The Ashland Independent Film Festival released the complete schedule for its 20th annual festival presented this year as a “double feature”– online, with most films available coast-to-coast from April 15-29, and live and outdoors in Ashland and Medford from June 24-28. AIFF’s 2021 festival will present approximately 100 new independent films, including 35 feature films and a dozen shorts programs, accompanied by Q&A’s with filmmakers, virtual parties, mixers, and panels.
The first trailer debuted for the basketball documentary Alaskan Nets set to make its world premiere at the 36th Santa Barbara International Film Festival in the Documentary Competition on Saturday, April 3rd.
The environmentally-focused film festival EarthxFilm announced ten days and nights of drive-in, outdoor and online screenings during this year’s hybrid edition of the Dallas-based environmental film festival.
Identifying Features, the debut feature from director Fernanda Valadez, is the winner of the 44th Portland International Film Festival’s Future/future competition. The film, an intriguing and confident first feature following a mother’s journey to find out what happened to her son along the Mexican border, was awarded the honor as well as a $1,000 prize.
The Miami Jewish Film Festival (MJFF) announced the program and plans for the upcoming 24th edition, which will be a hybrid of virtual and live programming events with a record-breaking 145 films in selection, and all screenings accessible for free. Running from April 14-29, three months later than their traditional dates in January, the festival will screen 100 feature films, including eight world premieres, over 20 North American premieres, and 45 short films. The lineup holds 39 first-time feature filmmakers representing 25 countries, and an unprecedented 47 films directed by women (32% of total program).
The 2021 Seattle International Film Festival announced its complete lineup of programming for its first-ever virtual edition. The full slate of works includes a grand total of 219 films, including 93 feature length films from 69 countries. The festival will run from Thursday, April 8th to Sunday, April 18th.
San Francisco International Film Festival unveiled the 103 films for the 2021 Festival set to take place online and in-person events, with digital screenings being hosted through the SFFILM website and live screenings and performances at the Fort Mason Flix drive-in theater. The 2021 Festival will run April 9–18.
The 14th edition of the St. Louis-based LGBTQ film festival, QFest St. Louis will present an eclectic array of 24 films (14 shorts, six narrative features, and four documentary features). Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, all programs will run virtually from April 16-25, 2021.
Ahead of the world premiere at 2021 Hot Docs film festival, the first look trailer debuted for the documentary film The Face of Anonymous, directed by Gary Lang.
Ahead of the Unnamed Footage Festival’s 24-hour webathon this Friday, March 26th the festival announced its final wave of films. Beginning at 7PM CDT, the UFF team will be livestreaming a non-stop marathon of found footage horror, faux documentary, screen life, and first-person POV cinema with all profits from ticket sales going to independent and non-profit cinemas around the country. This includes the three original UFF venues, The Balboa Theater, the Roxie, and ATA. Additional donations can be made through the end of March on GoFundMe.
The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF45) will highlight the works of a new generation of filmmakers from Iran and Italy this year. HKIFF45 will feature eight films by talented and innovative filmmakers in a curated section entitled Iranian New Cinema.
South by Southwest (SXSW) announced the 2021 Jury and Special Award winners of the 28th SXSW Film Festival. The Fallout directed by Megan Park won the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature and Lily Topples the World directed by Jeremy Workman won for Documentary Feature.