The Montana Film Festival is returning for the 9th year this October. The festival will be running from October 12th through the 15th at the Roxy Theater.
Mike Emmons is in his third year working for the festival. Previously he worked as programming director, but this year he takes on a new role as the artistic director. His role is essentially, “creating a vision and an identity for the festival, and then curating a list of films that work within that vision.” Emmons said. He watches, “dozens and dozens of films which have either been submitted to the festival, or played at other festivals, or are just coming out in the future, and try to come up with a line-up that I think will entertain our audience.”
Emmons finds the team he works with to be the most rewarding part of the festival for him. “What I find most rewarding about the festival is working with extraordinary people like Sarah Ferguson, Lizzie Archer, David Mills-Low, Mike Smith, and so many others. We are a fantastic team.” said Emmons. As for the community, he hopes that, “people attending the festival enjoy the chance to watch rewarding films that they otherwise might never get the chance to see.”
There are many films to look forward to. Emmons said he was excited for all the films in this year’s line-up, “…especially Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker, an incredible queer coming-of-age comedy set in the Batman universe, and featuring dozens of different animation styles.” said Emmons, “I’ve never seen anything like it before”.
The festival has always resisted a traditional description and defied most rules regarding its mission, vision, and programming. Emmons described the festival as, “an annual four-day event at the Roxy Theater, a celebration of contemporary independent cinema, with a special focus on films made in or about the American West.” He said, “Our new motto is ‘Big Screen Country,’ and that sums it up–we’re looking to bring the world to Montana and Montana to the world. We’re declaring that this is a place that values the art of movie-making and the ritual of movie-going.”
Tickets are on sale now at montanafilmfestival.org
