Selecting films for a film festival is a daunting task, but then so is choosing what films to see while you’re attending. For our third annual festival we received over 750 submissions, an increase of nearly 50% over last year. We culled through these submissions - along with tracking award-winning entries from Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Tribeca and other notable festivals to assure that we are presenting the best films possible. This year we’re showcasing over 115 films, from feature to short length, and in narrative and documentary form. We are debuting a new animated short film competition sponsored by Amazon Web Services and Intel. From Tuesday through Thursday, be on the lookout for six on-the-fly filmmaking teams competing to make a 5-minute film in less than 60 hours for our SONY 4K Film Challenge.
PROGRAMMERS’ NOTE
PROGRAMMERS’ NOTE
Central themes that arose this year include: unusual relationships, music and art, food and wine, coping with loss, female empowerment, and the triumph and resilience of the human spirit. While we love each and every one of these films, we know you probably won’t catch them all. So, outside of joining our programming staff, we offer two suggestions for finding the films that will appeal to you most. The first is rather obvious: take some time with this program guide to read about the films and see what jumps out. Second is the main reason we created this fest: talk to other attendees about what they have seen and liked. Over a glass of Napa Valley’s finest at a wine pavilion, over lunch or dinner, or even while waiting for a film to start… all are great opportunities to compare notes and find your “gems”. By the time we get to the Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening, we hope that you will not only have a number of new favorite films to cheer on, but new friends and experiences that go ‘far beyond film’. Thus, we encourage you to slow down and discover the great stories and filmmakers of this year’s fest as well as the unique, sense-awakening experience that is the Napa Valley Film Festival. Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoy the festival as much as we have enjoyed creating it.
Herb Stratford Marc Lhormer Senior Programmer Executive & Artistic Director
39