The Centre Film Festival Celebrates Sixth Year

This year’s Centre Film Festival will feature over 200 films with showings at the State Theatre in State College, the Rowland Theatre in Philipsburg, the Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library and the UEC College 12. In addition, the festival has added ways to engage more local businesses with a Centre Festival Community Game which is a scavenger hunt designed to increase foot traffic and visibility for Centre County businesses (Photo Credit: Centre Film Festival.)

Edited by Julie Rae Rickard

(From information provided by the Dellisario College of Communications and Centrefilm.org.)

CENTRE COUNTY – In 2019, the Centre Film Festival started with three days of film screenings at the Historic Rowland Theatre in Philipsburg. This year it features more than 200 films shown at various locations and online.

The fun begins Monday, Nov. 11 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 17. The films involved are documentaries, narrative and experimental films which are shorts or feature length.

“The festival includes one world premiere, five U.S. premieres, animated films, films made in Pennsylvania, international films and much more,” according to information supplied by Penn State University’s Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

Typically, the festival gets over 700 submissions with films then chosen by a juried selection committee.

It has matured with a purpose, providing a forum to showcase the importance and value of filmmaking to encourage discussion about meaningful and timely topics. Screenings will be conducted Nov. 11-14 at the State Theatre in State College and Nov. 15-16 at the Rowland Theatre in Philipsburg. (Shuttles will be available to transport film fans from the White Building at Penn State to the Rowland and back.) Some films will screen at the Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library and the UEC College 12.

A morning of children-friendly films will screen Nov. 17 at Tempest Studios in State College.

Festival films also are available online at their website, centrefilm.org.

Pearl Gluck, associate professor of film production at Bellisario College of Communications, is the artistic director and driving force for the festival which also gets strong support from many Penn State units and the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau.

“What we’re doing this year builds on the spirit of our mission,” said Gluck, who co-founded the festival in 2019 with the late Curt Chandler, an associate teaching professor of journalism. “We’re bringing global films with a local impact and local films with a global impact.”

Along with support from HVAB and a long list of committed sponsors — who provide the lifeblood for the weeklong event — the Centre Film Festival has added ways to engage even more local businesses by launching the Centre Festival Community Game this year. It’s a scavenger hunt designed to increase foot traffic and visibility for Centre County businesses, and make this a true community celebration.

The festival has always stretched far beyond Penn State’s University Park campus, and those who have their work featured in the festival enthusiastically visit to participate. More than two dozen filmmakers will attend the festival in person to discuss their work, according to the information.

“Supporting the Centre Film Festival provides a hands-on opportunity for students new to the University, including members of first-year seminar courses taught by Gluck. It also benefits students who are closer to graduation, specifically film production majors who may engage with professional filmmakers at numerous events during the festival.”

In addition, this year’s festival includes four films produced by Penn State alumni. Two student films will also be screened as part of the festival.

“One of the things that make me most proud about the festival — and there are a lot — is that we’re able to expose so many students to the power of films and filmmaking,” Gluck said. “Few things are as powerful as film in terms of building community by telling stories. If students gain an appreciation of that, it makes us all stronger.”

The festival has added to its lineup of awards this year as well, including a first-ever Sports on Screen Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Charles Dumas, a professor emeritus in the Penn State School of Theatre and actor whose screen credits range from short films to TV series and major motion pictures.

The Chandler Living Legacy Award will honor Pennsylvania native Ayoka Chenzira, an exemplary director in film and television, who is one of the first African American women to write, produce and direct a 35mm feature film.

Awards will be announced on the last day of the festival, Nov. 17 at 6:00 p.m. at the State Theatre in State College.

For more information on the festival and to watch some of the entries, simply visit their website, centrefilm.org.