Cinetopia Film Festival is Back With New Partnerships and Films

By: Karen Dybis | May 1, 2019
Three men on stage at film festival, having a panel conversation

Photo courtesy of Cinetopia Film Festival

Cinetopia Film Festival is kicking off their 8th annual film festival in the Metro Detroit area. Even though in years passed, the majority of the films have been located in the heart of Ann Arbor at the historic Michigan Theater, with additional screenings in Detroit. This year the locations will also include Dearborn, Royal Oak and Bloomfield Township.

Cinetopia Detroit Festival Coordinator, Ted Houser states, “The festival started 8 years ago and they wanted to start expanding into the Detroit metro area, with the 10 day festival featuring 62 films.” Houser, who is also a filmmaker joined the Cinetopia team this year specifically to create a larger reach for communities such as Detroit.

This film festival is not just about films and filmmaking. It’s important to Cinetopia to engage with the community though conversations with filmmakers. For attendees, returning and new alike, all will be able to dive deep into the world of film. There will be a panel of heavy hitter film makers available to answer questions of up and coming  hungry filmmakers and screenwriters.

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Audience at film festival applauding

Photo courtesy of Cinetopia Film Festival

“The panels will feature distribution stories along with the panel discussions of film makers. They will be discussing the aspirations for those interested in independent information on distribution in Hollywood. People who have had their work distributed through self-distribution like the team behind The Russian Five is a good example of that,” Says Houser.

Detroit Voices is a short film competition of local Michigan filmmakers. This platform allows them to demonstrate and express their creative side. The competition is open to all located in Michigan of all ages. There is no theme for the films this year, but Houser says, “There are more serious films this year.” Detroit Voices will be showing two sets of films on May 16th at the Senate Theater.

Even though this is a local film festival, the films are from all over the country with films from  Sundance and Toronto Film Festival to name a few. This year there are new pass options available for attendees to make their viewing experience flawless and stress free. Cinetopia has partnered with Arab Film Festival and University of Michigan’s Annual Symposium, who are both returning partnerships. This year the Ann Arbor Jewish Film Festival is a new partnership created. For more information on films, filmmakers and events at Cinetopia May 10th-19th, check out  www.cinetopiafestival.org.

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