For better or for worse, we don't really take a film's "resumé" into consideration when making our selections relying instead on our opinion of the film's quality and appropriateness for the festival.  Many submissions come in with long lists of festival appearances and awards but, honestly, we just don't give that much weight.  We program based on what we want to see, not what other festival committees or juries want to see.  Because of this we feel a special closeness with the films in our festival and feel a certain pride when they do end up getting acclaim.

That's why we're really excited to have two films in this year's festival coming off of strong runs at SXSW.  Martha Stephens' Passenger Pigeons and Aaron Katz's Cold Weather were both received very well last month.

The first feature from NCSA alum Martha Stephens, Passenger Pigeons received a special "We Believe in You" award from the festival jury.  The film interweaves several stories surrounding a mining accident in Eastern Kentucky.  It's a beautifully composed and touching film and we expect it to be one of the audience favorites.  It will be screening on Friday, April 15 at 8:15pm at the Nickelodeon.  Advance tickets for this screening are already going fast so we recommend getting them now.  You can purchase them here. 

Aaron Katz was a special guest at the 2008 Indie Grits Film Festival where his film Quiet City was presented before the awards ceremony.  His latest feature, Cold Weather, was selected as the top reviewed film coming out of SXSW.  You can read some of those reviews here.  The film tells the story of Doug, a former forensic science major and avid reader of detective fiction, who returns to his hometown of Portland, Oregon where he, his sister Gail and new friend Carlos become embroiled in a mystery.  We'll be presenting the film on Thursday, April 15 at 9:00pm at the Nickelodeon in a special, non-competition program.

Congrats to both Martha and Aaron on the great buzz!