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By CityDaytona Beach Film Festival
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Daytona Beach Film FestivalA Film Lover's Heaven
2005-10-12
Article Written by: Sami Jo
Sundance. Cannes. Tribeca. Film makers aren’t the only ones who dream about going to these events. Where else would a movie lover want to be but surrounded by movies in a festive atmosphere? Luckily for local residents, its no longer necessary to purchase plane tickets to Utah, France, or New York in order to attend a film festival. To paraphrase Dorothy, you don’t need to go any farther than your own back yard. The highly anticipated 3rd Annual Daytona Beach Film Festival is just around the corner.
This year, the Daytona Beach Film Festival (DBFF) will feature ten independent and foreign films. The films are hand selected by the festival committee, which includes Harriett Damesek and Betty Nelson of Cinematique. For the past 16 years, Cinematique has been Daytona Beach’s only place to see independent and foreign films on the big screen. When the festival committee gets together to choose films for the festival, the main rule is to avoid any features that have already been released on DVD. While that seems simple enough, it has actually proven to be quite complicated. Major Hollywood blockbusters are released on DVD just a few months after they hit the big screen. Independent and foreign films go to DVD much faster to compensate for smaller box office draws. While the rule adds stress and pressure to the festival committee, the outcome is a better festival experience for all. “We are very excited about the quality of the films,” says Maxine Kronick, the Festival Coordinator.
Kronick got started in the entertainment industry as a professional actress and went on to produce two documentaries, before deciding she liked promoting films better. In addition to promoting many events in the US, Kronick spent six years promoting events overseas. This is her first year with the DBFF.
In its first two years, the DBFF was held at Act One Theater. Act One recently shut its doors, leaving both the DBFF and Cinematique out in the rain. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the Museum of Arts and Sciences provided an umbrella. “It really threw me for a glitch,” Kronick said of Act One’s Closing. “We were so thankful the Museum opened their hearts to our homeless festival.”
The 3rd Annual Daytona Beach Film Festival begins Friday, November 4 with the “Festive Film Opening.” Opening night consists of a seated buffet dinner, the film Beauty Academy of Kabul, and special guest speaker Barbara Starr, CNN’s Pentagon Correspondent. The festival will continue through Wednesday, November 9, with show times at 1 PM, 2:30 PM, 4 PM, and 7 PM daily. Daily passes and individual tickets are available. This years student competition will be held at Embry Riddle on Sunday, November, 6 at 2 PM and is open to the public.
In addition to putting on a spectacular event, the goal of the festival committee is to find a permanent home in Daytona Beach for independent and foreign films. For more information on the DBFF, please go to www.dbff.org.
