Columbus to host film festival in May

The Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, in conjunction with the Gateway Film Center, Film Columbus and other community partners, announced Thursday that it will be hosting a large, all-encompassing film festival in May.

The inaugural Cinema Columbus will run May 7-17 at various venues across town. It will include short and long films; filmmakers who are both local and from around the globe; and a wide selection of genres. Other features will include red-carpet events, filmmaker talks and educational opportunities, CAPA president and CEO Chad Whittington said.

“We want to make something meaningful for the film community here,” Whittington said. “But we also want something with a higher profile than we’ve had in the city before.”

That means providing a platform to preview major motion pictures early while showcasing other smaller films that wouldn’t normally come to screens in Columbus, said Chris Hamel, president of the Gateway Film Center on North High Street.

“First and foremost, Columbus has deserved a large film festival for years,” Hamel said. “This is designed to serve a whole city and region.”

More details on the lineup, schedule and tickets will be released in April.

Unlike the many film festivals already put on annually by Gateway, CAPA and other cultural groups in town, this one will take place at venues across the city, not be limited by genre and involve a number of stakeholders, Hamel said.

“Film festivals that currently exist are great, and there’s a wide variety of them that serve an audience or they wouldn’t continue,” he said. “All the major cultural arts organizations are working together to make something grander in scale that reaches across the country.”