Along with our traditional spotlight on Stubbornly Independent features (films created with a budget under $500,000) and DOXX (documentary features directed by female-identifying filmmakers), Tallgrass Film Festival has added a new category to our 2021 awards line-up, The Gordon Parks Award for Black Excellence in Filmmaking.
The line-up announcement includes 128 short films, with a variety of program categories including comedy, relationships, and a spotlight on Kansas filmmakers.
“If you’ve never checked out one of our short film programs before you’re going to want to check them out this year. While much of the world has paused during the pandemic, filmmaker creativity sure hasn’t, “said Short Film Programmer Hannah Bothner. “Get ready for some fun, exciting, and brilliant films that will surprise and delight you. Something particularly exciting this year was how brilliantly so many puzzle pieces fit together to create some amazing short film and feature film pairings that I am super excited for you to see!”
The in-person festival will be held October 20-24 in downtown Wichita. The virtual festival will kick off October 24 and end on October 29.
“With our procurement of a grant called Reimagined Spaces, we took the idea to heart, reimagining a lot of the festival this year as we continue in year two of the pandemic,” said Executive Director Melanie Addington. “At the core of Tallgrass, we remain a festival focused on filmmakers finding their audience and creating community around film. Movies are the great bridge-builder that unites us as people. The 19th annual Tallgrass may look different but the core remains always the same.”
Films will play virtually following the in-person festival unless denoted below. Information on visiting filmmakers and Q&As will be added to the website as they are scheduled.
Tallgrass previously announced the out-of-competition spotlight line-up, education & panels, and jurors.
See the rest of the in-person line-up here.
