History
Movie stars, celebrities, and outstanding cinema are the stuff that make excitement. The Tallahassee Film Festival’s inaugural event was held on May 15th through May 17, 2008. An impressive 65 film screenings, educational seminars, competitions for emerging filmmakers and an engaged community made the first year a huge success. A highlight was the award-winning Rickard High School Marching Band playing pieces from the Star Wars score to acknowledge Richard Portman as the event’s first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Who will forget him leading the band with his invisible baton, tears of joy streaming from his face?
The second year of the Tallahassee Film Festival cemented the event’s mission with regard to educational initiatives. The Florida State University Film School along with Torchlight Program attracted even greater films, filmmakers, and raised the bar on the excellence of the presenters and screenings . Florida A&M University led the efforts to offer even more meaningful educational sessions for script writing, the business of film distribution and hosted workshops with representatives of prestigious film studios. Efforts to engage the community in new ways expanded the event’s filmmaking contest and attracted pre-college student participation.
Support from key community stakeholders including the Tourist Development Council, the Florida Film Commission, city and county government agencies, private foundations and corporations provided the funding and in-kind services to stabilize the organization in one of the most difficult financial years in our nation’s history.
The Film Festival’s Board of Directors has expanded to strengthen the organization and include the Executive Directors of the city’s and county’s Economic Development Office and the regional Film Commissioner.
The 2010 Tallahassee Film Festival will increase the accessibility of screenings, enhance marketing and promotional campaigns, amplify the international-ness of films, strengthen its educational focus, and add to the number of funding sources.
It is a big plan for an all volunteer effort but there is a movie lover in every household. We believe that the Tallahassee Film Festival is an essential ingredient in our community’s long-term plans for economic development, and key to attracting the creative audience we have identified as our Tallahassee residents.
