Elise Lopez sees the new five-screen Loft Cinema as an opportunity to show more films.
Lopez became the executive director of the Loft Cinema in June after Peggy Johnson stepped down. After being an attendee of the festival for years, she now gets to manage it.
“From a spectator point of view, I at least have that under my belt,” she said. “It'll be a little bit different this time going into it from an administrative and staff end.”
Jeff Yanc, program and festival director, says that the added screens (going from 2 to 3, and now 5) makes selecting the films easier.
“We try not to come up with a theme in advance because then you start pre-selecting films,” he said. “I guess that would be the theme: eclectic cinema.”
There are 50 film programs throughout the eight-day festival. Yanc said this is not necessarily the biggest festival running, partly because the average film runtime this year is quite long.
“Films are getting longer these days, especially during the Oscar season. That affects how many films you can show,” he said.
Films like Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 205 minute film “All of a Sudden” and Alain Gomis’ “Dao” at 185 minutes, are the longest films running at the festival. Both highlight bilingual communities.
The Loft is already playing a 2 hour and 54 minute documentary, A24’s “You Can See Everything”, which Yanc said is a good testament to playing longer films for audiences.
The longer the runtime, the harder it is to squeeze in other films, even if you have five screens, said Yanc.
Lopez added that each film has at least two screenings, so that if you miss the first one earlier in the festival, there will be at least one more time slot to see the film.
Beyond the films, which have mostly run in other festivals throughout the year, Yanc said the guests are what make Loft’s film fest unique.
“Where we do have more control is over the guests that we get,” he said.
For the first time, they will recognize screenwriters with the festival's inaugural Larry McMurtry Screenwriting Award, named after screenwriter who lived in Tucson later in life and befriended screenwriter Diana Ossana. They worked on the likes of Brokeback Mountain and co-authored the novel Zeke and Ned.
“I'm excited to honor screenwriters," he said. “Screenplays are the complete basis for any great film and they often don't get the attention they deserve.”
The first recipient of the screenwriting award is Joan Tewkesbury, known for her work on Robert Altman’s 1975 classic Nashville.
Nashville will screen on November 15th with Tewkesbury in attendance over Zoom and Ossana offering the award.
The Lofty Achievement Awards will continue this year, given to critically-acclaimed director Gus van Sant and Susan Seidelman.
Festival badges are sold out, but individual tickets are still available through the Loft Cinema’s box office and website.
The festival runs November 11-19.
Lopez added that tickets for all films will be held until 20 minutes before the viewing to be bought in-person, even if the website shows that it is sold out.
“We really try to get films in multiple languages, have them be about different strata of life, different walks of life… where people are able to see themselves on screen,” she said. “Sometimes people are learning and unlearning when they're watching films and we hear that all the time with the festival.”
