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‘Women in Film’ Focus of 2019 BIFF B y To n i R o c h a
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orget the winter doldrums! The Beloit International Film Festival (BIFF) is starting its 14th season with 10 days of excellent quality films rarely seen in local theaters. It’s an opportunity to soak up the imagination and vision of innovative, thoughtful directors and musical performances in intimate settings. From Friday, Feb. 22 through Sunday, March 3, the 2019 BIFF season focuses on “Women in Film,” not only with films that portray strong women but also those directed and produced by women. There will be 104 films juried and selected for screening in several categories, including narrative and documentary features, and narrative and documentary short films, including animation. The jam-packed film schedule promises to fill the five major screening locations: Bushel & Peck’s, Bagels & More,
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Smart Living Weekly
the Hendricks Center for the Arts, La Casa Grande and Domenico’s, as well as the Beloit Public Library, the Beloit Memorial High School Auditorium and Schubert’s Luxury 10 Theatre. Chosen films undergo an extensive vetting system in which dozens of volunteers, including Beloit College students, rate the movies, says Greg Gerard, BIFF’s artistic director. “We use two submission platforms, one with a 5-star rating and a second with a 10-star rating system,” he says. “It takes at least a 4-star rating on the first and at least an 8-star on the second to be considered. I use a green, red and blue code as well. Green is a go and blue is on the bubble.” This ensures that the films are consistently of high quality and interest. “Many are good enough to be picked
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up by Netflix or other entertainment venues,” Gerard adds. “We’ve lost films we’ve selected because they were contracted with distribution companies and are no longer available for film festivals. On the other side, we’ve had filmmakers contact us because they’ve heard of our top-notch reputation.” Gerard describes the mix of movies as about half narrative features and half documentaries, plus short films. “We want to see full rooms, so we are particular about balancing the films selected,” he says. “One year, we offered more than 200 films. It wasn’t a good idea because people simply didn’t know where to start, and we didn’t want to have directors or performers facing a small audience. Plus, there are only so many places we can screen films.” In keeping with the 2019 theme of
