Next week's Oxford Film Fest nearly doubles offerings

The 13th annual Oxford Film Festival runs from Wednesday through Feb. 21 and is presenting 148 films, nearly double the festival’s average offerings. The main venue is the Malco Oxford Commons off Mississippi 7, and screenings will also take place across town at locations including two restaurants on the Square.

Following last year’s event, the festival underwent an organizational change, and Melanie Addington, a filmmaker and former co-director of the organization, is now its first full-time executive director.

“We’re growing up in our 13th year with more films, more venues, more days, more filmmakers attending and more free programming,” says Addington.

“Our submissions doubled, we’ve had a lot of great national publicity and our festival is really working to grow into a strong regional festival. Many of our films are world premiering with us, and some having just premiered at Sundance and played Slamdance before heading to Oxford.”

Additions include four virtual reality films that allow audience participation and late-night horror films, and this year panels are free to the public thanks to a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council. Shelter on Van Buren will host animation and experimental-film blocks, and on Friday the Round Table will offer the music video block, barbecue and music by Tate Moore.

The festival kicks off on Wednesday at 6 p.m. with “Food + Film” at the Powerhouse Community Center, with documentaries on topics including barbecue, biscuits and ice cream paired with food and drink offerings coordinated by the Southern Foodways Alliance.

On Feb. 18, the festival teams with Thacker Mountain Radio at Oxford’s Lyric Theater. Guests including Cary Hudson, whose music video “Fiddler’s Green” is being shown at the festival, and “Salvation on Sand Mountain” author Dennis Covington, who will read from his new book “Revelation.”

The 6 p.m. radio show will also host a musical performance associated with the documentary “Bookin’,” which is a dance style that combines ballet, jook dancing and hip hop beats. At 7:30 p.m. the Lyric will host the community film project “Once a Month,” directed by Oxford’s Alice Walker.

Feb. 19 and 20, the packed schedules include Mississippi-made features “Forced Move,” with local actors including Rhes Low and Jennifer Pierce Mathus (Feb. 19 at 3:30 p.m.), and “Texas Heart” (Feb. 20 at 6 p.m.), featuring festival favorites Johnny and Susan McPhail and Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett.

Music documentary highlights include an 11:30 a.m. Feb. 19 screening of acclaimed documentary filmmaker Les Blank’s “A Poem is a Naked Person,” which follows rocker Leon Russell during the decadent 1970s; its showings were severely restricted by Russell for decades. “Jonathan Demme Presents: Made in Texas” (Feb. 20 at 12:30 p.m.) is a series of six restored short films on underground culture made in Austin, Texas, during the late ‘70s and ‘80s.

Festival award winners will be shown again on Feb. 21 at the Powerhouse, where food trucks will be gathered all day and festival closer “Babysittter” screens at 5:30 p.m.

For more information visit oxfordfilmfest.com.

Scott Barretta is the host of "Highway 61," which airs on MPB on Saturday at 10 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m.