Since its founding in 2000, the Ojai Film Festival has striven to provide audiences with groundbreaking work otherwise inaccessible, and to provide filmmakers, and movie industry professionals, with enthusiastic audiences. Its 19th year is no exception beginning November 1 and running through November 11.
Over the last decade Festival participation helped launch several careers. Two alumni accepted Oscars. Fifteen received nominations. This year the Festival will screen over 90 films, documentaries and animations representing 33 countries.
At a Sunday Awards Brunch on November 4, the Festival will present trophies to the winning films and honor a Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Ojai local Malcolm McDowell will be recognized for his six-decades of cutting-edge work, which includes his roles as Alex DeLarge in Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange, picaresque Mick Travis in Lindsay Anderson’s trilogy (If, O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital) and movie-mogul Terrence McQuewick in Entourage. A working actor, McDowell currently has seven projects in pre-production. A film screening of McDowell’s choice will be followed by Q&A, then a reception on Saturday, November 3.
The Ojai Festival’s deep-directive attemps to provide educational seminars and workshops about the entertainment industry for new filmmakers and members of the community. A full day of professional-development seminars takes place Saturday, November 3. Laura Caulfield, president of Entertainment Solutions Corporation and Ojai Film Festival board member, will lead a panel of motion picture studio vice-presidents in a discussion about the business and legal aspects of the filmmaking process, including rights, financing, production and distribution. Emily Best (CEO Seed and Spark) will lead a seminar on The Art of The Pitch. How to convey the specifics about your project in a dynamic, succinct way that can attract investors, collaborators and world-wide distribution.
On Sunday, November 4 another industry seminar, Action in Film, offers an illustrated discussion on how stuntmen “pull off” the amazing stunts we see on screen and will be led by stuntman and stunt coordinator John Branagan. This session is a must for any producer or director who wants to meet the stunt-people who make action happen and should be on the list of any film buff.
The Festival will host two free films for the Ojai community. The first on Opening Night, Thursday, November 1, Mel Brooks’ comedy-horror film spoof Young Frankenstein in Libbey Bowl at 7 pm. The second, Kubo And the Two Strings, an animated family-friendly 2016 Oscar nominated Japanese fairytale, screens at the Arcade Plaza on Wednesday, November 7 at 7 PM.
On Sunday, November 10, the Festival screens Loving Vincent, a 2018 animated film, nominated for an Oscar. Following the screening, Tiffanie Mang and Charlene Mosley, two of the artists who hand-painted the cells, will demonstrate their technique and discuss how the picture was made.
The winning screenplay from the Festival’s third annual competition will receive a live read utilizing Ojai’s talented acting community on Sunday, November 4. Other highlights in the jammed-packed schedule include a full day of Gold Coast films (produced by filmmakers from Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties), Focus Earth (hosted jointly with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition) and the annual Student Program, where high school filmmakers meet movie pros. Click here to view the full schedule.
