Maine International Film Festival Wraps Up
Although the 27th annual Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) is ending, there is still much to experience and enjoy during festival’s final weekend. Higlights include screenings of all the Maine features and shorts, a Maine moviemaking forum, and the closing night film and awards presentations.
On Friday, the Maine Documentary Shorts will debut at 4:00 in the Waterville Opera House at 1 Common Street. Here are just a few of the people you can meet by watching these shorts: a sculptor who created and cast edible “boulders” into a Madison lake, Albion farmers who are battling “forever chemicals” that have contaminated their land, and Waldo County volunteers who provide free firewood to those in need.
If you can’t come Friday, you can see these shorts Saturday at 7:00. The other Maine shorts will be shown on Saturday as well. The Maine Music Shorts, which are four films centered on music, will debut at 1:00 Saturday and will repeat at 3:00 Sunday. The Narrative Shorts, which were first shown on Wednesday, will be screened at 4:00 Saturday. All of the Saturday screenings will take place in the Opera House; the one Sunday screening will be in the Schupf Center’s Cinema 1 at 93 Main Street.
In addition, all three, made-in-Maine features will have second showings on Saturday: Carlo…and His Merry Band of Artists at 12:00, The Ghost Trap at 6:00, and The Ruse at 9:00. These feature screenings will all take place in Cinema 1. Note that these screenings overlap with shorts screenings, so don’t wait until MIFF’s second Saturday to watch all the Maine movies!
If watching the Maine movies isn’t enough, if you want to learn what’s involved in making and distributing movies in Maine, you can attend a panel discussion of experts at 4:00 in the Greene Block + Studios at 18 Main Street. Although admission is free, there will be only 70 seats, so reserve your seat in advance.
In deciding which films to see, however, don’t limit yourself to the movies we’ve described in this and previous articles. Explore the MIFF website or program booklet on your own. Challenge yourself to see at least one movie that you’re not sure you’ll like. If you find a film that you’ve just got to see, reserve your seat or buy your ticket early, lest the screening sell out. Three films from MIFF’s first weekend sold out before the festival even opened, including one scheduled for the festival’s largest venue, the 800-seat Opera House.
The final film of MIFF 2024 will be Irish biopic Kneecap. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, a chance meeting between a disenchanted public school music teacher and two self-avowed “low life scum” leads to the formation of Kneecap, a hip hop trio who rap in Irish and who become, according to the MIFF website, “unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue…. But the trio must first overcome police, paramilitaries, and politicians trying to silence their defiant sound, whilst their anarchic approach to life often makes them their own worst enemies.” The film is based upon a true story, with the members of Kneecap playing themselves and “laying down a global rallying cry for the defense of native cultures.”
At that screening, both the Tourmaline Prizes and the Audience Favorite Awards will be announced. Now in their third year and named after Maine’s state gem, the Tourmaline Prizes will be presented to the festival’s best Maine feature and best Maine short shown. All 19 shorts from the three Maine shorts collections are eligible, as are feature films Carlo…and His Merry Band of Artists, The Ghost Trap, and The Ruse. (Lost on a Mountain in Maine is not eligible, as it was filmed out of state.) Each winner receives translucent, light-up trophy in the shape of chunk of quarried tourmaline and a monetary award, $5,00 for the best feature and $2,500 for the best short.
While a three-person jury of film industry professionals chooses the Tourmaline winners, festival goers themselves choose the Audience Favorite. After watching any new film at the festival — not just those from Maine — attendees can rate the film on a scale of one to ten. Both the audience’s and the jury’s ratings are tabulated; the film with the highest average rating wins; and the top three finishers get announced. The winning filmmaker receives neither a trophy nor cash but may brag about it as much as he or she likes.
MIFF 2024 Award Winners
Tourmaline Prize (Feature)
- Winner: The Ruse
- Honorable Mention*: Carlo…and His Merry Band of Artists
Tourmaline Prize (Short)
- Winner: “An Extraordinary Place”
- Honorable Mentions*: “Offering,” “1492,” and “Waldo County Woodshed”
Audience Favorite Award
- Winner: The Teacher
- Runner Up: Dance First
*Honorable Mentions receive neither a trophy nor a cash award, just bragging rights.
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