Tallgrass 2010
Tallgrass 2011 Teaser Trailer
Thanks to our friends Intake Studio for providing us with Tallgrass8 B-roll for this fun montage and Gooding for the tunes! A good time was had by all.
Eighth Annual Tallgrass Film Festival Continues to Grow
DO IT AGAIN's Geoff Edgers relaxing after the 2010 Tallgrass Film Festival is all over. |
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Wichita’s eighth annual Tallgrass Film Festival was the most successful to date, reports the Board of Directors of the Tallgrass Film Association. With just over 8,500 attendees, up 1,500 from 2009, the organization earned a 50 percent increase in ticket sales. The festival received a record 608 submissions, and of those, screened a record 124 films from more than 11 countries, including 41 features and 83 shorts.
More than 35 filmmakers came together in Wichita from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Phoenix and Salt Lake City as well as many regional and local filmmakers. Boston-based filmmaker Geoff Edgers — whose film DO IT AGAIN, was an audience-favorite — said “From one filmmaker to a festival: Of the 40-some festivals we've been in this year, Tallgrass will go down in our top-5 as far as enjoyable experiences.”
TFF increased its downtown presence with screenings at six venues around downtown Wichita, including The Orpheum, the Bank of America, the Garvey Center, Naked City Gallery, the Scottish Rite Theater and the Wichita Public Library - Central Library, and galas and events at Waterwalk, Loft 150 at the River City Brewery, a warehouse on Emporia, The Orpheum Office Building, Wichita Executive Center, Rock Island Studios, The Brickyard and Caffe Moderne. For the third year in a row the festival capped off the weekend with the Closing Night Gala at Wichita State University hosted by the Ulrich Museum of Art. Wiedemann Hall was the site for the first time, with a standing-room only screening of Charlie Chaplin’s THE KID, accompanied by a live chamber orchestra of East High School and WSU students playing an original composition by composer, Arri Simon, a Wichita native.
“Thanks to the support of our amazingly generous sponsors and the Wichita community, we are thrilled that the Tallgrass continues to grow,” said TFA President Ann Keefer. “Our visiting filmmakers were impressed by the warm welcome they continue to receive from Tallgrass audiences, and movie-goers were pleased with the diversity of this year’s program. Throughout 2011 we’ll continue to increase our year-round independent film screenings and plans are already well underway for next year’s festival!”
The Audience Awards were handed out at Sunday’s Closing Night Gala. Audience Award for Best Feature Film went to THE INFIDEL (UK), with runners up LOUDER THAN A BOMB (USA), THE WAYMAN TISDALE STORY (USA), directed by Wichita-native Brian Schodorf, and DO IT AGAIN (USA). The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to THE CRUSH (Ireland), while the award for Best Kansas Short Film went to CANDY (USA), directed by Misti Boland from Lawrence. The award for Best High School Short Film went to PERSISTENCE, directed by Parker Smitherman of Wichita, Kansas. The 2010 Ad Astra Award was presented to Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated, film and television composer Rolfe Kent.
Due to the remarkable increase in the quality of the selections, the festival programming directors established two new special recognition awards in 2010. The Golden Strands Award for Outstanding Narrative Feature went to CELL 211 (Spain/France) and LAST TRAIN HOME (Canada) received the Golden Strands Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature.
The ninth annual Tallgrass Film Festival, "Get Twisted," will take place in and around downtown Wichita from Oct. 20-23, 2011.
The Tallgrass Film Association presents November’s Third Thursday screening at 6:30 p.m., Nov. 18, at Wichita State University's C.A.C. Theater. The presentation will reprise two Official Selections from the 2010 Tallgrass Film Festival: AFTER THE REVOLUTION (Mexico/Ireland) which had it’s North American premiere at TFF, playing with QUEST FOR HONOR (USA, set in Kurdish Iraq). The screening is co-sponsored by WSU’s International Education Program and Women’s Studies Center in celebration of international education week.
2010 Tallgrass Film Festival award winners announced!
Audience Award Winners
Feature Film: THE INFIDEL (UK), Directed by Josh Appignanesi
1st Runner Up: LOUDER THAN A BOMB (USA), Directed by Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs
TFF 2010 Galas & VIP Events!
Galas
Fidelity Bank & Naked City present the Opening Night Gala, Fri., Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m., $25: Includes screening of THE DRY LAND at The Orpheum with producer Mark Mathis (Precious, Brick) and after-party at Tallgrass Speakeasy (235 N. Emporia) with food by Rain Cafe & Lounge, open bar by Tallgrass Brewing Company & Glazers and live music by Carrie Nation & The Speakeasy.
Tallgrass Brewing Company presents the Centerpiece Gala, Sat., Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m., $20: Includes your choice of film screening EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE at The Orpheum with Directors Lev Anderson and Christopher Metzler and subject Norwood Fisher, or STILL BILL at the Scottish Rite Theater, and after-party at The Brickyard Oldtown with live performances by Under Construction and Norwood Fisher.
"Tallgrass Film Festival Presents" on KPTS
Two independent films will be shown on KPTS in anticipation of the 2010 Tallgrass Film Festival. The films were picked and presented by the Tallgrass staff and will screen with not only short films but also trailers for films in the 2010 festival.
Saturday, Oct. 9 • 10 p.m. to midnight
Kansas Vs. Darwin
USA, 2007, 86 min • Domestic Documentary
Tickets Now On Sale
Tickets for the 2010 Tallgrass Film Festival are on sale now!
VIP Tallpass, Smallpass, Grasscendo and tickets for Gala events can be purchased from this page at TicketLeap.
Links to tickets for individual movies can be found on the festival schedule or at tallgrassfilm.ticketleap.com
Not sure what you want to see? Read all about it on our complete list of movies. Also, download the entire printed guide from the Wichita Eagle in a 6.24Mb PDF.
The physical box office opened on Oct. 18 at the Orpheum Theatre. Vouchers can be exchanged for actual tickets and passes and will call will be open.
Tallgrass Film Festival announces 2010 lineup and festival details
The 8th annual Tallgrass Film Festival will take place in and around downtown Wichita Oct. 22-24, showcasing more than 124 independent films from more than 11 countries around the world, and hosting filmmakers from all over the United States.
Online ticket sales start Monday, Oct. 4; the Tallgrass Ticket Booth will open up at the Orpheum Theatre on Monday, Oct. 18. A full 21"x11" schedule grid can be downloaded here or the two-page 8.5"x11" version can be downloaded from here. A complete listing of all the feature-length official selections can be downloaded here.
The full schedule can also be viewed online, as well as a list of movies.
There were 608 films were submitted to the 2010 Tallgrass Film Festival: 289 features and 319 shorts. Thirty of them came from Kansas filmmakers (six features and 24 shorts), while 31 where created by high school students from all around the world, including Ghana, Canada and the UK. These numbers show a huge jump in both involvement and offerings for the festival. In 2009 there were 450 films submitted and, of those, the festival selected 28 feature films and 72 short films.
From those 608 films, the Tallgrass Film Festival Programming Committee selected 41 features and 83 shorts as Official Selections for this year’s festival.
Tallgrass hotel packages available
Tallgrass sponsors The Hotel at Old Town and the Courtyard by Marriott Wichita Old Town are both offering deluxe accommodations for festival goers only $109 per night. For the special rate at The Hotel at Old Town follow this link, and for the special rate at the Courtyard by Marriott Wichita Old Town follow this link.
We are also proud to announce that Tallgrass sponsor Go Wichita! has worked with local hotels to give special rates to guests of the Tallgrass Film Festival. The full list can be found on Go Wichita's site and includes more than 20 hotels and range from $50 to $95 per night for a single room, depending on the hotel.
Film composer Rolfe Kent to be awarded the 2010 Ad Astra
Wichita, KANSAS – The Tallgrass Film Festival is awarding the 2010 Ad Astra to Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated composer Rolfe Kent.
Kent is an award-winning composer who has scored over 40 films which include small independent films and large Hollywood productions. Some of his most recent work includes the Zac Efron film "Charlie St. Cloud" (released July 30, 2010) and both 2009 George Clooney films: the Oscar-nominated "Up In The Air" (for which Kent won a Satellite Award from the International Press Academy) and "Men Who Stare At Goats." Kent has won numerous BMI Film Music awards for his work, including for the films "Legally Blonde" (2001), "Legally Blonde 2" (2003), and "Sideways" (2004). His score for "Sideways" was also nominated for a Golden Globe. Kent was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for the original Showtime series "Dexter" (2006).
