Noon Peerapong
Here, in the heart of Hollywood South, we are lucky enough to be driving distance from many of the country's most unique and devoted film festivals—from Oscar-qualifying events to small-town celebrations of local talent. Get out your calendar and start making your plans for these binge-worthy weekends.
New Orleans Film Festival
November 2–12
Recently named by MovieMaker Magazine “one of the 25 coolest film festivals in the world” and eleven years running as one of “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee”—New Orleans’s signature film festival is recognized as one of the premiere film events in the country thanks to its stellar venues like the Contemporary Arts Center Black Box Theater, Prytania Theatre, and The Broad Theatre; commitment to supporting emerging creators, and reputation for elevating nuanced stories and storytellers from a diverse range of perspectives with an emphasis on regionalism and social issues. This year’s event will feature twenty-nine feature films and ninety-eight short films with over one hundred premieres—22% of which are by Louisiana filmmakers. The festival also presents a series of panels, workshops, and artist talks—most of which are free and open to the public. In person screenings will take place from November 2–7, and virtual screenings will be available through November 12. All Access passes are $350; Virtual Cinema Passes $100 ; six film passes are $80. Individual films are $15 in-person; $10 virtually. Details at neworleansfilmsociety.org.
DeSoto Film Festival
November 3–4
Conceived to offer a film festival experience with families in mind, the DeSoto Film festival centers more “wholesome” films with an emphasis on creative and beautiful storytelling that is appropriate for viewers of all ages and generally uplifting. The event is hosted by the DeSoto Arts Institute at SouthPoint Church in Southaven, Mississippi. Festival passes are $25 for the whole weekend, which includes access to screenings from 6 pm–10 pm each night. More details to come at desotofilmfestival.com.
Southern Screen Festival
November 16–19
Held in the heart of Cajun Country, this iconic festival known for bringing the best of the year’s independent films to Acadiana—and hosting an annual gathering for local film professionals and creatives of other disciplines—returns to the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Already-announced programming for this year’s event includes the hometown screening of Brennan Robideaux’s documentary about local pole vaulting prodigy Mondo Duplantis, Born to Fly (read more about this film on page 42), a workshop on Filmmaking Ethics with Sarah Rachael Wainio (Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant, Sneaker Hustle, Me or the Menu), an animation workshop by Gurleen Rai (Get Up, Pierrot; The Final Nights of E. Zann), and a live performance and music video screening by local band Kid Charleroi. Organizers promise plenty more announcements to come, including over twenty film screenings, parties every night, and workshops by industry professionals. $65 Festival Passes get you admission to all in-person screenings, sessions, and special events as well as access to all virtual programming; $95 for VIP Pass, which also grants access to the VIP Lounge at the ACA with food and drinks; $20 discounts are also available for creatives working in fields of film, music, radio, comedy, podcasts, writing and other creative storytelling mediums; $35 discounts for students. Tickets to individual events will vary. Details to come at southernsccreen.org.
[Read this 2022 feature on the Southern Screen Festival, here.]
Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival
January 10–14
For almost twenty years, Baton Rouge has celebrated its vibrant local Jewish community by showcasing new films exploring and centering issues related to the Jewish experience. This year’s slate of screenings includes a tribute to American Jewish actor, comedian, writer, and filmmaker Gene Wilder (of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Producers, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil); a documentary on the 2016 Sarona Market terrorist attack in Tel Aviv; a “buddy comedy” called Not Quite Kosher; and a documentary on the photographer Roman Vishniac, who captured important images of life in Eastern Europe’s impoverished Jewish communities from 1935–1938, just before the onset of World War II. Screenings—held at 7 pm Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday and 3 pm on Sunday—will take place at the Manship Theatre. Tickets are $8.50 per screening, with discounts if you join the Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival VIP Movie Club. Details at brjff.com.
Cinema on the Bayou
January 24–31
For the nineteenth year, Louisiana’s second oldest annual international juried film festival will return for its eight-day event—held in venues across Lafayette, which in the past have included Cité des Arts, Vermilionville Performance Center, and the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Dedicated to presenting almost two hundred films running the gamut from narrative to documentary to animation, the festival also dedicates special space to celebrating projects by filmmakers from across the Francophone world. More details to come about the 2024 festival at cinemaonthebayou.com.
Clarksdale Film and Music Festival
January 26–28
In the city called “Ground Zero” of Delta Blues country, a smart and celebratory curation of blues documentaries and Mississippi-centric films returns for the fourteenth year, to be cast upon the screen at the headquarters of Shared Experiences USA. Keep an eye and an ear out for a Whos-Who of Delta blues talents, many of whom will be taking the stage at local juke joints for shows scheduled around the festival screenings. More details to come about the 2024 festival at clarksdalefilmfestival.com.
The Magnolia Independent Film Festival
February 22–24
Mississippi's first, and longest running, film festival, begun under the wing of the poet, journalist, and filmmaker Ron Tibett, has built an esteemed legacy of bringing high quality independent and lesser-known cinema to viewers in the Golden Triangle Area. A favorite of amateur and professional filmmakers, this intimate, hospitality-forward event in Starkville is oriented towards creatives, with a mission to inspire and to foster the state’s vibrant film industry. “The Mag”’s lineup hasn’t been announced yet, but will feature films presented virtually and in person at the UEC Hollywood Premier Cinema. Details to come at magnoliafilmfest.com.
Patois Film Festival
March 7–10
For over twenty years now, New Orleans activists have linked up with New Orleans artists to present an annual film festival focused on stories about international human rights issues, while nurturing the local human rights community by supporting local organizations and organizers. In recent years, this spring festival has screened films on topics of climate justice, racism and corporate power at Disney World, and Angola prison. Dates and further details about the 2024 Patois Film Festival to be announced at patoisfilmfest.org.
Oxford Film Festival
March 21–24
Called “OxFilm” by regular attendees, this celebration of independent cinema aims to cultivate audience appreciation of film while also encouraging filmmaking in North Mississippi. With a reputation for hospitality and creativity, the festival has been named by MovieMaker Magazine one of its “Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” for several years. Visitors can expect over one hundred quality films from all over the globe, plus a thrilling slate of parties, and an extensive offering of filmmaking panels and workshops put on by successful folks in the industry on subjects ranging from set dressing to distribution to stunt acting. More details to come about the 2024 festival at ox-film.com.
Cane River Film Festival
March 23
Produced by Resurrection Fern Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Cane River Creole heritage, the annual Cane River Film Festival showcases the work of independent and student filmmakers, with an emphasis on Louisiana stories. Held at Natchitoches’s Parkway Cinema 6 from 11 am–4 pm, the festival will present its screenings, an award ceremony, and Q&As with directors while granting filmmakers access to directors, agents, and producers in attendance. Most of the lineup has yet to be announced, but guests can expect a presentation by special guest Dr. Ross F. Williams, Jr., who is the CEO and Founder of MIT Global Enterprises, LLC, and a screening of his film, Woman on the Barbed Wire Fence. More details to come about the 2024 festival at caneriverfilmfestival.com.
The Overlook Film Festival
April 4–7
New Orleans’s annual Overlook Film Festival conjures art and artists inspired by the city’s darker tendencies, presenting a showcase of new films in independent horror cinema, interspersed with interactive and live theatre shows across the city. Dubbed a “summer camp for horror genre fans”—Overlook has been named by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the Best Genre Festivals in the world each year since its inception, “one of the world’s best festivals” by FANGORIA, and “America’s most exciting new genre fest” by IndieWIRE. Held at New Orleans’ historic Prytania Theatres, Overlook Film Festival’s 2024 schedule will be released in the spring at overlookfilmfest.com.
Black Film Festival of New Orleans
Spring 2024
Designed to foster and advance New Orleans’s vibrant community of Black creators, this free film festival showcases the city as a hotspot for filmmaking and film appreciation, offering virtual and in-person screenings of over fifty films, plus performances of poetry, comedy, and live music in some of the city’s most iconic venues. Visiting and local filmmakers can also take advantage of workshops and guest panels, which in the past have presented subjects such as special effects makeup, and “Producing and Budgeting for Narrative Film”. The festival is typically held in the spring. Dates and further details about the 2024 BFFNO to be announced at bffno.com.
French Film Festival
Spring 2024
Hosted by the New Orleans Film Society, this festival is one of the longest-running foreign language festivals in the United States, and annually brings together diverse expressions of experiences across the Francophone world to New Orleans. In recent years, the festival—presented virtually and in person at New Orleans’s historic Prytania Theatres—has been the site of some of the first films presented in the Louisiana Creole language Kouri-Vini. Dates and details about the 2024 French Film Festival to be announced at neworleansfilmsociety.org/french-film-festival.
Third Horizon X NOFF
Summer 2024
This one-day program is a collaboration between the New Orleans Film Festival and Miami’s Third Horizon Film Festival, in which NOFF presents a slate of films by filmmakers from the Caribbean and its diaspora who have been featured at THFF in the past. Usually held in late spring or early summer, dates and details will be announced at neworleansfilmsociety.org.
Baton Rouge Irish Film Festival
Summer 2024
Every year, in the late summer, the Baton Rouge Irish Club gets together for a wee weekend of bingeing the best in recent Irish cinema. Usually kicking off with a good old pub night at Phil Brady’s, the weekend includes screenings of a variety of genres—from documentaries to feature films to shorts—celebrating this distinct heritage as expressed in film. Dates and further details about the 2024 Irish Film Fest to be announced at batonrougeirishfilmfestival.com.
Louis Prima Film Festival
Summer 2024
Hosted by the America-Italian Federation of the Southeast, the American-Italian Film Festival in 2023 was a celebration, held in New Orleans, of our region’s vibrant Italian/Sicilian heritage. The event screened four films, each thirty minutes long, with Q&As afterward—all kicked off with a Sicilian wine tasting. Plans are in the works for a 2024 event, renamed the Louis Prima Film Festival. Dates and details to be announced at aifedse.org.
OUTnorthLa Film Festival
Fall 2024
Since 2009, organizers at the organization People Acting for Change and Equality (PACE) have hosted this film festival as a platform to celebrate the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community in the film industry and to our culture as a whole. Selected films raise awareness of concerns within the queer community, foster positive change, explore the history and experience of queer people in film, and push back against stereotypes through meaningful and diverse portrayals of LGBTQ+ in film. In recent years, the festival has been held in the fall at the Robinson Film Center in Shreveport. Dates and details about the 2024 OUTnorthLa Film Festival to be announced at outnorthla.org.
Lake Charles Film Festival
Fall 2024
This annual event hosted by Louisiana Film & Video Art, Inc. brings dozens of the best of independent films to Calcasieu Parish, as well as filmmaking and music workshops designed to foster local creative talent. The festival is typically held in the fall in Lake Charles. Dates and details about the 2024 festival will be announced at lakecharlesfilmfestival.com.
Louisiana Film Prize
Fall 2024
At Shreveport’s annual Prize Fest, creatives from film, food, music, fashion, and comedy disciplines compete for over $100,000 in cash and prizes. The film competition offers half of that award to one of around twenty filmmakers presenting short films to an audience, who will vote for the best of them. Split between two venues, the screenings are presented in two 2-hour slates. Viewers must see every film to vote. In addition to the competition are events like a red carpet extravaganza where you can meet filmmakers, an afterparty, a series of industry panels, and more. In recent years, Prize Fest has been held in the fall. Dates and details about the 2024 Prize Fest to be announced at prizefest.com.
Screamfest NOLA
Fall 2024
A New Orleans spin-off of Los Angeles’s “Sundance of Horror,” this event is dedicated to premiering the newest and highest quality horror projects from American and international independent creators. Usually held around the same time as the city’s Halloween celebrations, select filmmakers from the festival also take part in the annual Krewe of Boo Parade. Dates and details about the 2024 Screamfest NOLA to be announced at screamfestla.com/screamfest-nola.
