More than 100 films will be shown over a six-day period during this year’s Omaha Film Festival.
Celebrating its 21st year, the event will be held March 10-15 at Omaha’s Aksarben Cinema.
The festival will showcase a total of 104 films, including 30 short films by Nebraska filmmakers, 37 national and international short films, 12 documentaries, 12 narrative features, 10 animated short films and three special screenings.
Marc Longbrake, Omaha Film Festival Director, was one of the original founders of the event. He said they envisioned a local festival when plans were put in motion 22 years ago, but the vision quickly grew in scope.
“We did some research and Omaha didn’t have anything like that, so we thought ‘Let’s just build it,’” he recalled. “We put out a call for entries that first year assuming we’d be a local festival with Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri films entered. That very first year I think we had films from 20 countries. We didn’t really have a chance to grow into it. We had to hit the ground running that very first year.”
The festival has been held at Aksarben Cinema for around eight years, and Longbrake said the venue has been a great match for the event.
“One thing we talk about a lot is ‘buy local’ and ‘buy Omaha,’” he said. “Since Aksarben is locally owned, that’s something that appeals to us and we like having access to a theater that’s locally owned.”
Longbrake said when the team started plans to launch the Omaha Film Festival more than two decades ago there were around 1,200 film festivals worldwide. Today, he said that number has ballooned to more than 12,000.
Part of the appeal for moviegoers is that many of the filmmakers are in attendance and available for discussions after a viewing.
“You go to a movie in a theater and the credits roll and the experience is over,” Longbrake said. “At a festival, a lot of times you have time to participate in a Q&A and interact with the people who created the film. Then that filmmaker will be there for the week, so if you’re too shy to ask a question, they’ll be there seeing movies. It’s a really cool way to interact with people making the art we’re all looking at.
“Everyone has a nice big TV at home and it’s easy to sit at home and watch Amazon Prime, Netflix or Hulu, but we want to encourage people to get out to a movie theater. There’s nothing like the shared experience of having 300 people in the same room, then interacting with them after the screenings.”
Around 800 entries were submitted for this year’s festival, and a team of 24 judges made the final sections. Longbrake said each film is watched in its entirety up to six times by different judges.
Last year around 6,500 people attended the event.
One of the short films deeply rooted in Omaha, “Chapter 21,” stars Joe Drwal, a 24-year-old Omaha actor with Down syndrome.
Drwal is a graduate of Millard West High School and is currently a student at the University of Nebraska Omaha Trailblazers college program, where his coursework includes drama class.
A press release stated the role in Chapter 21 was developed intentionally for Drwal and written with his voice and abilities in mind.
“I worked with Joe on a smaller project and knew I wanted to write something specifically for him,” writer and co-director Katie Stoneburner said in the release. “As we explored ideas, we landed on something very personal — a story inspired by my family and by growing up with a brother who has Down syndrome.”
The film was written, shot, and produced entirely in Omaha and strives to reflect inclusive storytelling and lived experience both in front of and behind the camera.
“Inclusive filmmaking isn’t about checking a box — it’s about who gets to be part of the creative process from the very beginning,” co-director and co-star Ellen Burling said in the release. “Joe was involved early on, and his voice helped shape the character and the story in meaningful ways.”
The film will be shown Friday, March 13 at 8:25 p.m.
Among the special screenings is the film “Billy Knight” by Alex Griffen Roth, starring Al Pacino, Charlie Heaton and Diana Silvers, about a struggling film student in Los Angeles who discovers a mysterious handkerchief bearing the name “Billy Knight,” a forgotten Hollywood actor whose life and legacy were erased from history. The student embarks on a Hollywood adventure to track down its owner.
Another special screening is “Carolina Caroline” by Adam Rehmeier, starring Jon Gries, Samara Weaving and Kyra Sedgwick about a young woman who skips her small town in search of her estranged mother alongside a charismatic con man on the run from the law.
The event’s closing night film will be “Late Fame” by Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee and Edmund Donovan about a group of young artists who rediscover a book of poetry initially overlooked and connect with its author.
As part of the festival, OFF Academy will also welcome dozens of students in seventh through 12th grades for interactive learning experiences with filmmakers, writers and production professionals. The program offers workshops, career insights and an inside look at how films are made and how creative careers are built.
Individual tickets are available, and passes to view multiple films can be purchased on the Omaha Film Festival’s website.
Passes are used to reserve individual tickets online for each individual screening and to help organizers manage capacity and provide real-time updates on which screenings are sold out. Passes will not be accepted at the door.