By Mick Dillon / The Jambar
Youngstown Film Festival hosted its third annual event from noon to 9 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Chase Tower in downtown Youngstown.
Founder and Director Adam Michael has been hosting the festival since its inception in 2021.
Michael said he is passionate about preserving the arts community in Youngstown, and felt there would be no better way to do so than to bring a film festival to the city.
“This was a record year for us. We had over 300 films submitted this year,” Michael said.
The cinematic event featured a variety of films from all over the country. Genres ranged anywhere from comedy to horror.
Some categories awarded were:
- Best Micro-Budget Film: “The End” directed by Jeremie Musyt.
- Best First Time Filmmaker: Johnny Lam, for “American Bison: Winter.”
- Best LGBTQ+ Film: “Emerald City” directed by Josef Steiff.
- Best Youngstown Area Film: “Gemini” directed by Nicole Ice.
- Best Feature Film: “Aretha On Everest” directed by Tatiana Lohmann and Roberta Estrela D’Alva.
“We try to reward people that are coming from different backgrounds and have different budgets to work with. We don’t want to exclude anybody,” Michael said.
Youngstown Film Festival saw applications from all spectrums of the film industry. There were films spanning from a $100 budget to films with over a $500k budget.
Along with drawing submissions from all over the country, the Youngstown Film Festival highlights local talent with their category of Best Youngstown Area Film.
“This is an amazing community,” Michael said. “Tons of really artistic people are in this area.”
As far as the locations go, the Chase Tower is a change of pace from past festivals. Michael has held the Youngstown Film Festival in a different location each of its three years and hopes to settle into a permanent location in the future.
“We are looking for, eventually, a permanent home but I also like going to different spaces around the city… and highlighting different areas,” Michael said.
Michael said he looks forward to growing the event and urges people to be on the lookout for next year’s festival.
