2011 was a huge success! Take a look at our wide-ranging media coverage in the video below. Film submissions for the 2012 film festival will be accepted via Without-A-Box from Feb 15 to Sep 15.
2011 Film Festival Winners
In The Media: 2011 Festival Write-ups and Interviews
PRESS RELEASE: With Full List of Events and Speakers
At the Russell C. Davis Planetarium, 201 E. Pascagoula Street, in Jackson, Mississippi. Directions here.
Film Festival: $8/day at the door for all day Friday or Saturday. Better choice: $10 for both days, which gives you admission to 50 films, Saturday’s events (street festival, live music, kids activities) plus the 2-night Spookfest! Kids Under 12: FREE for all film blocks and Saturday events.
Friday Opening Gala: $8/person (FREE with day ticket purchase), 5:30-7pm. Honoring Guests Danny Glover and the Mississippi Freedom Riders. Catering by Brookwood Byram Country Club.
Saturday Gala: $8/person (FREE with day ticket purchase), 5:30-7pm. Honoring Guest Tom Lester (“Eb” from TV’s Green Acres) and the 50th anniversary of Elvis’Blue Hawaii.
Sunday Brunch: King Edward Award’s Brunch…to honor Danny Glover. Due to scheduling conflicts Danny Glover’s appearance at the Mississippi International Film Festivals Friday night Gala for his film Freedom Song has been postponed till the Festival’s Awards Ceremony at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown (King Edward) at 11 AM Sunday Oct 23rd. Tickets to the Awards and the Brunch are $25 at door. To attend the Awards only $5. All attendees of the Friday night gala will be given free non brunch attendance by wearing their Friday night attendance bracelets to the awards.
Special thanks to Brookwood Byram Country Club, Cathead Vodka, Lazy Magnolia, Rex Goliath Wine, and Blufeld Wine, catering providers for the Opening Gala, 5:30-7:00 PM on Friday, Oct. 21st.
The MIFF takes a turn into Spookdom both Friday and Saturday, from 10PM on as we pay tribute to one of the most iconic horror directors of all time: Herschell Gordon Lewis, the “Godfather of Gore”. Herschell taught English at Mississippi State University in 1948 and 1949 and then went on to almost single-handedly create a whole new genre of horror film. We have the new documentary on his film career plus three of his Iconic films. Learn More…
From The Director of the Film Festival…
Welcome to Mississippi International! We have great films for these three days ahead. Films from Iran, Canada, India and other lands. The one thing that is more plain to me now, more so than ever before is this common thread that film weaves in all our lives, no matter where we come from in the world.
This festival celebrates this common thread. I hope this year and in years ahead it will prove this point by being intentionally diverse in the films we show and in the bringing together of people from many lands and backgrounds. There are so many diverse cultures living among us and I think it’s time we got together, don’t you?
We have actors workshops Saturday in the Planetarium lobby put on by Veleka Gray from New Orleans…this is a way to get a foothold in acting…She is great!
The 2011 Mississippi International will offer even more in the way of International Indie films along with two celebrations, the 50th Anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Riders, we will have two Freedom Riders in attendance Friday night October 21st and we will show ” Freedom Song” starring Danny Glover who will also be in attendance and will speak that evening. We will also be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Mississippi’s own Elvis Presley’s film “Blue Hawaii” on Saturday night October 22nd, kicking off a Saturday and Saturday night rockabilly themed music, film and costume party downtown. We will have awards for best Hawaiian costume, best Halloween costume and best Elvis costume. The bringing together of these two 50th anniversaries into a single event is characteristic of what the Mississippi International Film Festival is all about.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent by movie makers in the deep south every year. Mississippi had been “discovered” by Hollywood and it’s only going to get bigger… I say now is the time for us as filmmakers, actors, artists and folks who love our state and movies to pull together and manifest the future.
-Edward Saint Pe’
Director, Mississippi Film Institute
