Hollywood meets Virginia at the state’s film festivals.
French Film Festival at the Byrd Theater in Richmond.
Virginia Film Festival
Each year in November, stars and industry professionals— last year’s group included Oliver Stone and Leonard Maltin—come to Charlottesville for the Virginia Film Festival, now in its 29th year. The festival comprises four days of galas, screenings, filmmaking competitions, technical workshops and a Young Filmmakers Academy, presented by the University of Virginia. Nov. 3-6, 2016. VirginiaFilmFestival.org
Middleburg Film Festival
New to Virginia’s film festival scene is the Middleburg Film Festival. Sheila C. Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television and CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts, started the festival in 2013, a few years after her friend, actor and Sundance founder Robert Redford, told her that Middleburg looked like a good place for a celebration of film—she’d been thinking the same thing. The 2015 festival featured Oscar-winning films Spotlight and Brooklyn. Oct. 20-23, 2016. MiddleburgFilm.org
French Film Festival
The largest of its kind in the U.S., the festival takes place in Richmond in the Spring, and has screened hundreds of French and francophone films since its inception 24 years ago by professors at the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University. March & April 2017. FrenchFilmFestival.us
Other Film Festivals Around the State
GI Film Festival Fairfax and D.C., May. GIFilmFestival.com
Northern Virginia International Film & Music Festival Fairfax, April. NovaFilmFest.com
Progeny Film Festival Blacksburg, May. PerformingArts.VT.edu
Skyline Indie Film Fest Winchester, September. SkylineIndieFilmFest.org
The Virginia Film Office offers an extended list of film festivals around the state, and information about the business of filmmaking in the Old Dominion. Film.Virginia.org
See all of our Best of Virginia 2016 winners here!
