A highly anticipated stop on the regional film festival circuit for filmmakers, film industry veterans and film fans due to its adventurous programming (including its celebrated SHOUT/LGBTQIA+ film festival within a film festival), creative and raucous parties, events, and street gatherings, Sidewalk is the rare film festival that has not gone virtual or postponed altogether this year. With 163 films (41 features, 122 shorts) and 23 music videos, the film festival has packed an ambitious slate into 7 days and 4 outdoor screens.
Sponsored by Regions Bank, the 22nd Annual Sidewalk Festival at the Drive-In will screen films each evening on all four screens. Gates will tentatively open each day at 6:30PM with the start of the first films of the night scheduled for 8:00PM daily.
Sidewalk Film Festival Creative Director and Lead Programmer, Rachel Morgan, said, “While we would much prefer to be running from film to film in unique and beautiful spaces in downtown Birmingham this late August, I'm super proud and excited that we've moved to a drive-in festival despite the many challenges brought about by the current era. We strongly believe that great films are meant to be experienced communally - on a big screen with big sound and, while the festival will certainly be different this year, we are ecstatic to still bring a little of the magic of Sidewalk to late summer. I can't wait to watch so many of the year's best films under the stars, surrounded by fellow film lovers. Party on (safely).”
Sidewalk will open on Monday, August 24 with an Opening Night Extravaganza. The evening will include; Aurélia Rouvier and Seamus Haley’s BANKSY MOST WANTED, about the artist behind the famous art stunts; a special preview screening of Giuseppe Capotondi’s THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY, which stars Elizabeth Debicki, Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, and Claes Bang in an exciting art heist story, and critically-acclaimed indie director Kelly Reichardt’s latest film, FIRST COW, about a cook and a Chinese immigrant who join forces to start a business in Oregon. The extravaganza will also include a “back to the 80’s” double feature of TEEN WOLF (1985) with Michael J. Fox, and TEEN WITCH (1989) with Robyn Lively.
Award-winners on the schedule include Alice Gu’s THE DONUT KING, about a Cambodian entrepreneur’s rags to riches story, which won a Special Jury Prize at this year’s cancelled SXSW, as well as the “One in a Million” Prize at the Sun Valley FF, and David Midell’s harrowing true-life drama THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN about the killing of anan elderly African American veteran with bipolar disorder by police doing a wellness check. The film was a Best Picture winner at the Oxford Film Festival.
Additional anticipated titles include; celebrated documentary director Ondi Timoner’s latest, COMING CLEAN, which examines America’s opioid crisis through the eyes of recovering addicts and political leaders on the frontlines; Kate McLean and Mario Furloni’s drama FREELAND, starring indie-sensation Krisha Fairchild as an aging pot farmer facing what could be her final harvest; and Amy Seimetz’ SHE DIES TOMORROW, where a woman’s conviction that she will die tomorrow spreads like a contagion through a town.
SHOUT selections include; Brandon Colvin’s A DIM VALLEY, about a curmudgeonly biologist and his slacker graduate assistants whose encounter with a trio of mystical backpackers change their lives in mysterious ways; Pablo Larrain’s Chilian drama EMA, about a couple dealing with the aftermath of an adoption gone awry; and Sharon Liese’s documentary TRANSHOOD, which follows four kids – beginning at ages 4, 7, 12, and 15 – as they grow up transgender in the heartland.
Other highlights will include the 30th Anniversary screening of Jennie Livingston’s landmark documentary of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene in the 80’s, PARIS IS BURNING; EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE: DOGGIEWOGGIEZ POOCHIEWOOCHIEZ, which features unusual, dated, and campy clips of VHS tapes as part of a crazy evening with will include a couple of surprise guests; and a special Sing-Along version of YELLOW SUBMARINE (SING-ALONG VERSION) so mom and dad and the kids can take a trip to Pepperland with the Beatles singing with The Fab Four. For the 8th year in a row Sidewalk programmers have compiled an awesome selection of 1980's and 90's cartoons and vintage commercials for the SATURDAY MORNING NIGHT CARTOONS presentation. The one key update is that this year will be a BYOC (Bring Your Own Cereal) affair.
Sidewalk is also taking advantage of the drive-in setting to spice their lineup with some classics and slightly off-the beaten path titles. Those must-see on the drive-in screen films include Patrick Swayze as everyone’s favorite bouncer Dalton, in Rowdy Herrington’s ROAD HOUSE, Richard Kelly’s supreme mindbender DONNIE DARKO (2001), the film that established Ryan Gosling as a nation’s “Hey Girl” crush Nicolas Winding Refn’s DRIVE (2011), and the film that literally almost saw Tippi Hedren and Melanie Griffith eaten by lions onscreen in Noel Marshall’s ROAR (1981). If the idea of that isn't frightening enough, then more classic scares are on tap with Bernard Rose’s hook-laden killer CANDYMAN; John Carpenter’s film that arguably established the slasher genre, HALLOWEEN, and Thom Eberhardt’s NIGHT OF THE COMET, pitting two Valley Girls against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists after a comet lays waste to society.
Sidewalk will be offering filmmaker Q&As and talkbacks as well as continuing their educational efforts online throughout this year’s film festival. One key virtual presentation this year will be A Conversation with Michael O’Neill on Saturday, August 29 asveteran actor and Alabama native Michael O'Neill participates in an Inside the Actors' Studio-style conversation on Zoom. They'll discuss Michael's career in Hollywood and offer advice to anyone looking to break into the industry. There will also be a Q & A portion afterwards.
Tickets are now on sale at sidewalkfest.com. Additionally, onsite tickets will be available for each individual film and will be priced based on the number of individuals in each vehicle (one person per car = $15, two people per car = $26, three people per car = $35, four people per car = $42, and five people or more per car = $47). Concessions and bar service will be provided by The Grand River Drive-In at The Backyard. Additional details are available at sidewalkfest.com.
The 2020 Sidewalk Film Festival official selections:
