Lauren Gray Williams, Festival juror and Emmy-winning executive producer and director of Masterclass, after viewing two categories and the full schedule.
Festival passes and individual tickets are on sale now at www.bozemanfilmfestival.org. •
