In April, the Charleston International Film Festival and the Cape Fear Independent Film Festival in Wilmington concluded their runs and presented awards.
ActionFest, the Asheville-based film festival devoted to showcasing action films, announced in mid-May that it had hired Colin Geddes, a programmer of the Toronto International Film Festival, as its new Festival Director.
More than 20 films screened at the ninth annual North Carolina Black Film Festival, which ran March 18-21 in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Festival kicked off with a screening of the blacksploitation comedy “Black Dynamite” at the Cameron Art Museum.
The 3rd annual Charleston International Film Festival will open April 8 with the World Premiere of “The 5th Quarter,” directed by Rick Bieber. The Festival, which runs April 8-11 at the American Theater in Charleston, South Carolina, will feature more than 50 films from six countries.
The Cape Fear Independent Film Festival in Wilmington, NC, will celebrate its 10th anniversary this spring, running April 29th to May 2nd, 2010. Among the films slated for the 2010 Festival is “Savage,” a new feature produced by Wilmington’s Fearmaker Studios.
Filmmaker Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X” and “Inside Man”) was the keynote speaker at Wake Forest University’s third annual Reynolda Film Festival in Winston-Salem. Lee spoke about “Following Your Dreams” and how no one should allow their personal troubles to stand in the way of their dreams.
In January, Winston-Salem-based filmmaker Glenda Wharton premiered her new short film “The Zo” at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The nearly 30-minute animated opus, which is about a child trapped in a nightmare house by a monster, took five years of 12-hour workdays to complete.
I’m exceedingly proud of the fact that, over the past few years, the RiverRun International Film Festival has firmly established its reputation as one of the country’s preeminent regional showcases for international films. Despite its many successes, however, I’ve occasionally felt that our documentary program has struggled to find its identity.
At a March 16 private party for donors and supporters, the RiverRun International Film Festival announced it would open its 2010 Festival with the independent comedy “The Extra Man,” directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and starring Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, John C. Reilly and Katie Holmes.
In January, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival announced the hiring of Deirdre Haj as its new Executive Director. Since then, Haj has spent the past few weeks adjusting to her new role and preparing for this year’s event.
CPJ on Twitter