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Hoosier Films Festival putting Indiana-made films center stage
A new film festival will premier in Indiana this spring. On March 19-22, the Hoosier Films Annual Festival will show a collection of shorts and feature films in downtown Bloomington.
Most of the festival’s screenings will take place at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, with additional events taking place at nearby venues such as the Bloomington Academy of Film and Theater.
The festival, which is limited to films made in Indiana and/or by Indiana filmmakers, has selected three feature-length films, one for each evening of the festival. “The Shade Shepherd” will screen on
Thursday, March 19, “Worth the Wait” on Friday, March 20, and “Cashing Out” on Saturday, March 21.
The 38 short films selected for the festival come from a wide variety of genres and will be shown in themed blocks: “Facets of Family” and “Purpose and Persistence” shorts blocks will screen on Friday afternoon, and “Life and Death” and “Adventure and Friendship” shorts on Saturday afternoon. Dark and horror-themed short films will be screened at late-night events on Friday and Saturday.
In addition to film screenings, the festival organizers are hosting workshops for filmmakers each morning during the festival. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from a different panel of local experts at each session of the workshop series, which is titled “A Community Approach to Filmmaking.”
The three workshops are: Collaborating with Local Businesses and Organizations, Grassroots Marketing and Building Your Media Presence, and Appealing to Local Funding Sources.
Hoosier Films founders Thomas DeCarlo and Meredith McGriff are both native Hoosiers, and they say they are excited to launch this new event to promote the large network of skilled filmmakers working in the state.
“Since we first had the idea to create Hoosier Films, it has been our mission to discover the incredible films made right here in Indiana, and we were still shocked to discover so many more talented filmmakers submitting to our festival than we ever expected,” Greencastle native DeCarlo said.
“Lots of film festivals are nationwide, or international, which means you’re seeing films whose creators you might never meet. This festival is different – it’s a chance to see many of the phenomenal films being made by Hoosiers, and a chance to support filmmakers whose work makes an impact in our state,” McGriff said.
Many of the filmmakers are expected to attend the festival, and a Q&A session will follow each screening.
The festival is the second big announcement from Hoosier Films in less than a year.
The Hoosier Films streaming service just launched in September 2019. Subscriptions to the service cost $12 for a year of access to the growing collection of Indiana films. The company pays 50 percent of its profits from streaming directly back to the filmmakers, based on the number of minutes watched each month.
The Hoosier Films Annul Festival will showcase a selection of films that is completely independent from the streaming service. Distribution through Hoosier Films was neither required nor contingent upon submission to the festival.
The full schedule for the festival and details about each of the films being shown is available at https://festival.hoosierfilms.com.
Hoosier Films can also be found on Twitter (@Hoosier_Films, www.twitter.com/Hoosier_Films), Facebook (www.facebook.com/HoosierFilms) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/HoosierFilms) or by following the festival hashtag, #HFAF2020.