September 16, 2024
[Ojai, CA – September 16, 2024]— The Ojai Film Festival (OFF) is thrilled to unveil its official schedule for the 2024 edition, which will run from October 31 to November 4, 2024. The festival, now celebrating its 25th anniversary,
September 15, 2024
August 17th marked our first fundraising event OFFSite featuring a film, Studio One Forever, and film inspired disco-themed after party with music provided by DJ Jon Riddell and photo booth and lighting by Sound Source at the Ojai Art Center.
September 4, 2024
[Ojai, CA – September 4, 2024]— The Ojai Film Festival (OFF), renowned for enriching the human spirit through the art of cinema, is thrilled to announce the official film selections for its 25th anniversary. The festival will take place
August 22, 2024
For Immediate Release [Ojai, CA – August 12, 2024]— The Ojai Film Festival is thrilled to announce that legendary comedian, songwriter, and LGBTQ activist Bruce Vilanch will be attending and participating in a special Q&A session for the inaugural fundraising
July 21, 2024
We’ve been busy building a new foundation here at the Festival. What does that mean? Mostly really boring stuff like: Making sure this newsletter gets delivered to Yahoo, AOL and SBCGlobal email inboxes through DNS changes Digitizing all our files
June 13, 2024
Hi there! I’m Katie Guernsey. The new Board President/Executive Director at OFF and first female President in its 25 year history. Yay. I’d like to tell you a bit about myself and the upcoming advancements at OFF you may see
November 5, 2023
Saturday, November 18, 7 PM, Matilija Auditorium 2022, United States, Directors: Paul Dektor; 98 min. Based on a true story. American Dreamer is the story of Dr. Phil Loder (Peter Dinklage), a low- level, adjunct professor of economics, whose grand
October 25, 2023
Libbey Bowl FREE Film Isle of Hope Thursday November 2 at 6:30 PM Music Begins at 5:30 PM To thank the Ojai community for their support the Ojai Film Festival traditionally offers a free film on opening night in Libbey
October 12, 2023
Friday, November 3 at 10:30 AM in the Courtyard and Monday, November 6 at 10:30 AM in the Raymund Room Longtime writer and editor Bruce Novotny decided time had come to make a film of his own. With no experience
October 12, 2023
Saturday, November 4 at 1 PM in the Raymund Room Explore the exciting intersection of artificial intelligence and filmmaking in this dynamic seminar. Discover how AI technologies are revolutionizing the creative and technical aspects of the film industry. The class
October 12, 2023
SPONSORED BY PANAVISION The Ojai Film Festival continues to reflect the theme “Enriching the Human Spirit through Film” with two panels exploring the scope of “diversity” and “intersectionality.” The program takes place Saturday, November 4 at the Ojai Art Center
October 11, 2023
Sunday, November 5 at 1 PM in the AC Raymund Room The Ojai Film Festival annually honors a Director of Photography with its Distinguished Artist Award for Cinematography. A cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP)
October 11, 2023
Sunday, November 5 at 4 PM in the Raymund Room Ever since French director Gaston Melies shot his 1912 Western short, The Ghost of Sulphur Mountain in the Ojai Road/Santa Paula area, Ventura County has been a popular destination for
September 21, 2023
The Ojai Film Festival continues the tradition of focusing on environmental films with the 24th Anniversary Edition: FOCUS EARTH. Common Ground Saturday, November 11, 4 PM, Matilija Auditorium 2023, United States, Directors: Josh and Rebecca Tickell, Producers: Josh Tickell, Rebecca
September 20, 2023
For the first time the Ojai Film Festival chose an animated film to receive the Bill Paxton Award. This distinction spotlights one film in the Gold Coast series, which closes out the in-person Festival on Monday, November 6. All the
September 15, 2023
“Long Beach Island,” by fulltime attorney Edson McClellan who wrote his first screenplay four years ago at age 49, won the Eighth Annual Ojai Film Festival Screenplay Competition. The award comes with a Live Table Read performed by professional actors.
September 8, 2023
Trailer – A Mind Cannot Touch from Geoffrey Prather on Vimeo. Friday, November 3, 4 PM, AC Gallery 2022, United States, Director: Geoffrey Prather, Producers: Clare O’Connor, Geoffrey Prather, and Eric Toms; 15 min. In this provocative sci-fi drama, a
September 8, 2023
Adjustment teaser1.mp4 from Neshat Bagheri on Vimeo. Friday, November 3, 4 PM, AC Theater 2022, Iran, Director: Mehrdad Hasani, Producer: Hasan Mohammadi; 17 min. A school-age boy is bullied by his classmates and father for wearing nail polish. After a
September 8, 2023
Monday, November 6, 10 AM, AC Theater 2022, United States, Director and Producer: Kaitlyn Clare; 40 min. A young couple takes their dog to a wilderness cabin for an idyllic weekend under the Northern Lights. When the woman experiences troubling
September 8, 2023
Sunday, November 5, 7 PM, AC Gallery 2022, United States, Director: Allison Volk, Producer: Andrea Nordgren; 4 min. When she’s not listening to New Age goddess meditations, middle-aged Marsha cooks and cleans for an overbearing husband. An argument about a
September 8, 2023
Sunday, November 5, 7 PM, AC Gallery 2023, United States, Director: Augustus Meleo Bernstein, Producers: Paulo Torres and Jhanvi Motla; 97 min. A housekeeper from El Salvador brings her son to help her clean an affluent family’s home. After a
September 8, 2023
Bienvenidos a Los Angeles Trailer from Jackson Warner Lewis on Vimeo. Sunday, November 5, 7 PM, AC Theater 2022, United States, Director: Lisa Cole, Producers: Lisa Cole, Lolia Etomi, Vivian Johnson, Cindy Lu, Jolene Mendes, and Benjamin O’Keefe; 17 min.
September 8, 2023
Sunday, November 5, 7 PM, AC Theater 2022, United States, Director: Jaye Pniewski, Producers: Mary O’Keefe O’Neill and Michael O’Neill; 14 min. Jason and Jim Koss are estranged brothers who have come together after the death of their father, a
September 8, 2023
Friday, November 3, 4 PM, AC Gallery 2023, United States, Director and Producers: Beth and George Gage; 19 min. Sam, Matt, and Mariah are three young people who form a strong bond when their college experience proves to be less
September 8, 2023
BRIEF TENDER LIGHT – Trailer from One Day I Too Go Fly Inc on Vimeo. Monday, November 6, 1 PM, AC Gallery 2023, United States, Director and Producer: Arthur Musah; 93 min. At America’s elite MIT, a Ghanaian alum follows
September 8, 2023
Saturday, November 4, 4 PM, AC Theater 2023, United States, Director: Nicholas Mihm, Producers: Nicholas Mihm and Lisa Rudin; 28 min. Parwiz, a member of the Iranian parliament, dedicates his life to cultivating a progressive, modern, and free society. When
September 8, 2023
CALL ME MULE – Trailer from John McDonald on Vimeo. Sunday, November 5, 4 PM, AC Gallery 2023, United States, Director and Producer: John McDonald; 87 min. John Sears, otherwise known as Mule, has been roaming the western United States
September 8, 2023
Called to the Mountains 2023 – Trailer from Collin Giberson on Vimeo. Saturday, November 4, 4 PM, AC Theater 2022, United States, Directors and Producers: Josh Goleman and Robert H. Dyar Jr; 53 min. This English/Japanese documentary tells the story
September 8, 2023
Saturday, November 4, 1 PM, AC Theater 2023, United States, Directors and Producers: Jason Robinson and Chris Hooper; 10 min. A depressed accountant prepares to attend Career Day at his daughter’s school. Convinced that nobody cares about numbers, he decides
September 8, 2023
Friday, November 3, 7 PM, AC Theater 2023, Iran, Director and Producer: Xelîl Sehragerd; 14 min. Hussain Mahmood is a skilled carpenter who makes a living carving wooden prosthetics for people who have lost their limbs in land mine explosions.
September 8, 2023
Saturday, November 11, 4 PM, Matilija Auditorium 2023, United States, Directors: Josh and Rebecca Tickell, Producers: Josh Tickell, Rebecca Tickell, and Eric Dillon; 101 min. The highly anticipated follow up to the global hit Kiss the Ground, this documentary feature
September 8, 2023
Friday, November 3, 1 PM, AC Gallery 2023, United States, Director: Tara Karsian, Producer: Erin Dellorso, Julianne Dowler, and Virginia Reece; 12 min. While her husband, Derek, is working on location, Elise notices strange things happening around the house.
September 8, 2023
Darwin’s Notebook from Georges Schwizgebel on Vimeo. Friday, November 3, 7 PM, AC Gallery 2020, Switzerland, Director and Producer: Georges Schwizgebel; 9 min. On his voyage aboard the S.S. Beagle, Charles Darwin meets three kidnapped natives of the Alakaluf people.
September 7, 2023
David A Leffel: An American Master_Trailer from Nate Adams on Vimeo. Saturday, November 4, 1 PM, AC Gallery 2017, United States, Director: George Gallo, Producer: Sherrie A McGraw; 107 min. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1931, David A. Leffel
September 7, 2023
Monday, November 6, 7 PM, AC Gallery 2023, United States, Director and Producer: Brendan Patrick Hughes; 77 min. Two couples meet for a seemingly innocuous dinner among friends. As the evening progresses, their discussions become increasingly acrimonious until a climactic
September 7, 2023
Monday, November 6, 7 PM, AC Theater 2023, United States, Director: Christopher Hills Eaton, Producers: Anderson Clark, Christopher Hills Eaton, and Brad Post; 10 min. A boy survives the attack on Pearl Harbor by clinging to a floating log. When
September 7, 2023
Esperanza Teaser from Shruti Parekh on Vimeo. Saturday, November 4, 4 PM, AC Theater 2022, United States, Director: Shruti Parekh, Producers: Shruti Parekh and Laura Scarano; 18 min. When an immigrant taxi driver in upstate New York takes an undocumented
September 7, 2023
Saturday, November 4, 4 PM, AC Gallery 2023, Canada, Director: Malibu Taetz; Co-Directors: David Mora Perea and Joshua Vanderlinden, Producers: Marlio Herrera Lira and Malibu Taetz; 15 min. A young friar tasked with extinguishing the candles in a huge cathedral
September 7, 2023
First Chair | Trailer from Montgomery Brothers on Vimeo. Friday, November 3, 1 PM, AC Gallery 2022, United States, Directors and Producers: Ethan and Luke Montgomery; 13 min. Jin is a technically gifted clarinetist whose real vocation is playing the
September 7, 2023
Gather Trailer from Sanjay Rawal on Vimeo. Monday, November 6, 10 AM, AC Gallery 2020, United States, Director: Sanjay Rawal, Producers: Tanya Mellier and Sterlin Harjo; 74 min Gather is an intimate portrait of a growing movement amongst Indigenous Americans
September 7, 2023
Monday, November 6, 1 PM, AC Theater 2022, United States, Director: Peter Fox, Producers: Peter Fox, Chris Landon, and Max MacIver; 14 min. A young girl is saddened and bewildered when her music teacher suddenly retires. Stung by his perceived
September 7, 2023
Monday, November 6, 1 PM, AC Theater 2022, United States, Director and Producer: Mikhail Robert Brant; 17 min. Ojai native Mischa Brant takes viewers on an odyssey to Baja to film a pod of grey whales. Footage of people communing
September 7, 2023
Friday, November 3, 1 PM, AC Theater 2023, Israel, Director and Producer: Yuval Naveh; 18 min. A tough-on-crime judge who tries accused rapists finds himself in their shoes when he has a troubling dream suggesting that he molested his daughter.
September 7, 2023
Ice Merchants a film by João Gonzalez – Trailer from Agência – Portuguese Short Films on Vimeo. Friday, November 3, 10 AM, AC Theater 2022, Portugal, Director: João Gonzalez, Producers: Bruno Caetano and Michaël Proença; 14 min. Every day, a
September 7, 2023
Saturday, November 4, 7 PM, AC Theater 2023, Iran, Director: Siavash Asadi, Producers: Siavash Asadi and Nima Tabari; 120 min. As young children, Atieh and Kami are neighbors united by the close friendship between their two fathers. After Atieh’s father
September 7, 2023
Monday, November 6, 10 AM, AC Theater 2023, United States, Director: Jordan Matthew Horowitz, Producers: Andrew Carlberg and Jordan Matthew Horowitz; 20 min. This poignant documentary profiles two Holocaust survivors miraculously reunited after 80 years. Now in their late 90s,
September 7, 2023
Monday, November 6, 1 PM, AC Gallery 2022, Germany, Directors: Jan Gadermann and Sebastian Gadow, Producer: Johannes Schubert; 15 min. Trapped inside an enormous diving suit, Nemo is a misfit in his seaside town. When a spaceship crash lands in
September 7, 2023
LÍMITE – Official Trailer from George Nicholas on Vimeo. Friday, November 3, 10 AM, AC Gallery 2023, Mexico, Director: George Nicholas, Producer: Eliza Bonev and George Nicholas; 38 min. Sixteen-year-old Manuel lives in Tijuana, Mexico with his grandfather while
September 7, 2023
Saturday, November 4, 10 AM, AC Gallery 2021, United States, Director: Theodore Bogosian, Producers: Thedore Bogosian and Scott Dummler; 82 min. This star-studded documentary tells the story of two Jewish brothers who came home from WWII and transformed a family
September 7, 2023
MANŌ Trailer from Brittany Biggs on Vimeo. Sunday, November 5, 4 PM, AC Gallery 2022, United States, Director: Brittany Biggs, Producers: Brittany Biggs and Jeff Chasin; 10 min. Facing extinction from overfishing, sharks represent one of the most feared and