Macon Film Festival here for its eighth year

The eighth annual Macon Film Festival will be held February 14-17. The festival intends to highlight the work of filmmakers from around the world. The films are entered into various categories and compete for cash prizes. The films will be screened at three different venues: the Cox Capitol Theatre, the 567 Center for Renewal and the Douglass Theatre.
The Macon Film Festival, which originally began in 2006, was created in an attempt to attract people to the recently renovated Cox Capital Theatre. Since then, it has grown into what Terrell Sandefur, head of publicity and marketing for the festival, describes as a “full-fledged indie film festival attracting filmmakers from around the world.”
Hundreds of films were submitted to the festival, and 85 of those films will be shown in the various categories. The categories include Animation, Documentary, Music, Music Video, Narrative Feature, Narrative Short, Southern, and Student. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners of each category. A jury of film industry professionals is judging the films in each category.
For those interested in attending, a variety of activities are being held over the course of the festival. Among these events are several workshops focusing on different aspects of the industry, including workshops on directing, acting, casting, special effects, make-up and location scouting. These workshops are being hosted by professionals of the industry and by the festival’s special guests. The festival is easily accessible to students, and festival leaders encourage their attendance by allowing students with a valid ID to enter the film screenings free of charge, Sandefur explained.
The festival is used as a showcase to present a wide variety of films and filmmakers to the public. The festival is a distinguished event for the community, bringing national attention to Macon. Sandefur says that the film festival “attracts filmmakers from around to globe to Macon for the four day festival. For anyone interested in filmmaking as a career, this is an excellent opportunity to get up close and personal with filmmakers.”
Confirmed guests attending the event will include Emmy Award winner Crystal Chappell and famed Indie actress Mink Stole. Chapell will be screening the pilot of her new web series, The Grove, which follows two families over several generations. One is a working class family, the other wealthy. Both live in a Central California community known as The Grove. Chappell won an Emmy for her role on Guiding Light and for her previous web series, Venice. Mink Stole has appeared in many indie and cult films over the course of her career. She will be screening the hit film, “Hairspray,” in which she starred. She previously visited Macon while filming “Stuck” in 2009.
The film festival headquarters is located at 567 Cherry Street. Programs, tickets and merchandise will be available at headquarters beginning Wednesday, Feb. 13. For more information on the Macon Film Festival, visit their Facebook page at “Facebook.com/MaconFilmFestival.”