On the heels of the Chattanooga Film Festival’s successful ninth edition, it has been honored with making the list of MovieMaker’s 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World for 2022.
The annual list recognizes festivals that go out of their way to be innovative, welcoming, and simply cool.
Panelist Noel David Taylor (Man Under Table) says, “The Chattanooga Film Festival is an impressive DIY effort that has grown into a marvelously impressive showcase of inspiring, punk and original programming.”
The list also includes festivals such as Austin Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, New Filmmakers Los Angeles, New Orleans Film Festival, UCLA Festival of Preservation and the Zurich Film Festival. MovieMaker’s full list and article can be found here.
“We’re grateful to the brilliant panel of moviemakers and film experts who chose these 25 festivals,” says MovieMaker editor-in-chief Tim Molloy. “All 25 offer unforgettable, unique, happy experiences. They’re cool in the sense of ‘Whoa, that’s cool!,’ but also cool in terms of people being relaxed and nice to each other.”
Festival director Chris Dortch II shares, "When the Chattanooga Film Festival began almost a decade ago, we set out to create a celebration of cinema that could stand tall among the best festivals and film events in the world. To now be recognized as one of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World by an amazing outlet such as MovieMaker Magazines, is an immense honor. Though the festival has begun to get more attention with each passing year, our mission of sharing great films of all eras with a sense of warmth, wonder, and humor will never change. Nor will our devotion to local and regional filmmaking and film education."
This honor is the cherry on top for festival organizers, who wrapped this year’s virtual festival late last month. Showcased in this edition were 40 feature films, 72 short films, plenty of filmmaker Q&A’s and unique virtual events.
Feature film highlights included this year’s Secret Screening of Rustic Films’ SOMETHING IN THE DIRT, from filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, making the CFF audience the second audience to watch this film behind the Sundance Film Festival. The world premiere of THE LEECH was also a big hit with the CFF audience this year, walking away with the Best Feature award. In addition, the live commentary event with the director Eric Pennycoff, plus actors Jeremy Gardner, Graham Skipper, Taylor Zaudtke, will be used in the upcoming Arrow Films’ Blu-ray release.
On the short film side of things, the Tennessee and Regional Filmmaker Showcase, sponsored by the Tennessee Entertainment Film Commission, included films DAYS COUNTED (dir. Chandler Gibson), THE DEVIL WILL RUN (dir. Noah Glenn), IN THE BALANCE (dir. Ryan Gentle, Austin Quarles), THE MONSTER INSIDE (dir. Ashley Hammelman), ROGER MUST DIE (dir. Allison Shrum), SHAPES - VARIATION III (dir. Matt Eslinger), and SOPHIE IN FURBYLAND (dir. Pacey Hansen). ROGER MUST DIE writer/director Alison Shrum walked away with the festival’s Tennessee Filmmaker Award, and the wonderful SOPHIE IN FURBYLAND from director Pacey Hansen circled around SFX artist and creator Sophie Stark’s silicon artwork that creates an online viral craze and a full-time furby-making business.
The festival’s third annual Screenplay Pitch Competition, hosted by Rustic Pictures David Lawson Jr., awarded Tennessee based filmmaker Wolfe Macready for their unique project THE DREAM OF DROWNING, which beat out 7 other pitches during the live streamed event. Lawson says, “It was clear from the onset of Wolfe’s pitch that this story was incredibly important and personal. Their pitch was passionate and informative but most of all captivating. One of the real joys of working in film is our ability to create fantastic worlds that can help us explain or work through very real issues and situations. The pitch for THE DREAM OF DROWNING took me somewhere magical and then ripped my heart out. I look forward to assisting them on the steps of the journey.”
Some additional events included CFF Salutes USA’s Up All Night and Rhonda Shear, Godzilla Takes Chattanooga with filmmaker, actor and author Graham Skipper, who offered a complete and insightful overview of the iconic Godzilla franchise, and a live taping of The Best Movies Never Made Podcast, hosted by filmmakers and film historians Stephen Scarlata (“Jodorowsky's Dune” producer) and Josh Miller (writer of “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2”).
With the popularity of the Discord Watch Parties during this year’s CFF, organizers are planning a series of virtual events throughout the coming months. To stay up-to-date on all events, you can sign up for their mailing list at chattfilmfest.org.