Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A sneak preview of the 35th Starz Denver Film Festival

By Phil Doyle

I recently had the good fortune of being invited to a sneak preview of the 35th Starz Denver Film Festival, one of the perks of writing for MileHighGayGuy.com, and a special screening of the upcoming thriller Arbitrage.

Every year the Film Festival’s attendance has been increasing, and every year the number of films, the size of the events, the diversity of the discussion panels, gets bigger and better. Last year’s event had a record breaking attendance of 55,025 people and presented 282 films from 40 countries.


The Festival presents achievement awards including the John Cassavetes Award, the Mayor’s Career Achievement Award, the Excellence in Acting Award, and the Rising Star Award. Last year, actors Judy Greer, James Cromwell, and Alan Cumming were in attendance to receive the Festival's top awards. Danny Boyle, Francis Ford Coppola, Morgan Freeman, Sean Penn, and Helen Mirren are previous attendees. I could keep name-dropping, but the list goes on and on …

Needless to say, The 2012 Stars Film Festival should be a doozy! The Festival’s venues will include the Denver FilmCenter location (next to the Tattered Cover on Colfax), and is also expanding to include screens at the Denver Pavilions!

Personally, the best part of the Festival is this: The people who support and attend have a love and appreciation of film. It gives me a chance to get out of the house, attend a diverse array of films, and socialize with some like-minded cool people. You can probably tell I’m a big fan. Mm-hmm, thats right. I am. I even have a t-shirt!

So, before I put my pom-poms down, let me enthusiastically encourage you to check out The 35th Stars Film Festival. Plus, check out the Denver Film Society, which hosts events all year.

Finally, if you haven’t been to the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax, check it out! It’s next to the Tattered Cover on Colfax., under the parking structure. Really, there’s a very cool movie theatre in there! They have a liquor license and everything!