By London Blackburn/Staff reporter
The Amarillo Filmmakers Collective (AFC) is preparing to host the second annual Amarillo Film Festival. The event will be held April 17, 18 and 19 at Amarillo College’s Washington Street Campus.
Last year was the first Amarillo Film Festival. “Last year the festival was branded more as a showcase. It was experimental and we learned a lot,” Blake Cartrite, AFF committee event organizer, said.
“The Festival’s own committee has grown nearly double since last year,” Cartrite said.
This year the goal of AFF is to bring relevance to film in Amarillo, Cartrite added.
“We’re trying to give everybody an equal opportunity to be able to submit content and not just make it about an entry fee,” Cartrite said.
There is no entry fee and the submission categories include student showcase, documentary feature film, narrative feature film, documentary short film, narrative short film and commercials. Anyone can submit a film.
High school and college students should submit to the student showcase category. It’s a broader category compared to the others, Cartrite added.
April 1, 2020 is the deadline to submit content, and April 8 is the notification date.
“There are lots of creative artists in Amarillo. Many people don’t know about them because they aren’t being promoted as heavily as other people,” CJ Scott, a mass media major and aspiring filmmaker, said.
Scott has been interested in film since she was a child. “I like that it can draw you in and take you to a different world,” Scott said.
“I feel like people should promote their film ideas if they want to start doing something. People love to be a part of film,” Scott added.
Scott said she is embarking on directing a movie herself this summer. Although she won’t be able to submit a piece to this year’s festival, she is hoping to participate next year. Scott said that being a student at AC has helped her tap into filmmaking resources.
“AC creates more of a community, so I could get things done more easily,” Scott said. “Because I have these connections, it makes it just a bit easier to push out a film.”
To enter the festival or get more information, go to https://www.amafilmfest.com/.
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