Eighth NAFF to be LE in scope
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When in doubt, dearest readers, let your gut instincts be your guide! Case in point is our decision to continue forth with the New Art Film Festival in 2017 as opposed to giving it a rest as we had planned to announce. Who are we to deprive you the showcase of local and regional independent cinema you’ve come to expect from our humble editor and his merry band of collaborators when there is no particular reason to postpone? Ignore the lateness of our annual launch, then, and let’s summon the particulars you want to know! Sunday, October 29, 2017, is our eighth consecutive show date at the Art Theater, 126 W. Church St., Champaign, IL, and we must gather up some damn fine films created by you to fill the spread. NAFF Call for Entries began yesterday, Tuesday, August 15, and will last through Friday, September 15, with a target date of Sunday, October 1, to announce our picks to flicker on the Art’s silver screen. As before, we will not charge entry fees and, as with last year, we encourage producers to submit via newartfilmfestivalcu [at] gmail [dot] com for the sake of ease even though we’ll still look at physical screeners; you can review all the hard details in the official announcement over on the NAFF Web site. The primary change in the process this year is that we will only accept films that run 30 minutes or less. This is to help limit total viewing time for Mr. JaPan given his more-away-than-home lifestyle as of late, along with providing the flexibility to fit as many titles as we can into the ever-shortening block we’re allotted by the Art. That said, we do hope to bookend the selections with a couple of special features to illustrate milestones in Champaign-Urbana film culture history that led us down the path to NAFF nirvana. We promise they will be interesting add-ons of the likes you will not see at any other C-U cinema event! Stay tuned for the details to develop, friends, and best of luck to those who direct their work to our attention. Below you will find NAFF 2016 photographs by University of Illinois student Di Ye; look to the NAFF Facebook for the remainder of her shots to go on display shortly.
~ Jason Pankoke
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