A Wisconsin film festival will be in full swing again since the onset of COVID-19.
The Beloit International Film Festival is in its 18th season.
Greg Gerard, the executive director of the festival, said spaces that were off limits for the past few years will be open again.
“We are going to get to have our college campus venues again” he said. “We haven't been able to use one of our mainstays downtown, which is the Hendricks Center for the Arts.”
Gerard also said the Weissberg Auditorium at the college will be available, which he said is one of the best screens in the downtown area.
Lindsay Mitchell is the president of the board of directors of the festival. She said the pandemic influenced most of the films since 2020, but some of this year’s films will show a different side.
“And so, it was really exciting for me to see humorous films come back and you know, things like that. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to the film lineup.”
Gerard said filmgoers will see movies that are a cut above the ones that were highlighted in the past few years.
He said every year the audience requests a certain sing along and this is the year that wish comes true.
“When are you going to do Rocky Horror Picture Show? When are you going to do Rocky Horror?” he said. “So, we're going to do Rocky Horror. And we're really excited to be partnering with Yellow Brick Road, which is a fantastic LGBTQ+ organization in our Stateline area here.”
The celebration begins Friday Feb. 24 and concludes on Sunday March 5.
A list of films and other information can be found on the festival’s website.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
