Screenfest Film Festival Announces Nominees and Events

The second annual Screenfest Film Festival in Gatlinburg is approaching, and many Tennessee films and actors are nominated for awards. Screenfest, Sevier County’s only film festival, has expanded their pool of prizes by including actors, actresses, supporting actors, and supporting actresses. The festival will add the performance awards alongside the Grand Prize, Second Place, Third Place, and Viewer’s Choice Awards. Overall fifteen films and fourteen actors are nominated, with the majority being from the East Tennessee area. The performance nominees range from theater students at area high schools and universities to some well-known faces in the film industry.

Screenfest activities begin on Friday, March 26 at 6:30 with an Opening Night mixer, a party designed to introduce the filmmakers and actors among themselves and to area business owners, festival patrons, and fans. Admission to the mixer is free, but attendees are encouraged to bring business cards, calling cards, or fliers to exchange with others. Screenings begin Friday evening and will run throughout the weekend with multiple theaters and showings of each film. In addition to the fifteen competing films being screened, the 2009 winners will be shown in a free screening on Saturday with donations encouraged to benefit the American Red Cross. Another free event is a workshop presented by Talent Trek Agency to inform guests about what talent agencies look for and how to work in film and television in the Southeast. The entire festival will include Sunday evening with an Awards Ceremony cocktail party.

Festival director Jessee Black says that his biggest challenge in the event’s sophomore year is educating the public on what his festival really is. “Essentially it’s a night at the movies with a competition undercurrent. Screenfest serves popcorn and soda, and we sit around to watch movies that are made to entertain the audience alongside the filmmakers and actors who made them.” The nominees this year run the gamut from drama to documentary, and from comedy to horror. “There is definitely something for everyone” Black says.