The Columbia Maryland Film Festival will return for its eighth season Sept. 7-13, featuring more than 55 local, international, and U.S. films.
All films will be screened live and in person at Howard Community College’s Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center, the Maryland Innovation Center, and The Collective Encore. Audiences will also be able to stream them virtually through the Eventive online platform.
Selections include feature films, shorts, and documentaries. Themes range widely from drama and comedy to the LGBTQ+ community, music, and international stories.
But organizers said the common link for this year’s lineup is people: “filmmakers turning their own struggles, relationships, and turning points into stories audiences will recognize as their own,” according to a news release.
The film festival’s executive producer and creator, Robert Neal Marshall, hopes the festival will spark important discussion about what they see on and off the screen.
“The films we’ve programmed this year aren’t just entertainment, they’re conversations about how people grow, connect, cope, and build things, on screen and in this community,” said Marshall, who was also the recent co-chair of Howard County’s Film Industry Task Force. “We’re building our community closer together here in Howard County, one that brings together filmmakers, students, educators, entrepreneurs, artists, local businesses, and audiences through the power of storytelling.”
The festival will kick off Monday, Sept. 7, at 6 p.m. at The Collective ENCORE. The opening night will feature The Best of the 48 Hour Film Project, a global challenge in which emerging filmmakers write, shoot, and edit a short film all within 48 hours.
Mark Ruppert founded the project in Washington, D.C. in 2001. Today, the event takes place across more than 100 cities each year. More 70,000 films have been made for the 48 Hour Film Project, according to the competition website.
Ruppert will attend the opening night event, where he will share how he built what is said to be the world’s largest and longest-running filmmaking competition.
On Friday, Sept. 11, festival-goers will be able to watch a special evening screening of director Walter Johnson Jr.’s documentary “Colors & Curves” about human creativity. This screening will take place at 6 p.m. at the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center, and it will be a double feature with the short film “Masterpiece,” followed by a live panel discussion with Johnson and Howard County business and creative professionals.
The festival will finish out on Sunday, Sept. 13, at 5:30 p.m. at the Horowitz center. The closing celebration will spotlight short films by Maryland filmmakers, followed by an in-person filmmaker Q&A and community reception.
The festival offers various ticket options, including virtual screenings ($12 or $15 for short films, $20 for feature films), live in-person screenings ($20 for feature films and multi-film packages, $30 for the Opening Night and Maryland Shorts Filmmaker Celebration), and a $75 all-festival pass, which includes unlimited access (virtual and in person) to the more than 55 films, plus admission to the Opening Night and Maryland Shorts Filmmaker Celebration.
Seating is limited, so organizers strongly recommend buying tickets early.
For a full schedule, visit the festival’s website.
