news & updates

07.23.2011 - Call for Submissions

The Macon Film Festival announces the Call for Submissions for the 7th Annual Macon Film Festival.

To submit, click on the withoutabox link on the maconfilmfestival.com home page.

Deadlines are below:

Earlybird - July 30

Regular - August 16

Late - September 30

WAB Extended - October 16

02.17.2011 - British director, actor Moran headlines film festival guests

British director, actor Moran headlines film festival guests

By PHILLIP RAMATI - pramati@macon.com

If nothing else, Nick Moran will have one distinction no other special guest has had in the history of the Macon Film Festival: He’s the first foreign special guest the festival has hosted.

The festival, which got its start in 2006, begins Thursday with screenings at the Cox Capitol Theatre, the Douglass Theatre and Marriott City Center. Moran, a British actor and director, will be screening his movie “The Kid” at 8:30 Saturday night at the Capitol Theatre.

Moran said he first became aware of the film festival in October, when festival publicist Terrell Sandefur approached him at the Savannah Film Festival.

“He saw me on a panel I was on and asked me if I would come,” Moran said. “It was a good excuse to come back to Georgia.”

Sandefur said he hadn’t heard of Moran before the workshop but was caught up in what he had to say in Savannah.

“I heard him during this one workshop, which had a lot of big-name filmmakers, and (Moran) really stood out,” Sandefur said. “He was someone potential filmmakers would like to hear speak.”

Sandefur said fellow Macon Film Festival organizers Tabitha Walker and Stephanie Shadden loved “The Kid” during its screening, making getting Moran for Macon a bigger priority.

Moran, 41, is probably best known to audiences as an actor, playing a card shark in the Guy Ritchie-directed “Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels,” and more recently as the villainous Scabior in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.” He will reprise that role in the “Potter” sequel, to be released in June.

But Moran has made a name for himself in more recent years on the other side of the camera. “The Kid” represents his third movie at the helm, but that doesn’t mean he has stopped acting.

“I have no real problem doing both,” he said. “Acting is so much less time-consuming. I want to try to do both, make both of them work. But I’m lucky to do either one of them.”

Moran has worked with such directors as Ritchie, Tony Scott and David Yates, and has taken away tidbits from each to make himself a better filmmaker.

“I learned an awful lot from Guy,” he said. “He’s got a real sort of energy. He gets on with things and is always moving forward. Another real influence is Tony Scott. Tony is moving fixtures, picking up props. He’s moving things around. It’s like, ‘He’s the boss and he’s moving lights around -- what are you doing?’ Both have been a very good influence.”

Moran said Yates, who directed the last four “Harry Potter” films in the series, was much more low-key and friendly toward the actors.

“He’s directing the biggest film in the world, and he’s the nicest guy in the world,” Moran said. “You get the feeling he’d direct a school play the same way as he does ‘Harry Potter.’ He’s like a supportive schoolteacher.”

After showing “The Kid” on Saturday, Moran will have a question-and-answer session with the audience. He also will conduct a free workshop for prospective filmmakers at 2 p.m. Sunday at The 567 Café, 533 Cherry St.

“I have some ideas for it as I go along,” Moran said. “I’ve done a few of them in Savannah. They’re always good fun. I don’t want it to be a Q-and-A. Those can be dull. I want it to be interactive. People will have seen the movie by then.”

“The Kid” is based upon the best-selling book by Kevin Lewis, who used his own experiences of being abused as a child and growing up in poverty as the basis for the work. Moran said the book sold more than a million copies in England and was popular enough that he was able to draw well-known actors such as Ioan Gruffudd and Natascha McElhone to the project.

Lewis saw Moran’s previous directing effort, “Telstar: The Joe Meek Story,” which had similar dark themes running through it, and thought Moran would be a good fit for his project. Moran also grew up on a British council estate -- the equivalent of government housing -- so he could relate to Lewis’ world. In fact, he shot some of the movie in the council estate where he grew up.

Moran said he is in talks to direct his next movie in Georgia and hopes some of it could be filmed in Macon. He said he couldn’t give many details about the project, because a deal hasn’t been completed.

“All I can say is it’s contemporary and about famous scam artists from Georgia,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

Moran isn’t the only special guest at the festival. Other guests include Scott Seeke, one of the writers for “Get Low,” starring Robert Duvall and Bill Murray; Morgan Simpson, a co-writer, producer and actor in “Black, White and Blues”; and Jason Winn, who directed “The Fat Boy Chronicles.”

The other guests also will be having question-and-answer sessions and conducting workshops during the festival, which wraps up Sunday night.

Moran said he plans to spend his free time in Macon learning more about the city’s musical heritage, including a trip to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

“I keep learning different things (about Macon),” he said. “Little Richard is from here. Lena Horne and James Brown played here. Half of R.E.M. is from here. ... People like Little Richard were the original rock ’n’ rollers. They wrote the book on it.”

To contact writer Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334.

01.26.2011 - Macon Film Festival set to REEL in Filmmakers

Macon, GA – The 6th Annual Macon Film Festival will launch on February 17th at the Cox Capitol Theatre, The Douglass Theatre and the Marriott City Center in historic downtown Macon. With over 100 film submission screenings and 4 new categories of awards, organizers are gearing up for the biggest event to date. The film festival will continue daily through Sunday, February 20th. 

The Macon Film Festival was created to celebrate the art and craft of the moving image, and to introduce independent films that rarely appear in Macon, Georgia. Macon Film Festival is dedicated to entertaining, educating, and inspiring audiences and filmmakers alike by offering innovative and imaginative films both mainstream and independent in nature. We also strive to introduce visiting filmmakers and guests to the Central Georgia community, and to promote film production in the area. The festival is open to filmmakers working in all media, genres, and themes.

2011 Macon Film Festival – Special Screenings 
• Thursday, February 17th @ 7:30pm "Freedom Riders" 
• Friday, February 18th @ 8:15pm "Black, White and Blues" 
• Saturday, February 19th @ 10am "Fat Boy Chronicles"  
• Saturday, February 19th @ 8:30pm "The Kid"  
• Sunday, February 20th @ 7:00pm "Get Low"  

Q&A Session to follow each special screening with special guests.

 Macon Film Festival will take place February 17th - 20th at the Cox Capitol Theatre, The Douglass Theatre & the Marriott City Center. 478-257-6391.  For more information or to view the full screening schedule, log on to www.maconfilmfestival.com or Facebook event page @6thAnnualMaconFilmFestival.
 
Tickets are now available online at www.maconfilmfestival.com/festival/ticket-information
 Admission for the Thursday day blocks is free thanks to a grant from the City of Macon administered by Macon Arts Alliance. Free admission to all day blocks for students with a valid college ID. 

Media Contact: Terrell Sandefur 
Macon Film Festival Marketing/Publicity 
terrell@terrellsandefur.com
 478.319.0243

01.14.2011 - Macon Film Festival makes Top 10 Cultural Events

http://www.knightarts.org/community/top-10

By Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation VP Arts/Miami Program Director

I love a good top ten list, and this year has been a year of transformative experiences for the Knight Arts program. So I thought I'd take a minute and list some of the amazing cultural events that took place this year in the eight cities where Knight Arts concentrates funding.

Akron. One of the best photography shows of the year took place in Akron. Mitchell Kahan and the Akron Art Museum exhibited the photographs of Andrew Moore in a show called Detroit Disassembled. The works portray a post-apocalyptic world of abandoned Detroit. It was disquieting and disturbing, and I found myself shivering in front of more than one of the photos of abandoned, burned-out buildings, many with nature slowly beginning to reclaim them them back to the land—moss and mushrooms overtaking the classrooms and factories that were Detroit. The catalogue, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal selection, has an equal impact: Detroit Disassembled by Andrew Moore (Damani/Akron Art Museum, $50)

Charlotte. When the Random Acts of Culture program was just a gleam in our eye, the first folks to raise their hands and say "count us in" were our friends at the Arts & Sciences Council in Charlotte. Ably helmed by the creative and thoughtful Scott Provancher, the Charlotte council has led us with the most diverse programming of Random Acts—opera, modern dance, tango. You name it—they have done it. Not all Random Acts have to be big, noisy events. Check out this elegant quiet performance by the North Carolina Dance Theatre in the main concourse of the Charlotte Airport.

Detroit. My most profound artistic moment of the year came from Detroit, but took place in Miami at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts: Maestro Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in Rachmaninoff's 2nd on Valentine's Day. I had never understood how powerful an orchestra could be before being consumed by the wall of sound the orchestra brought to us that day. My colleague, Stuart Kennedy, and I agreed that this was an epiphany moment for both of us. We hope the DSO resolves its differences soon and gets back on stage.

Macon. Seldom in grant making do you get to draw a straight line between a grant you made and a positive result, but our grant that allowed the young, scrappy Macon Film Festival to attend the International Film Festival Summit resulted in its winning an award for Best Program. Nice job guys! I can't wait to get back to Macon for the festival.

Miami. I've been preaching the mantra that the future for arts presenters is to let audiences curate their own experience. Never was that approach more evident than in the six, 30-minute presentations by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in Miami during Art Basel week. The place where the audience typically sits had been turned in a 30-foot high sculpture of white boxes, exercise balls and other flotsam and jetsam by Miami's Daniel Arsham. Spectators proceeded to the stage where they were free to move around three areas where the dancers, dressed in costumes designed by Robert Rauschenberg, performed. The dancers moved between three stages, with two to six dancers per stage. Tired of the first area? Move to the second. Stand as close to the edge of the dance floor as you like, hear the dancers' exertion, see the sheen of their sweat. This is no "I dance, you sit still and watch for two hours from 30 rows away" performance … instead the dancers' opportunity to move was also made available to the audience. Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation's president and CEO, has been telling me for years how special the troupe is (I think he went to all six shows over three nights!). Seeing the awestruck look on the faces of the audience members was confirmation of the transformational nature of the experience.

Philadelphia. My Philly highlight has to be the 1,752 applicants to the first year of the Knight Arts Challenge in Philadelphia, a new Knight record. Even Mayor Nutter gave us a shout out. Spurred on by a major social media outreach effort, the creatives of the city really stepped up. We've read all the ideas and there are some great ones—stay tuned in mid-January for the finalists announcement at knightarts.org.

San Jose. The Zero1 Biennial is a festival that merges technology and art. The festival also has an increasing focus on art that encourages social action, a movement I see more and more of in today's art world. I saw zip lines, indoor drive-ins, a street festival and a community completely engaged with the arts. The scope, quality and scale of this event continue to grow. Keep an eye on Joel Slayton, as he takes this game changing arts event to new heights.

Saint Paul. My big discovery this year in Saint Paul was the Community Supported Art program by Springboard for the Arts. Led by the brilliant Laura Zabel, CSA is modeled after the community supported agriculture movement, but instead of a box of beets, kale and corn, you get a box of art objects made by local artists in a limited edition. The first set of 50 shares had over 250 subscribers and has captivated the Saint Paul community. Check out a recent piece on the movement here. And yes, Knight fans, we are definitely taking this one on the road to the other resident communities. Stay tuned for our CSA launch this fall.

That's eight but I promised you ten...

Of course, one had to be living on Mars to not feel the impact of the Random Act of Culture by our partner, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, at Macy's in the Wanamaker Building. 650 choral singers singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, accompanied by the largest pipe organ in the world, 20,000+ pipes! When have you ever seen a classical music moment out poll "OK Go" on You Tube? The reactions from people worldwide can be summed up in one word—joyful. Somehow this simple gesture struck a chord in so many people. It triggered hundreds of spontaneous cultural moments across the country, thousands of e-mails. It reaffirms what we've been saying about the classics—the symphony, the opera, the ballet. People still love these genres, we just need to find a way to reintroduce them into their busy lives. Random Acts of Culture is our modest effort to integrate these art forms into the fiber of a community. I have never been at the center of a truly viral experience before, and I have to say it has been a wild ride—exhilarating, terrifying at times, but in the end, joyful. Stay tuned as the national press isn't done with this one yet.

Finally, as I look back on the first year of the Knight Foundation's national arts program, I am awed by the commitment by so many of you to the arts. You get up every day and fight the good fight with passion and tenacity, always looking for the transformative experience that the arts can bring to a community. I want to especially thank Knight's vice president/communities Trabian Shorters and the Knight program directors for going on the journey with me this year. In the new year, we will continue to work together and search for what it is in the arts that makes each of our Knight communities special.

To our readers out there, over 500,000 of you have visited knightarts.org so far this year. Please drop us a line and let us know what your transformative artistic experiences were this year.

01.14.2011 - Macon Film Festival wins Best Program Award!

The Macon Film Festival just won the award for Best Program at the International Film Festival Summit in Las Vegas, NV. Program was designed by Burt & Burt with the cover by Stephanie Shadden!

01.14.2011 - WIN tickets!

Follow the Macon Film Festival on Twitter for a chance to win FREE TICKETS in our "Tweet For Seats" promotion ... coming soon!

http://twitter.com/maconfilmfest

10.20.2010 - Knight Foundation Expands Arts Funding in Bibb County

MACON, GA. – Six cultural groups will help enrich and engage Macon with projects receiving new funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Film buffs, theater lovers and fans of African American art all will benefit from the funding totaling $77,000. The grants are among the first in Knight Foundation’s new national arts program, which focuses on Macon and seven other communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers.

“In Macon, Knight Foundation works to help create a sense of place and belonging through initiatives that promote an informed and engaged Bibb County,” Blake said. “Nothing engages a community like the arts.”

Knight Foundation is looking for more opportunities to fund innovative arts programs, said Beverly Blake, Knight Foundation’s Macon program director.

The first seven awards and projects include:

Macon Film Festival ($20,000): To help the sixth annual festival grow, attract higher quality films and expand community outreach and workshops.

Macon Symphony Orchestra ($15,000): To bring artists out of performance halls and into the streets with a series of “Random Acts of Culture” in everyday places. The Knight Foundation series is producing 1,000 Random Acts of Culture nationwide over the next three years.

Capitol Theatre ($10,000): To provide the opportunity for new and emerging local artists to perform in the Capitol Theater through reduced facility rental fees.

Macon Arts Alliance ($10,000): To increase the profile of pottery from Central Georgia by enhancing marketing for the Fired Works Regional Ceramics Exhibit and Sale, the largest exhibit of functional and sculptural pottery in Georgia.

Tubman African American Museum ($10,000): To expand the reach of the museum’s collection by digitally photographing 100 important works and making them available online. Currently, only 15 percent of the museum’s collection is on display at one time.

Tubman African American Museum ($6,000): To bring spoken word art to a wider audience through events and community workshops run by the group Poetic Peace.

Hayiya Dance Theatre ($6,000): To expand appreciation for African dance by helping the theater enhance programming and community outreach.

Cultural groups seeking funding from Knight Foundation should contact Blake at 478-301-5011, or blake@knightfoundation.org.

For more about Knight Foundation’s arts program, visit www.KnightArts.org

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed and engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

Contact: Marc Fest, Vice President of Communications, Knight Foundation,

305-908-2677; fest@knightfoundation.org

Beverly Blake, Macon Program Director, Knight Foundation, 478-301-5011; blake@knightfoundation.org

02.22.2010 - Macon Film Festival Announces 2010 Winners

5th Annual Macon Film Festival - 2010 Award Winners

The Melvyn Douglas BEST IN SHOW Award

Automorphosis

ANIMATION

1st Place - Sebastian’s Voodoo
2nd Place - Skylight
3rd Place - Gym Lesson

DOCUMENTARY

1st Place - Automorphosis
2nd Place - Alley Pat: The Music is Recorded
3rd Place - 45365

EXPERIMENTAL

1st Place - Even Flowers Wake Up in the Morning
2nd Place - Horizons
3rd Place - East Planet

NARRATIVE FEATURE

1st Place - Road to Sangam
2nd Place - Myna Se Va
3rd Place - Blue Bus

NARRATIVE SHORT

1st Place - Small Collection
2nd Place - Down in Number 5
3rd Place - Badewanne Zum Gluck

STUDENT

1st Place - Insha Allah
2nd Place - My Homework Ate My Dog
3rd Place - Non-Love Song

02.21.2010 - Macon native Jack McBrayer lends a comic touch to film festival

Jack McBrayer says he doesn’t get recognized in public places very often, which seems surprising for a cast member of an Emmy-winning network comedy show.

He has an explanation for his ability to remain incognito; he leaves his jacket at work. His most recognizable feature may be the navy blazer adorned with an ID badge and name tag that he wears when he portrays Kenneth Parcell, naive and bizarre page of NBC’s “30 Rock.”

Still, a lot of people recognize McBrayer in Macon, with or without his jacket. That’s because he lived here through his freshman year at Central High School. He still visits friends and relatives here frequently. His trip here this weekend was a little more hectic than most, however, because he had been booked as a celebrity guest at the Macon Film Festival.

When McBrayer sat for a series of media interviews Saturday afternoon in the SoChi Gallery downtown, he made it evident that his most distinctive attribute has nothing to do with clothing.

It’s his smile — a broad, guileless smile that makes him seem like the most cheerful person in the world. Those familiar with the world know that cheerfulness is often an inappropriate response to the situation at hand. McBrayer’s mastery of the cheerful smile is what makes him unusually funny. He says it’s the source of his success.

“I’ve been pretty lucky in terms of the projects that I’ve been given and the material I’ve been given to work with, as well as the people that I’m working with,” McBrayer said. “With all that being said, even when I was temping and waiting tables and just had regular old day jobs, I would find ways to enjoy myself and have fun with the people I was around. That has never been too, too difficult for me.”

McBrayer, 36, took a break from his “30 Rock” work in New York to return to his birthplace so he could do a Q&A session following a Saturday night screening of the 2008 comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” at the Cox Capitol Theatre. The fact that it was a raunchy Judd Apatow project made him a little nervous.

“I guess more than anything, I want people to know that it is rated R. There is some nudity in it and so I’m a little out of character, but you can see how I would have fun with that project and that role. ... Let’s just say I’m a young man on his honeymoon, and we’re figuring things out.”

McBrayer left Macon in 1988, when his family moved to Conyers. He attended the University of Evansville in Indiana and then moved to Chicago. Up to that time performance had been a hobby, but he got serious about comedy when he joined the Second City improv comedy theater. He took his next step up the ladder of fame when he met Conan O’Brien.

“When I moved to New York in 2002, a lot of people who I knew from my days in Chicago at Second City improvisational comedy theater had gone on to work as writers for Conan,” McBrayer said. “So when I moved to New York, all those guys who were already there were like, ‘Hey, McBrayer’s in town. Let’s throw him a bone.’ So they would get me gigs on Conan just doing like little comedy sketches, and from there they would just continue to use me. And thank goodness, because that paid my bills in New York, which is very expensive.”

McBrayer had a particular interest in the recent dust-up over O’Brien’s departure as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

“I of course was a horrified spectator to the whole thing,” McBrayer said. “I do have so much loyalty to Conan just because of the break that he gave me very early in my career. Nothing against any of the other parties involved, but ... I owe Conan O’Brien such a great deal.”

McBrayer’s breakthrough movie role was Glenn the pit crew member in “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” He also parlayed his nerdy appeal to gain the enviable role of Mariah Carey’s love interest in her “Touch My Body” video. He says that lately he’s been building on his “kid demographic,” appearing on “The Electric Company” and taking a role in the upcoming sequel to “Cats & Dogs.” He has also provided his voice to animated TV show “Phineas and Ferb” as well as the upcoming animated feature “Despicable Me.”

A voice like McBrayer’s, with its Southern accent and tendency to call interviewers “sir,” is an uncommon commodity in New York and Los Angeles, the cities where the actor divides his time.
“I tell you, Southern accents still take people by surprise, even in 2010,” McBrayer said. “You think they’d be used to it by now. Yeah, I haven’t lost it yet, and some people, it does throw ’em for a loop. But every now and then it gets you out of some stuff, too.”

Front Page of Sundays Macon Telegraph
http://www.macon.com/2010/02/21/1031644/the-importance-of-being-cheerful.html

02.12.2010 - Actress Illeana Douglas comes to Macon

Q&A with 'Indie Queen' on grandfather Melvyn Douglas
By Bob Townsend
For the AJC

Granddaughter of cinema great Melvyn Douglas (who won Oscars for “Hud” and “Being There”), self-described “indie queen” Illeana Douglas made her mark as an actress in films such as “To Die For,” “Grace of My Heart” and “Ghost World.”

Illeana Douglas.

A longtime writer, director and producer, Douglas went online with the Web series “Illeanarama” and most recently “Easy to Assemble,” a Hollywood send-up filmed in a Burbank Ikea store that also spawned her satirical Swedish pop band, Sparhusen.

On Feb. 18, Douglas will arrive at the Macon Film Festival, where the Best in Show award will be renamed the Melvyn Douglas Award and dedicated to her grandfather, who was born in Macon in 1901.

Q: Do you know much about your grandfather’s early life in Macon?
A: Not really. Only that he was born there and his father was a musician. His father was actually a concert pianist and was on the vaudeville circuit, and I think they may have traveled around and maybe relocated to Chicago.

Q: Did you see him much growing up?
A: Very much so in terms of staying with my grandparents. I also had the opportunity to visit a couple of his movie sets and see the respect he had among his peers. I wish he could have lived longer to see me go into show business. But he was very influential as far as my going into acting and becoming an entertainer.

Q: As a kid, you were on the set of “Being There,” and recently you did the DVD commentary for the 30th-anniversary edition. What was that like?
A: As I said on the DVD, it’s a very strange memory. I was very young. I had posters of “Pink Panther” movies. And I was obsessed with Peter Sellers. So, for me, it was all about that. But it was just amazing to see how a movie was made. That particular film set just created an indelible impression in my mind. It was very, very serious. It was dead quiet. It was like walking into a play or something. The director, Hal Ashby, would go talk to the actors and everything would happen. I thought, “This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

Q: How would you compare your career to your grandfather’s?
A: In many ways, I think our careers are similar. I started doing theater and sketch comedy, things my grandfather did. I had an established film career, and then I did more independent movies, getting into writing and producing, which is something my grandfather did. Later, he started getting into more of what they call “character acting.” When you’re an actress in Hollywood, after you turn 40, they call you a character actor. Which leads me back to a quote from my grandfather. He said, “All acting, if it’s any good, is character acting.”

Q: So now you are the “indie queen”?
A: I don’t think anyone can put me in any sort of box, but I prefer indie actress because I make independent choices. I’ve tried to be very entrepreneurial, and I’ve tried to make movies that I think my fans would like. My grandfather’s career was like that. I don’t think he was really discovered or appreciated until movies like “Hud” or “Being There.” He kind of had two careers, and I feel like my career is that way.

Q: Where does “Easy to Assemble” come from?
A: It comes from a real place. I’ve been doing this since I was 16. And I was thinking I don’t want to do this anymore. But you can’t escape it. Wherever you go, you are “carrot girl from Seinfeld” or “aren’t you that girl who got her cheek bitten off by DeNiro?” It’s not like the old days where you could be Garbo and say now I’m going to retire. Once you’re famous, you’re always famous. That’s our new kind of society.

Q: Ready for the lightning round?
A: Sure.

Q: Peter Sellers?
A: He’s my guardian angel. Before I write anything or do anything, I have a few people I call upon, and he’s one of them.

Q: “New York Stories”?
A: That was me trying to act without smiling because I couldn’t believe I was in a movie. Every scene I was in I had a huge grin on my face.

Q: Martin Scorsese?
A: Again, another iconic presence in my life and my career and love of movie making. He has really influenced me. Just the atmosphere of laughter and focus on his sets was amazing.

Q: “To Die For”?
A: What Marty was able to do was tap a natural talent that I didn’t know I had. I was just a kid and I didn’t know what I was doing, and he was able to see a quality in me that I didn’t see. But Gus Van Sant was able to create an identifiable thing. People now call that character “an Illeana Douglas-type character.”

02.06.2010 - 2010 Festival Poster

01.28.2010 - Award-Winning “That Evening Sun” to Wrap Macon Film Fest, Starring Macon-native Carrie Preston with Hal Holbrook & Dixie Carter

Macon, GA – The Macon Film Festival will close the 2010 festival with the Macon premiere of “That Evening Sun,” the award-winning film starring Macon-native Carrie Preston with Hal Holbrook, Dixie Carter, and Ray McKinnon, at 7:30 p.m., following the Festival awards ceremony at 7 p.m. on Sunday, February 21, 2010. Special guests for this screening will be announced next week.

Based on a short story by William Gay, “That Evening Sun” chronicles the late-in-life conflict of Abner Meecham, an elderly farmer who leaves his retirement home to return to his family farm in Tennessee only to realize his city slicker son has rented it to a couple and their daughter. He refuses to leave, instead taking up residence in a run-down building on the property and conflict with the renters ensues as Abner tries to reconcile himself to say goodbye to his beloved home. This is southern gothic at its very best.

Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor, Hal Holbrook, leads this outstanding cast of character actors with his real life wife, actress Dixie Carter, portraying his late wife in the film. Macon native actress, Carrie Preston, a 2009 Special Guest at the Macon Film Festival and star of HBO’s “True Blood,” along with Academy Award winning actor Ray McKinnon, plays the couple who rent the farm and butt heads with Meecham. Young rising star, actress Mia Wasikowski, known for her work on the HBO series “In Treatment,” plays their daughter, and Walton Goggins, known to tv audiences from “The Shield,” plays Meecham’s son.

“That Evening Sun” has already racked up 10 awards during its Film Festival circuit including a Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble cast at the SXSW (South by Southwest) Film Festival; Jury Awards at SXSW, Atlanta Film Festival and Newport International Film Festival; Best Narrative Feature at the Memphis Indie Film Festival, Audience Awards at Nashville Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival, Best Director Award for Scott Teems at the Birmingham Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival; and nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Mia Wasikowska and Ray McKinnon at the Independent Spirit Awards. It was also honored by the Southeast Film Critics Association with a Wyatt Award.

The Macon Film Festival is supported by grant of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the Community Foundation of Central Georgia. The festival is headquartered at the historic Cox Capitol Theatre in downtown Macon. For tickets, call the Capitol box office at 478-257-6391 or visit CoxCapitolTheatre.com. Complete information about the film festival, including the screening schedule, may be found at MaconFilmFestival.com.

Media relations for Macon Film Festival are handled by Terrell Sandefur (478-319-0243;Terrell@maconfilmfestival.com) and Cindy Hill (478-731-5917; cindy@maconfilmfestival.com).

01.25.2010 - Big Jack Attack: “30 Rock” Star (and Macon native) Jack McBrayer Comes Home to Headline Macon Film Festival

Macon, GA – Actor and Macon native Jack McBrayer, who currently stars in NBC’s award-winning comedy “30 Rock,” will return to his hometown for the Macon Film Festival (“MaGa”) special screening of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” followed by Q&A with Jack on Saturday, February 20, 2010, at the Cox Capitol Theatre at 8:15 p.m.

While he’s probably best known as Kenneth the Page from “30 Rock,” Jack McBrayer has turned in unforgettable performances in films including “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Jack also had memorable guest starring roles in the television comedies “Arrested Development” and “Phineas and Ferb.” Music video fans will remember him as the “compu nerd” in the Mariah Carey “Touch My Body” music video.

For his work on “30 Rock” Jack was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2009 for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. He and the cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2009, and they were nominated for the same honor in 2008 and 2010.

Jack was born in Macon in 1973. His parents, Jim and Betty McBrayer, were teachers and Jack and siblings Pete and Katie attended Bibb County Public schools. The family moved to Conyers, Georgia, when Jack was in high school and it was there that he became interested and active in Theatre. He went on to graduate from the University of Evansville in Indiana; as did fellow Macon-native actress, Carrie Preston, who was a special guest at the 2009 Macon Film Festival.

After college Jack cut his comedy chops with Chicago’s famed Second City comedy improv company, which has Dan Aykroyd, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Mike Myers, and Amy Sedaris among dozens of other comedy icons. He acted in several independent films before landing roles in “Talladega Nights” and “30 Rocks” which established him firmly as a rising comedy star. The Macon Film Festival is honored to welcome Jack back to the midstate for the Macon Film Festival.

The Macon Film Festival is supported by grant of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the Community Foundation of Central Georgia. The festival is headquartered at the historic Cox Capitol Theatre in downtown Macon. For tickets, call the Capitol box office at 478-257-6391 or visit CoxCapitolTheatre.com. Complete information about the film festival, including the screening schedule, may be found at MaconFilmFestival.com.

Media relations for Macon Film Festival are handled by Terrell Sandefur (478-319-0243;Terrell@maconfilmfestival.com) and Cindy Hill (478-731-5917; cindy@maconfilmfestival.com).

01.24.2010 - Actress Illeana Douglas to Kick Off 5th Macon Film Festival and Dedication of Award to her Macon-native Grandfather, Melvyn Douglas

Macon, GA – Actress Illeana Douglas will kick off the 5th Macon Film Festival (“MaGa”) on Thursday, February 18, 2010, with the special screening of “Easy to Assemble” at the Cox Capitol Theatre at 7:45 p.m. Earlier that day the Best In Show award will be renamed for Douglas’ grandfather, Academy Award-winning actor and Macon native Melvyn Douglas.

Her name is familiar to film buffs, but others will recognize Illeana Douglas from the numerous memorable roles in films like Message in a Bottle, Cape Fear, Goodfellas, To Die For, Grace of My Heart, Stir of Echoes, The Perfect Woman, and Happy, Texas; and recurring roles on television series including Ugly Betty, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Action, and Six Feet Under, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. In addition to acting she has written, directed and produced for film.

Ms. Douglas brings her innovative web-based film series, Easy to Assemble, to MaGa. She starred in, wrote, and produced the comedy about an actress who “quits Hollywood” and goes to work at Ikea. The series co-starred Justine Bateman and a list of special guests that reads like a who’s who in Hollywood independent film, including Jane Lynch, Jeff Goldblum and Robert Patrick. Easy to Assemble Producer Dominik Rausch will join Illeana at the screening and Q&A and they will lead a free filmmaking workshop at MaGa.

Like her grandfather, Illeana was born a Hesselberg, and like her grandfather, she adopted his Scottish mother’s maiden name, Douglas, as her stage name. Melvyn Douglas was born in Macon on April 5, 1901. His career began on Broadway in 1928 and alternated between stage and screen for the rest of his life. He won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in Hud and Being There (for which he also won a Golden Globe) and he was nominated for Best Actor for his work in I Never Sang for My Father. He had memorable roles in The Changeling, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, Death Takes a Holiday, Ninotchka (opposite Greta Garbo) and Ghost Story. He won an Emmy Award for a CBS Playhouse performance and was nominated for his turn in Inherit the Wind, and he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for The Best Man. His wife of 50 years, Helen Gahagan Douglas, was a 3-term Congresswoman in California and served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Kennedy.

The Macon Film Festival’s Best In Show award will be renamed the Melvyn Douglas Award and dedicated at a ceremony with Illeana Douglas at 1:30 p.m. on February 18. This award is given to festival jurors’ pick of the best competition film each year. The dedication will be followed by a special “Melvyn Douglas Matinee” screening of The Candidate at 2 p.m. This is a rare screening of the 1972 archival film in which Douglas plays the father of Robert Redford, made possible by a special arrangement with Warner Brothers.

The Macon Film Festival is headquartered at the historic Cox Capitol Theatre in downtown Macon. For tickets, call the Capitol box office at 478-257-6391 or visit CoxCapitolTheatre.com. Complete information about the film festival, including the screening schedule, may be found at MaconFilmFestival.com.

Media relations for Macon Film Festival are handled by Terrell Sandefur (478-319-0243; Terrell@maconfilmfestival.com) and Cindy Hill (478-731-5917; cindy@maconfilmfestival.com).

01.24.2010 - Macon Film Festival Gets “Stuck!” With Steve Balderson and the Georgia Premiere of the Macon-Made Movie

Macon, GA – Filmmaker Steve Balderson debuts his latest independent film, “Stuck!” which was filmed in Macon in the Spring of 2009 and stars many Macon mainstays, at the 5^th Macon Film Festival (“MaGa”) on Friday, February 19, 2010 at 9 p.m. Balderson will be a special guest of the festival and he will conduct a filmmaking workshop that is free and open to the public.

"I'm very thrilled to have the Georgia premiere of 'Stuck!' in Macon,” says Balderson. “There are so many local people involved - from Macon actors to local folks who donated their time and hospitality. I'm excited for them to see it on the big screen.”

Balderson discovered Macon when he attended the 2009 Macon Film Festival as a guest director screening “Firecracker,” with actress Karen Black. While here he was inspired by the architecture, landscape and feel of the city as well as the numerous creative and friendly people he met here.

Balderson brought his crew to town last spring to film “Stuck!” along with a cast that includes Ms. Black, Jane Wiedlin (of The GoGo’s), Pleasant Gehman, Susan Traylor, Starina Johnson, Stacy Cunningham, and John Waters’ staple star, Mink Stole. The bulk of the cast, though, is comprised of dozens of Central Georgia actors familiar to theatre-goers, including actress September Carter as the mother of the main character. Other notable performers include attorney Virgil Adams and Judge Bill Self, playing roles akin to their “day jobs.”

The multi-million dollar arts and cultural scene in Macon is a major contributing factor that makes Macon an attractive place to make movies. With a stable of actors trained on local community theatre stages, as well as artists to work behind the scenes, Macon provides directors with a wealth of local creative resources.

The Macon Film Festival draws filmmakers from around the country to Macon. While in the midstate they have the opportunity to take a filmmaker’s tour of the town, highlighting the many assets that make Macona great place to make movies.
The Macon Film Festival is supported by grant of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the Community Foundation of Central Georgia. The festival is headquartered at the historic Cox Capitol Theatre in downtown Macon. For tickets, call the Capitol box office at 478-257-6391 or visit CoxCapitolTheatre.com. Complete information about the film festival, including the screening schedule, may be found at MaconFilmFestival.com.

Media relations for Macon Film Festival are handled by Terrell Sandefur (478-319-0243;Terrell@maconfilmfestival.com) and Cindy Hill (478-731-5917; cindy@maconfilmfestival.com).

12.17.2009 - MaGa 2010 Tickets on sale now!

Get your tickets now for the 5th Annual Macon Film Festival. Tickets are on sale now at https://tickets.coxcapitoltheatre.com/. If you've been in years past, you know you don't want to miss a single minute. Check back often for news and updates about special guests and events. We look forward to seeing you!

11.24.2009 - Arrested Development’s Hale Hits Macon for Film Festival Fundraiser

Macon, GA - The Macon Film Festival and NewTown Macon bring you one fabulous evening of funny on December 18th as "Arrested Development" star Tony Hale hits town with "The Best of Buster Bluth," his three favorite episodes of the cult tv show and soon-to-be feature film.

This is the first time that Hale has selected or screened his favorite episodes. The event begins at 8 p.m. at the Cox Capitol Theatre and will be followed by Q&A with the audience. Tickets are available at CoxCapitolTheatre.com; $10 general admission and $5 for students with ID. You can enjoy $1 pizza slices and draft beer from 7 to 8 p.m. This event is a fund-raiser for the 5th Annual Macon Film Festival, slated for February 18 – 21, 2010. This year’s roster of special guests will be announced in mid-December.

Tony Hale is also known for his recent turn as James Epstein in "The Informant!" starring Matt Damon, and other character parts in films including, "The Tale of Desperaux" and "Stranger than Fiction" with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson; and tv series including "Numbers," "Chuck" and "ER." He’s also a cult favorite for memorable roles in ads like VW’s "Mr. Roboto" and Taco Bell’s "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" spots that co-star a precociousChihuahua.

"Arrested Development" was created by Mitchell Hurwitz and is a production of Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. It debuted on the Fox network in 2003 and during its run it earned 6 Emmys, 1 Golden Globe and several other industry awards. The series ended in 2006 and speculation about a feature film began. Feature film production is now scheduled to begin in 2010 with an anticipated 2011 release date.

Tony’s ties to Central Georgia extend beyond the Macon Film Festival. His parents, Rita and Mike Hale, reside in Macon. Mr. Hale is the Executive Director of the Warner Robins campus of Macon State College.

For more information contact Terrell Sandefur, 478.319.0243, Terrell@theSoChiCompanies.com; or Cindy Hill, 478.731.5917, cindy@maconarts.org.

09.17.2009 - True Blood's Carrie Preston is phenomenal in 'Lovely By Surprise' | The Vault

The Vault's reporter Janet attended the screening of Carrie Preston's Lovely By Surprise On Saturday, September 12, the Macon Film and Video Festival. Source: www.trueblood-online.com

09.14.2009 - Concert caps spurt of activity by College Hill group - Local & State - Macon

It was a busy weekend for the College Hill Corridor Commission. On Friday, the urban revival group held its first Downtown Look-Around, a scavenger hunt designed to teach new college students about Macon’s history. Source: www.macon.com

06.10.2009 - MAGA Film Festival Scores Touchdown

The fourth annual MAGA Film & Video Festival opened on February 18, 2009, at the Grand Opera House in Macon, Georgia. The festival kicked off with the special appearance of Gov. Sonny Perdue and the legendary former University of Georgia athletics director, Vince Dooley. It was a film festival touchdown!...Read more

02.15.2009 - Macon film festival expands in fourth year

When the Macon Film & Video Festival began in 2006, organizers kept the event relatively modest. Now three years later, the festival - nicknamed MAGA - has grown into a full-blown festival, expanding to three venues and adding a host of big headliners.

The festival runs from Wednesday to Feb. 22 at the Cox Capitol Theatre, the Douglass Theatre and the Grand Opera House...Read more