The Newport Beach Film Festival is having quite the year.
The Festival’s second annual TV Fest in June featured sold-out panels featuring Seth McFarland, Sebastian Maniscalco, Andy Cohen, and the casts of “Landman” and “Shrinking.”
Then last month the Festival launched “The Process Unlocked,” a new SoCal PBS television conversation series hosted by three-time Emmy winner Jenelle Riley at the new Witte Hall in Newport Beach. The first guest of “The Process Unlocked” was four-time Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe.
Now, the Newport Beach Film Festival is ready to debut its 27th edition, taking place October 15-22. Over eight days, the festival will screen more than 300 narrative features, documentaries, action sports, culinary films, and a variety of short subjects.
The Festival’s opening night film on October 15 is “Frampton,” an eye-opening documentary about musician Peter Frampton, who in the 1970s was one of the most popular musicians on the planet. The film documents his rise, fall, and comeback.
Closing the Festival on October 22 is “Behemoth!” starring Pedro Pascal. “Behemoth!” follows Alex Serian (Pascal), a gifted cellist who returns home to Los Angeles after 20 years on the road. Music — the constant, all-consuming river that has carried Alex his entire life — pulls him into an adventure that will change him forever. “Behemoth!” was filmed partly at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
According to Newport Beach Film Festival President and CEO Gregg Schwenk, more than 4,000 films were submitted to the festival this year, requiring thousands of hours of viewing to find the best ones.
In addition to the film screenings, Schwenk said he was excited about the talent attending various screenings, including sax player Dave Koz for the “Smooth World” screening and Kenny Loggins for the “Conviction of the Heart” documentary.
“Then you have things like ‘Sock It to Me: The Legend of George Schlatter,’ a documentary about the creator of ‘Laugh In.’ Lily Tomlin (an original cast member) will be coming to that screening,” said Schwenk.
As they do every year, the opening night party (after the “Frampton” screening) will be at Fashion Island.
“We’ve got I think 30 or 32 of the top restaurants doing signature tasting, with a hosted bar by Tito’s Vodka. It’s an amazing way to kick off the festival,” said Schwenk. “And then we have our different events every night at Time Nightclub, as well as our Irish showcase on Sunday evening, where we have three major premieres and the post-party at Muldoons Irish Pub.”
Among the International Spotlight films are selections from 16 countries including Poland, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Sweden, New Zealand, and many others.
“We have a gigantic delegation coming over from Ireland, and a large delegation coming from Poland this year for the first time,” noted Schwenk. “And a delegation coming in from South Korea, a group coming from Australia and New Zealand. We’ve got groups coming in from all over.”
Schwenk also said he’s impressed with the talent coming out for many of the documentary screenings.
“So one of the things I really play up is ‘Couture to the Max,’ a story about this designer, Max Alexander, and showing his preparation for a runway show. He’s considered one of the top young designers out there. What’s remarkable? He’s nine years old. He has a deep following out there. He’s a nine-year-old prodigy.”
There are also documentaries on Armani, Carl Sagan, Junipero Serra, and many others.
“The vast majority of the films at the Film Festival have someone associated with them coming out, and I would say this year more than ever we are getting this cast member, that person, and people who are not only cast members, but people in the industry who are excited about seeing the film, so they’re coming out,” said Schwenk. “The guest list I’m seeing is almost as impressive as the talent list for the films.”
With so many films in the Festival, Schwenk said they are utilizing more theaters than ever.
“We’re using The Lot, we’re using Big Newport, we’re using the Triangle and the Lido, and we’re also going to be using the University Town Center Irvine,” said Schwenk. “We want to bring the festival to the audience and really be able to engage with the students from UCI.”
As Schwenk pointed out, the Newport Beach Film Festival is for everyone to enjoy.
“It is produced by the community for the community. And one of the things we try to stress to everyone is that anyone can buy a ticket. Anyone can come out and feel like a VIP at the Newport Beach Film Festival. And we want people to come out, see a film, participate in the Q and A, ask a question, and then if you want to come to the post-party, that’s the other great thing. At so many film festivals, you’ve got to be ‘on the list.’ But for 95 percent of the things here at the Newport Beach Film Festival, it’s all about just buying a ticket and enjoying our community and our celebration of cinema.”
“Everybody has such a nice time—it’s such a positive environment,” added Schwenk. “We worked very hard to try and find films that were uplifting. Films that talk about solutions and talk about pathways to making things better, because there’s a lot of negativity out there. We really wanted to make this a positive experience. We’re excited for people to see the festival and all the films we have.”
Visit www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com. for the complete Festival schedule.
