By SABRINA BERNDT

Washington Daily News

 

North Carolina is thousands of miles away from Hollywood, but a local film festival is looking to discover local talents.

Arts of the Pamlico is seeking entries for its Marquee on Main Film Festival, which features films created by North Carolina filmmakers or films about the state. AOP extended the submission deadline to Sept. 15, encouraging students, amateurs and professionals to take a chance.

“It’s important to get your talent out there, to be seen, to be heard,” said AOP weekend coordinator Crystal Holman. “We’re happy to give people the opportunity to do that.”

The original film festival was created by Debra Torrence, AOP’s executive director, when she was looking to expand the role of film at AOP. The AOP staff created two film festivals in 2017, the Glass Tulip Film Festival and the first Marquee on Main Film Festival, which was international at the time. The former received more than 700 entries, and the AOP team went back to the drawing board to create a festival that was less overwhelming.

“We said ‘OK, let’s reevaluate what we want out of our film festival,’” Holman said. “So we combined the two festivals together and kept Marquee on Main because of the historic quality of the marquee and the Turnage Theatre and decided to focus on North Carolina-driven films and filmmakers. And that’s where we have remained now.”

The submission categories include feature-length films, short, animated, nature, historic, horror and documentary. There is also a “Best Overall” category, where a panel of judges chooses the best film from the pool of submissions.

According to Holman, the 2017 Best Overall winner was a documentary about at-risk Durham students traveling to Ocracoke to learn about creating a newspaper. The 2018 winner was a feature-length film about the Wilmington Race Riots.

“There seems to be really good short film creators and horror film creators — that’s’ our two biggest categories,” Holman said. “When I watched the Wilmington Riot one last year, I was in tears because of the story.”

The festival will take place at the Turnage Theatre, Nov. 1-2, and the opening will include a showing of the winning Best Overall film and a meet-and-greet with the judges, filmmakers and cast.

“Don’t be afraid to try,” Holman said. “If you’re feeling something, if there’s a story you want to share pertaining to North Carolina or you live in North Carolina, put it to film and submit it to Film Freeway and see where it goes.”

For more information and a link to submit, visit filmfreeway.com/MarqueeonMain.