A Day in The Park from Spain to be shown
Ojai Film Festival’s 20th Anniversary introduces an award for Best Locally Produced Film, alongside 81 film contenders from around the world in competition for top prizes. This year’s World Premiere films include:
- (t)here
- After Parkland, Healing a Community and a Nation
- In The Campfire Light
- My Daughter Yoshiko
- The Vow From Hiroshima
- Truth in Recruiting
- Nowhere
Screeners selected contenders from record breaking submissions of nearly 500 films.
“According to several of our festival Judges, this year’s selections are the best we ever offered,” the 20 year running film festival’s Founder and Artistic Director Steve Grumette said. “Despite economic and trade sanctions against their country, Iranian filmmakers are flourishing. We have 13 Iranian films in this year’s festival, more than from any other country except the U.S..”
The eclectic batch of films includes narrative features and shorts, animations, and feature and short documentaries. Many indie films premiere at this year’s festival. Other selections received honors at other venues.
One award winning animated film A Day in The Park from Spain, directed by the up and coming Diego Porral Soldeville depicts a grandfather who reminisces about ‘the good old days’ while his grandson zones out with his holographic visor. As the grandfather revisits old classics like Facebook and Tinder or waxes nostalgic about relics like the iPhone, he provides some much-needed perspective on our hyperconnected digital society.
In celebration of twenty years in Ojai, the festival added a new category honoring local filmmakers in the Gold Coast Series. The 14 local films in this competition include Mamma Mia: From Auditions to Opening Night, a film by Ventura High graduate Ryan King, that follows Ventura High’s production of Mamma Mia; Camarillo director Miguel Orozco’s Oxnard-Set film Mixteco Boy; and God Send, a thoughtful feature by Ojai director Levi Holiman. The Gold Coast’s full day of screening runs on Monday, November 4, from 10 am to 10 pm.
Continuing a longstanding tradition of spotlighting environmental films, the festival’s series Focus: Earth presents two screenings each of eco-conscious shorts and features throughout the festival. A full day of ecological films, seminars and special events happens on Sunday, November 10. Among the highlights, director Sylvia Rokab screens scenes and answers questions about her film Love Thy Nature. The day tops off with Living in The Future’s Past, narrated and produced by Jeff Bridges, Q&A with director Susan Kucera follows
The 20th annual Ojai Film Festival also offers Lifetime Achievement Awards for Pat Boone and Eva Marie Saint, the new Sergio Aragones Animation Award presented by Sergio Aragones, Hawk Koch Memoir Debut, Women in Film Legacy Series, Screenwriting Competition & Live Table Read, seminars and speakers, industry insiders, parties, and much more.
For complete schedule of screenings go to ojaiifilmfestival.com.
