It may not be Sundance, it may not be Cannes, but the Savannah Film Festival has become a cornerstone event for Georgia’s rapidly expanding film industry. It’s not a new event, with this year’s version the 18th in state history, but the increase in projects in recent years, (stemming from an array of tax incentives and infrastructure upgrades) has brought a new sense of importance to what started as a small, school sponsored festival.
The event is still sponsored by Savannah College of Art and Design, but it’s certainly no longer small, with over 40,000 visitors expected in the city of just 250,000 over its 8 days, (beginning this Saturday). It’s a public face for Hollywood elite to gather in the Old South, in a town on the opposite side of the continent from Los Angeles, but still home to a booming industry that brings in over $6 billion annually to the state.
Film festivals are a place for movies to plunge into their Oscar bids, a process that often resembles more closely a political campaign than a mere award nomination. In that sense the Savannah Film Festival is a campaign stop, and an important one at that. Movies like Suffragette, about the early days of the feminist movement, I Saw the Light, a biography of legendary country singer Hank Williams, and Brooklyn, about a young Irish immigrant as she arrives in, well Brooklyn, are among the Oscar bait that will be on the tips of the tongues of film critics over the next year. Movie stars are in town as well, with romantic comedy star Meg Ryan set to receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Olivia Wilde to take home the Spotlight Award, and rising star Saiorse Ronan to promote her aforementioned film, Brooklyn.
The work of SCAD students and alumni will also be featured alongside the big budget films being screened. It’s an opportunity for the school, whose stature has risen alongside its home state’s film industry, to show off in front of the filmmakers, producers, and executives who act as Hollywood’s movers and shakers.
With TV and film in Georgia growing at an exponential rate, it’s no surprise that its premiere film festival is growing with it. As the largest of the over 25(!) film festivals in the state, the Savannah Film Festival has become a must-attend event for industry insiders not only in Georgia, but across the country.
