First Look Film Festival ready to kick 7th in Denver
The 7th Annual First Look Film Festival will be held April 19 - 22 at the Starz FilmCenter (900 Auraria Parkway). The Festival, presented by Denver Film Society, and Festival Founders Wade Gardner and Josh Weinberg will feature a diverse line-up of six short narrative, documentary, animation and experimental film packages from college students from around the world.
Now in its seventh year, the Festival has screened films from some of the hottest new filmmakers in the world. Last year, Best Overall Short was awarded to Ari Sandel who went on to win an Academy Award for his film WEST BANK STORY. This year’s program also features some award winning shorts – 27,000 DAYS Winner Best Experimental Short at South by Southwest; A VERY SMALL TRILOGY OF LONELINESS and BARTHOLOMEW’S SONG National Finalists at the Student Academy Awards and LAS PINATAS Winner of a Student Emmy Award.
“This year's festival features one of our strongest lineups in our history. We have spent the last three months viewing hundreds of short films created by new filmmakers to finalize our selections. This is a unique opportunity for the local film-going community to view exceptional works from the "next wave" of filmmakers,” said Josh Weinberg, co-founder of the Festival.
A local film success story will be featured at this year’s festival. Denver director, Monty Miranda, graduate of CU Boulder Film School, just returned from the South by Southwest Film Festival. His latest feature film, SKILLS LIKE THIS, won the Audience Award for Best Feature. During the First Look Film Festival, a special program “The Full Monty Miranda” will feature clips from SKILLS LIKE THIS as well as highlights from Monty’s commercial career. A Q & A will offer the audience an opportunity to engage in a conversation with this native filmmaker. The program, on Saturday, April 21 at 6:00 p.m. at the Starz FilmCenter, will be free to the public.
The Festival will again this year feature two of its most popular programs – “Late Night Horror Zombie Horror Madness” and “Roll Your Own Film Festival”.
Attendees of the Zombie Horror program will receive a free can of Go Fast! energy drink to help stay awake into the wee hours of the night. This late night Horror screening will frighten filmgoers on Friday, April 20 at 10:00 p.m.
The “Roll Your Own Film Festival” program allows the audience the opportunity to select the festival shorts that they would like to see again or see for the first time. Attendees of the screening will also receive complimentary champagne and bagels. The screening takes place on Sunday, April 22 at 11:00 p.m. with breakfast service beginning at 10:00 a.m.
