So, I went to check out the 16th annual Frankfort Film Festival. The thing started on October 17th and ran through the 20th. The location was pretty cool, it was at The Garden Theater. They really picked some interesting flicks for this festival. I mean, the lineup was pretty diverse, they had all kinds of genres. I saw they were playing “My Old School”, “Fallen Leaves”, and “The Crime is Mine” on one of the days. Another day they had “Problemista”, “Four Daughters”, and “Ghostlight.”
I went ahead and did some digging on what movies they were showing. Besides those, I saw they also had “Sugarcane”, “Kneecap”, and “Io Capitano” on the schedule. Then on another day, it was “A Still Small Voice” and “The Taste of Things”. Sounds like they had a good mix of documentaries and dramas. I heard that the organizers really try to bring in movies that have won awards at other big film festivals.
Getting More into Film Festivals
This got me thinking about those huge international film festivals like Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. They call those the “Big Three” in Europe. There are also the “Big Five” which includes those three plus Toronto and Sundance. I did a little research and found out the first big festival was in Venice back in 1932. Seems like since World War II, these festivals have really helped the movie industry grow in a lot of countries.
- Cannes is a huge deal.
- Venice Film Festival started way back in 1932.
- Berlin International Film Festival is another big one.
At Berlin, for example, they show like 400 films, and about 20 are competing for the top awards, the Golden Bear and Silver Bears. I read that in 2022, the Berlin festival got over 10 million euros from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. That’s a lot of money! Then there’s the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, which was started in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, and Craig Hatkoff.
Anyway, back to Frankfort, it was cool to see such a well-curated selection of films right there at The Garden Theater. They really made an effort to bring in some quality cinema.
