OFF Releases Comprehensive Festival Schedule

The 2016 Oxford Film Festival recently released its jam-packed schedule and complete slate of films for this year’s edition – its 13th which promises to bigger and better than ever.

According to the OFF website; “The Oxford Film Festival was founded in 2003 to bring exciting, new and unusual films (and the people who create them) to North Mississippi. The annual four-day festival screens short and feature-length films in both showcase and competition settings, including narrative and documentary features and shorts; Mississippi narratives, documentaries and music videos, and narrative, documentary, animated and experimental shorts.”

This year, a record breaking 144 films (25 features, 119 shorts and music videos) representing 14 countries were selected for the festival scheduled to take place February 17-21 in Oxford.

One of the many panels OFF will offer this year is a talk with film and television star, Joey Lawrence.
Photo courtesy of twitter.com/JoeyLawNews

A series of special filmmaker panels including a talk with film and television star, Joey Lawrence, will be offered for Mississippi filmgoers to attend, 21 short films will screen for the first time anywhere and 21 alumni filmmakers will see their latest work screen at Oxford with as many as 80 filmmakers planning to attend the popular festival.

The presentation of the Oxford Film Festival’s Hoka Awards will take place on Saturday, February 20, at Lyric Oxford located at 1006 Van Buren Avenue on the Oxford Square.

Oxford Film Festival executive director Melanie Addington

“The Oxford Film Festival continues to grow and this year’s selections – both in subject matter, representation from around the world and the sheer number of films chosen – reflects that. As always, we are celebrating our ‘home grown’ filmmakers and their work; but we are also screening films with provocative subjects, from different cultures and a myriad of genres in our effort to deliver a broad spectrum of experiences in the theater to our eager Mississippi film fans. We also are thrilled at the idea of having so many filmmakers attend the festival this year; to be here in-person, see their work screened and be available to talk to the public about their movies,” OFF executive director Melanie Addington said.

The series of panels offered at this year’s festival are headed by a “Conversation with … Joey Lawrence” where he will discuss his career including his experiences being a teen idol and his new faith-based film ‘Saved By Grace.’ Also included will be additional compelling panel subjects including: “Casting Character Actors”; “Producing Films in Mississippi”; “Casting Child Actors”; “Dissecting Hollywood’s Diversity Problem”; “How to Get Film Critics to review Your Film” and “Independent Black Film Collective.”

Each year, the festival conveniently packages their films into blocks; making navigation of the genres easier, not to mention the physical navigation of Malco Oxford Commons Cinema & Grill. The blocks of films include: documentaries, narratives, world premieres and shorts, to name a few.

In the upcoming weeks, leading to the festival’s kickoff, HottyToddy.com encourages readers to stay tuned as we feature comprehensive coverage of each film block, complete with summaries, the film’s stars, producers and photos.

OFF is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization.

For more information, visit the Oxford Film Festival website at http://oxfordfilmfest.com/.

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Jeff McVay is a staff writer and graphic designer for Hottytoddy.com. He can be reached at jeff.mcvay@hottytoddy.com

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