Sarasota Film Festival opens with a red carpet and packed house
It was a sumptuous cake for 1,700 people.
Friday night marked the opening night of the 18th annual Sarasota Film Festival. The evening got underway with a red carpet event featuring filmmakers and other festival notables, who slowly worked their way into the hall, stopping every few feet for interviews and photos.
One of them was Michael Dunaway, the director of programming for the Sarasota Film Festival. He was smiling, obviously pleased that after all the hard work by the festival staff, it was time for a public unveiling.
"I feel like the programming team spends all these months, like, baking this amazing cake," Dunaway said. "And we can't even show anybody the cake, let alone let anybody taste the cake. Well, tonight we finally get to let people start tasting the cake. So it's very exciting."
The first slice of cake was the Opening Night Film, which is meant to be one of the movies that festival officials want to call attention to. A couple of years ago, the Opening Night Film was a little-known documentary called "Blackfish." In 2013, Rory Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy's daughter, came to town with her mother, Ethel, for a screening of her documentary "Last Days in Vietnam."
This year, the Opening Night Film was "Other People," a comedy-drama written and directed by "Saturday Night Live" writer Chris Kelly.
Before the film, and after some words by festival officials and others, Kelly appeared on screen.
He wanted to be in Sarasota on Friday, he said, but he had to be in New York for "SNL" tomorrow night. He said he'd be here on Sunday, when "Other People" screens again. (It's scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday at the Regal Cinemas Hollywood 20 Theater at 1993 Main St. Sarasota.)
"Other People" stars SNL alum Molly Shannon as a mother who's dying of cancer. Her son, Jessie Plemons (from TV's "Fargo" and "Breaking Bad"), is a none-too-successful TV comedy writer who's just had his relationship end, comes home to Sacramento, Calif., to care for her, and has to deal not only with her illness but with his father (Bradley Whitford of "The West Wing"), his grandfather (veteran film actor Paul Dooley) and all his old friends and neighbors.
Van Wezel seats more than 1,700 people, and all but the back few rows were filled for the screening. But no doubt many were there for the red carpet event and for the post-film party than for the "Other People" itself. Among the guests on the red carpet were young area filmmakers who had created some of the festival's short films. Jacob Ferguson and Adrian Pumerja, students at the Ringling College of Art and Design, directed "The Invisible Truth," a short animation about child abuse that will screen Sunday and Tuesday afternoon at the Hollywood 20. ("Some monsters aren't just hiding under the bad ..." reads the blurb for that short film.
A groups of high school girls from around the Bradenton-Sarasota area created a short film called "Relearn, Respect, Repeat," that will be shown as part of the festival's "Through Women's Eyes" program. It was their first attempt at filmmaking, and said they were thrilled that it had gotten so much attention.
Thomas John Nudi, a Bradenton filmmaker whose new feature "Monty Comes Back" will premiere at the festival, also walked the red carpet.
Local filmmakers are especially important to the festival this year, Dunaway said, for the same reason that "Other People" was such an apt Opening night Film.
"It was financed partially in Sarasota, then it went to Sundance and now it's coming back here," he said. "It's a nice little homecoming moment, and it fits in with our theme tonight of Sarasota's emergence as a film destination."
Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.
This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 10:52 PM with the headline "Sarasota Film Festival opens with a red carpet and packed house ."