deadCenter festival sees ‘another record year’
An estimated 33,000 film fans flocked to downtown Oklahoma City over four days for this year’s deadCenter Film Festival.
Organizers said several of this year’s screenings sold out, and as usual, a plethora of panels, parties and presentations enticed festivalgoers. Special offerings at this year’s event included the inaugural techCenter technology conference, a free outdoor Saturday night double feature of the Nick Collison short documentary “Mr. Thunder” and the feature-length Lynyrd Skynyrd documentary “If I Leave Here Tomorrow,” and the festival’s first block of short films from high-school moviemakers.
Four-time Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard, grown-up Disney star and prolific actor Ryan Merriman and virtual reality filmmaker Kim Voynar were honored as deadCenter’s 2018 Oklahoma Film Icon Award winners, and they shared their experiences and wisdom at special events during the festival.
More than 1,300 films were considered for the 2018 event, and about 135 from across the state, country and world were chosen to screen at deadCenter. The festival receives more submissions every year, said Sara Thompson, deadCenter’s director of programming.
“This year was another record year,” she said. “When you think about how many are actually selected, it shows that it actually is pretty difficult to get into deadCenter.”
First-time filmmaker Laron Chapman, of Oklahoma City, earned Best Oklahoma Film for “You
People,” his timely and deeply personal dramedy that delves into issues of identity, sexuality and race. Megan Hickey’s documentary short “Grey
Matter,” which follows a writing program inside Mabel Bassett Correctional Center and explores the reasons why Oklahoma incarcerates women at double the national average, was named Best Oklahoma Short.
Writer-director Lizzie Logan’s “People People,” a romantic comedy about a YouTube star who is secretly agoraphobic, earned the Best Narrative Feature prize, while Joanne Hock’s stereo type smashing “Purple Dreams,” about inner-city, at-risk students embracing their arts education, won Best Documentary Feature.
Fans packed into a free world premiere screening of “The Jurassic Games,”
OKC filmmaker Ryan Bellgardt’s (“Gremlin”) thrilling and thoughtful near-future actioner about a controversial TV show that offers death row prisoners a chance to win their freedom if they can survive a VR obstacle course of velociraptors, sabre-toothed tigers and, of course, their murderous fellow inmates. The movie, which made its VOD debut Tuesday and will be released on DVD on July 3, received the Special Jury Narrative Feature award.
Lawton native Amy Scott’s directorial debut
“Hal,” a profile of Oscarwinning filmmaker Hal Ashby, garnered the Special Jury Documentary Feature title, while writerdirector Stephen Takashima’s “Civil,” about a black door-to-door salesman who struggles to make his first sale when he spots a Confederate flag on the wall of his potential client, received the Special Jury Short award.
A short about a black female cop who must make a life-altering decision, “Night Call,” directed by Amanda Renee Knox, was named Best Student Film. Best High School Short went to Will Nordstrom’s “In the Trees,” about a group of high schoolers on a field trip who encounter strange happenings when they get lost in the woods.
Writer-director Mark Lobatto’s British drama
“Stealing Silver,” about a woman (“Game of Thrones’” Maisie Williams) who must confront a painful time in her life when she realizes she has been wrong about the mysterious old man across the road, was named Best Live Action Short.
The VR installment
“Space Explorers Episode 1”
received the Virtual Cinema Visions Award; the innovative stop-motion documentary “The Likes and Dislikes of Marj Bagley”
was named Best Animation; and the Italian drama
“Unforgivable,” which deals with the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, won Best Short Documentary.
Named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s “Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” in 2017, deadCenter’s mission is to promote, encourage and celebrate independent films through both the nonprofit organization’s annual film festival, as well as its year-round educational outreach efforts via the deadCenter Institute. Last year’s festival attracted more than 30,000 attendees, resulting in an economic impact of about $4.5 million for Oklahoma City, according to a news release.