The Loft Cinema is rolling out the red carpet for its annual Loft Film Fest, showcasing independent, classic and foreign films, running Oct. 16-24 at 3233 E. Speedway.
The Loft Film Fest has graced Tucson for 14 years and aims to continue to “celebrate the work of established and emerging directors, writers, producers and actors,” the theater says on its website.
This year’s nine-day festival will feature films like “Unstoppable,” the inspiring true story of Anthony Robles, on Oct. 16, the Arizona premiere of “The Queen of My Dreams” on Oct. 24 and “Luther: Never Too Much,” the story of Luther Vandross, on Oct. 21, just to name a few.
The festival will also feature a Documentary Shorts Program on Oct. 22 and a Narrative Shorts Program on Oct. 23.
A screengrab from the show "Reservation Dogs."
“[The community] can expect a lot of great films that have been winning awards on the international film festival circuit,” said Jeff Yanc, program director at The Loft Cinema. “That’s part of our mission — to bring festival award winners from other festivals to Tucson.”
The full lineup and schedule can be viewed on The Loft Cinema’s website.
The Loft Film Fest highlights films that have been celebrated at some of the world’s most prestigious film festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Tribeca and Venice.
In past years, the festival has featured films like “Quantum Cowboys,” “Shoplifters” and Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” which won several Academy Awards, including best directing.
“We actually travel to these festivals and watch these films and see which ones would be good for our community,” Yanc said. “We try to make sure we have a range of different countries represented and different ethnicities and races of filmmakers.”
The festival was recently put on “The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World, 2023” list by moviemaker.com along with the Austin Film Festival and the Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France.
“One of our big missions with the festival is to have gender parity with the directors, so we have 50% films directed by men and 50% by women,” Yanc said.
Every year, The Loft Cinema also gives out its version of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which they call “The Loftie Award.” This year, its recipients are Graham Greene, who will appear along with the showing of two episodes of “Reservation Dogs,” and Tantoo Cardinal, an actor most recently in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Tantoo Cardinal, who was in The Killers of the Flower Moon.
“Both are legendary Indigenous actors,” Yanc said.
Guests can purchase individual tickets ($12) or all-access badges ($150) to the film festival on The Loft Cinema’s website until they are sold out.
“People always tell me they love it,” Yanc said. “People seem to really enjoy getting to meet filmmakers and actors and getting to see the breadth and scope of what international cinema has to offer.”
While you’re there, you might notice that the independent theater is currently under construction. The Loft is expanding with two new screens, a reimagined lobby and a rooftop bar. Construction will hopefully be complete next summer.
The Loft Cinema has been a staple in Tucson for over 50 years. To learn more, visit loftcinema.org.
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