Category: Festival

The call for entries is now open for our 21st Annual Sidewalk Film Festival and we want to see your latest work. To learn more about our call for entries (prizes, rules, regulations, costs etc…) and all the reasons why you should submit your film to Sidewalk, check out our Film Freeway listing here.

A total 266 films across multiple genres are set to highlight the 19th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival presented by Regions Bank, August 22nd–27th in downtown Birmingham.

“This is a phenomenal lineup for our attendees, and—coupled with our accompanying events throughout the weekend—will prove to be the strongest festival to date,” said Chloe Cook, executive director of Sidewalk Film Festival.

Read all about this year’s selected films on our online schedule, and be sure to buy your passes for Sidewalk 2017 before prices increase on August 1st!

Click here for the 2017 schedule           Click here to buy festival passes

Opening Night Film, STEP

STEP documents the senior year of a girls’ high-school step dance team against the background of inner-city Baltimore. The film earned high acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Closing Night Film, My Friend Dahmer

Before Jeffrey Dahmer became one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, he was a teenage loner. My Friend Dahmer chronicles the origins of the man, the monster – and the high school senior.

Narrative

The Other Kids
Most Beautiful Island
Thirst Street
Sundowners
Are We Not Cats
Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks
A Feast Of Man
The Toxic Avenger
Neighborhood Food Drive
Big Bear
Infinity Baby
Inheritance
Mustang Island
Shut Up Anthony
And Then I Go
Song of Sway Lake
Lemon
Lucky
The Astrologer
The Strange Ones
Dayveon
Blame
Golden Exits
A Ghost Story
Like Me
The Atoning
Young and Innocent
Into The Who Knows
The Nobodies
The Weight
Menashe
Tinker
Youth Silent Film Festival Feature with American Theatre Organ Society
Freaky Friday (1976)

Documentary

All The Rage
Trumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time
The Road Movie
Rat Film
Forever ‘B’
42 Grams
Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story
Bang! The Bert Berns Story
Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table
The Cage Fighter
The New Radical
Quest
Hanzi
Liberation Day
The Reagan Show
Whose Streets?
The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography
Last of the Longneck
44 Pages
Jungletown
A Life In Waves

SHOUT LGBTQ Features

Princess Cyd
Who’s Gonna Love Me Now
Tormenting the Hen
Alabama Bound
After Louie
The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson
Beach Rats (Closing Night)
A Very Sordid Wedding
Cherry Pop
Queercore
Axolotl Overkill

SHORTS

Saturday Alabama Shorts

The Heist
Rocket City Shakedown
Double Jump
Since Feeling is First
Asteria
Hartley
Know This
Texas Cotton
On Time

Sunday Alabama Shorts

Olde E
Haygood Eats
Lightning Run
Turtle
IBBUR
Two by 4
Arrived
Hunted
Alien Invasion USA
Top Shelf
Beavis
Lex Talionis

Shorts: Deep Thoughts

Joy Ride
End of Earth
Nick’s Van
Cul-De-Sac
Innards
The End of Decay
Supot

SHOUT Shorts

Make It Up
Call Your Father
Cecil and Carl
Sisak
What About Shelley
Sis
Cock N’ Bull 2
Huevos Rancheros
Imago

Alabama Documentary Shorts

Johnny’s Greek and Three
Bullet Hands
Community of the Cards
Rolling through the Hoops
Firehouse
Visionland
Gardens of Red Dust
52%
Okra Project
Wrastlin
Gifts from the Good Land

Documentary Shorts: Conservation

Alabama: From the Mountains to the Coast
Birmingham to the Gulf
Gardeners of the Forest
Naturally Selected
My Garden, No Longer
Waste Not Want Not
The Underwater Forest

Shorts: The Lighter Side

Postcards
Alternative Math
Unpresidented
The Day Before
Shy Guys
The Privates
Gloria Talks Funny

Shorts: Relationships

Rekindled
August
Troll
Hold On
Da Capo
Nobody Likes You
Mutt
Love is a Sting

Shorts: Drama, Drama, Drama

Runner
Mariner
Birthday Cake
Shilo
Fry Day
Game
Real Artists

International Shorts

A Share of Share
A Whole World for a Little World
La femme et le TGV
Balcony
Solitude
Outside
Just go!

Documentary Shorts

The Collection
All the Leaves are Brown
Slingers
Unmoving Derelict
Deaners
Balloonfest
Isis Hair Salon
Caviar Dreams
Remembering Davey Allison
Gut Hack

Documentary Shorts: Interesting Folk

omi & opa; an ode to grandparents
Still Sophie
Richard Twice
Frogman
Let Mama Rest
Winter’s Watch
A Good Blinder

Shorts: A Touch of Magic

The Witching Hour
Caw
Icarus
Interior Teresa
Limbo

Episodic

Daughters
Becca on Call
The Beginning and Ending of Everything
Bug Spoon
Hooked

Life & Liberty Shorts

On the Backs of the People
Lead the Parade
I Am Anthony
First to Go: Story of the Katakoa Family
Voices from Kaw Thoo Lei
The Gathering

Animated Shorts

Unsatisfying
Trial & Error
The Snow Girl
Rabbit Blood
Catherine
Bosatsu – Year of the Dragon
There’s Too Many of These Crows
Ascribed Achievements
Wishing Box
Cour de récré (Playground)
Evocation of a Nightmare
Second to None
Green Light

Music Videos

“Ain’t Going Nowhere” by Kais
“Time Stops” by Starbenders
“Caskets” by Stoned Cobra
“Try a Little Tenderness” by Alice Tan Ridley
“Second Hand Lovers” by Oren Lavie
“Someone to Love” by Gabriel Tajeu
“Can You Decide” by Jon Kenzie
“Overcame the Sun” by Cloudy Busey
“Sounds Like” by C.A.m
“Rave On” by Holy Youth
“Celia Johnson” by Winterpills
“Comes a Moment” by Jonathan Cavier
“Mountains” by mac/glidden
“Plastic Flowers” by HaHaHa Productions
“Mortar & Pestle” by Raquel Lily
“Everybody” by Don Broco
“Clutchin” by Hirt Town
“Viva Adore” by Cavalen
“Arcadian” by Symbion Project

Kids Shorts: Little Ones

Cowgirl Up
Half Pint
CORKY
How to Fly – The Treasure in the Sky
Nosh: Bite-Size Adventures

Kids Shorts

Jesszilla
All the Marbles
Lemonade Mafia
Voice of Grace
Nothing Grows Her

After Dark Shorts

The Call of Charlie
Eulogilia
It Sucks to be Me
Kookie
Déjà Vu Deluge
Teeth
Don’t Ever Change
Night Digging

Shorts: Absurd

Applying the Condom
Commercial for the Queen of Meatloaf
Meet the Pop Whores
Snowy Bing Bongs

Teen Shorts (PG)

A Baker’s Dozen
Puget Sound
Damsels in Distress
Treasure
For Isabelle
From Dogs to Wolves
Full Tank
Tangerines
The Mobsters
The Fish and The Frog

Teen Shorts (Adult Content)

A Showcase for Max
The Racket
Annie
Hunted
Jouska
Mirror
The Case
OverLove
Goldfish

Kids Shorts Starring Kids

Blaze Ninja and Darkshot
In the Weeds
When The Phantom Strikes
Home

We’re 35 days away from Sidewalk 2017! This week’s preview is a big one—we’re announcing both our Opening Night Film and our Closing Night Film. Check out the titles below, and watch this space next Friday for a HUGE sneak peek at this year’s festival. The 19th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival presented by Regions is August 22nd-27th!

Click here to buy festival passes

Opening Night Film: Step

Directed by Amanda Lipitz
USA, Documentary, 85 minutes

Step is the true-life story of a girls’ high-school step team set against the background of the heart of Baltimore. These young women learn to laugh, love and thrive—on and off the stage—even when the world seems to work against them. Empowered by their teachers, teammates, counselors, coaches and families, they chase their ultimate dreams: to win a step championship and to be accepted into college. Step premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won a Special Jury Prize for Documentary.

“Step is empowering and irresistible,” says Corey Craft, Sidewalk features programmer. “It is an uncommon sports movie where you will stand up and cheer not only at the results of the dance competitions and at the impressive choreography on display but at the results of a college admissions letter. You will not see a more triumphant film all year.”

Closing Night Film: My Friend Dahmer

Directed by Marc Meyers
USA, Narrative, 107 minutes

My Friend Dahmer is the haunting, sad, funny, true story of Jeffrey Dahmer in high school, based on Derf Backderf‘s critically acclaimed 2012 graphic novel of the same name. Dahmer (Ross Lynch, Disney Channel’s Austin & Ally) is an awkward teenager who collects road kill. By the start of senior year, he acts out, throwing epileptic-like fits in the halls. His goofball antics unexpectedly win over a group of band-nerds who form The Dahmer Fan Club headed by Derf Backderf (Alex Wolff, Nickelodeon’s The Naked Brothers Band), but this camaraderie can’t mask his growing depravity. Approaching graduation Jeff spirals further out of control.

“My Friend Dahmer is not only engrossing and provocative, but is also a visually captivating time capsule,” said Rachel Morgan, Sidewalk’s creative director. “Former Disney Channel star Ross Lynch is surprisingly convincing as Dahmer in an impressive performance. It’s a perfect example of stellar film that Birmingham deserves to have a theatrical screening of and we’re thrilled and honored for it to close Sidewalk this year.”

We’re 42 days out from Sidewalk 2017! For this week’s preview, Sidewalk Creative Director Rachel Morgan shares a few features you don’t want to miss at this year’s festival.

“It’s a crazy year,” Rachel says. “The temperature of indie film this season is very reflective of the cultural climate of the past 18 months. I’m looking forward to watching films the way they are meant to be experienced—in a cool dark room, on a big screen, with people.”

Sidewalk has made special events surrounding film screenings a time-honored tradition—last year’s festival included live chickens, palm readings, and an appearance by Sasquatch himself—and this year is no exception. “We have more special event related film titles than usual and I’m especially excited about that,” says Rachel. “As always, it’s going to be a packed weekend.”

Check out the first batch of Sidewalk 2017 features below, and check back next Friday for another sneak peek at this year’s festival. The 19th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival presented by Regions is August 22nd-27th!

Click here to buy festival passes

A Ghost Story

Directed by David Lowery
USA, Narrative, 87 minutes

Academy Award winner Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea, Gone Baby Gone) and Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara (Carol, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) star in this nontraditional haunted house tale—a poignant, cerebral film exploring themes of grief, memory, and eternity. Affleck and Mara previously worked with director David Lowery on Sidewalk 2013 Closing Night Film Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.

Whose Streets?

Directed by Sabaah Folayan & Damon Davis
USA, Documentary, 103 minutes

Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy.

Lucky

Directed by John Carroll Lynch
USA, Narrative, 88 minutes

Lucky follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off the map desert town. Having out lived all of his contemporaries, Lucky finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self exploration. John Carroll Lynch‘s directorial debut stars legendary character actor Harry Dean Stanton and features Ron Livingston, Tom Skerritt, and director David Lynch in supporting roles.

Lemon

Directed by Janicza Bravo
USA, Narrative, 83 minutes

Isaac Lachmann is a dud. Isaac Lachmann is 40. Isaac Lachmann is a man in free fall immobilized by mediocrity. His career is going nowhere. His girlfriend of ten years is leaving him. What did he do to deserve this? Isaac Lachmann had big dreams. Now he just watches as his life unravels.  Brett Gelman, Judy Greer, Michael Cera, Nia Long, Shiri Appleby, Rhea Perlman, Gillian Jacobs, Megan Mullally, and Jeff Garlin star in this ensemble comedy.

Bang: The Bert Berns Story

Directed by Brett Berns
USA, Documentary, 95 minutes

Music meets the Mob in this biographical documentary, narrated by Stevie Van Zandt, about the life and career of Bert Berns, the most important songwriter and record producer from the sixties that you never heard of. He helped launch the careers of Van Morrison and Neil Diamond and produced some of the greatest soul music ever made. Filmmaker Brett Berns brings his late father’s story to the screen through interviews with those who knew him best and rare performance footage.

Liberation Day

Directed by Ugis Olte and Morten Traavik
Norway and Latvia, Documentary, 100 minutes

Under the loving but firm guidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat, and to the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian cult band Laibach becomes the first rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea. Confronting strict ideology and cultural differences, the band struggles to get their songs through the needle’s eye of censorship before they can be unleashed on an audience never before exposed to alternative rock’n’roll.

Blame

Directed by Quinn Shephard
USA, Narrative, 100 minutes

Chris Messina stars as a substitute drama teacher whose taboo relationship with an unstable student (writer/director Quinn Shephard) strikes a nerve in her jealous classmate (Nadia Alexander), sparking a vengeful chain of events within their suburban high school that draws parallels to Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’.

Check back next Friday for another sneak peek at this year’s festival!

Sidewalk has been named one of 2017’s 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee by MovieMaker Magazine! Once again, Sidewalk was singled out for our unique (and numerous) parties, savvy programming, and networking opportunities for attending filmmakers. You can read the whole list here.

We’re thrilled to be included on this list, and in celebration we’re offering a deadline waiver for filmmakers to submit their work to Sidewalk 2017! Use code SW17WORTHIT on FilmFreeway to send us your film through May 15th.

Click here to submit your film to Sidewalk!