{"id":119959,"date":"2022-05-26T07:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=119959"},"modified":"2022-05-26T00:13:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T05:13:55","slug":"the-2023-oxford-film-festival-announces-new-leadership-and-call-for-entries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/the-2023-oxford-film-festival-announces-new-leadership-and-call-for-entries\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2023 Oxford Film Festival Announces New Leadership and Call for Entries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Popular local film festival will take place March 1-5, 2023<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

OxFilm <\/strong>will head into its 20th<\/sup>\u00a0Anniversary year with new leadership and a renewed vision for Mississippi <\/strong>filmmaking, and film watching. The prestigious film festival has also announced its Call for Entries<\/strong> for next year\u2019s edition. The event will take place in Oxford, Mississippi<\/strong>,\u00a0March 1-5, 2023.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OxFilm <\/strong>announced Oxford Film Festival<\/strong>\u2019s new Executive Director<\/strong> is Matt Wymer<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Wymer is a\u00a0filmmaker and\u00a0comedian who moved from Canada <\/strong>to Mississippi<\/strong> at the age of 5.\u00a0While attending\u00a0high\u00a0school in Oxford,\u00a0Matt would spend many late nights at The Hoka<\/strong> enjoying all the\u00a0music,\u00a0art,\u00a0and\u00a0movies it had to offer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Wymer, a long-time Oxford resident and OXFF alum, said,\u00a0“I’m so amped to be able to serve the Oxford creative community in this way. We are going to have fun supporting the arts!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hoka Theatre owner Ron Shapiro with Matt Wymer.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Since Oxford Film Festival’s founding in 2003,\u00a0Matt has attended, volunteered,\u00a0and\u00a0competed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A classic story of someone who came up through the ranks, experiencing the film festival\u00a0first\u00a0as a film fan,\u00a0then as a\u00a0volunteer,\u00a0Wymer eventually joined the staff and\u00a0worked\u00a0within multiple departments for the film festival. This year, Matt produced\u00a0the popular parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his combined love of Oxford, local communities, and the film festival,\u00a0Wymer is suited to\u00a0lead this festival into the\u00a020th\u00a0Anniversary presentation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ox-Film President Steven Case and Matt Wymer. Photograph by Joey Brent.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Oxford Film Festival has established itself over the past two decades as a cultural and creative beacon in the state of Mississippi, with grants awarded from the National Endowment of the Arts<\/strong> as part of its Grants for Arts Projects<\/strong> (GAP) \u2013 Media Arts for this year, the Mississippi Arts Commission<\/strong> (MAC), and the Mississippi Arts Commission<\/strong> (MAC) Grant via the National Endowment of the Arts in recognition of its artistic standing and impact locally in in the state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Oxford Film Festival began with a raucous Opening Night screening of Hugo Sobelman<\/strong>\u2019s Soul Kids <\/em><\/strong>which brought Memphis <\/strong>to town (as the film festival frequently does) including a performance by the 926 Stax Music Academy Alumni Band<\/strong>, and music was one of many highlights this year, with performances prior to a number of screenings and the return of the festival\u2019s long partnership with Thacker Mountain Radio<\/strong>. The festival wrapped with an appearance by indie-music icon Suzanne Vega<\/strong> with the screening of her film Lover, Beloved<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, red carpets were a hit with the filmmakers who flocked to Oxford for the film festival, as was the infusion of creatively themed parties and special panel events throughout the film festival including\u00a0a \u201cRoaring 20’s Celebration\u201d, \u201cCasino Royale Party\u201d, and “Songwriters in the Round”, produced by The Local Voice<\/em><\/strong> Publisher Newt Rayburn<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, no event epitomized the spirit and soul of the Oxford Film Festival more than the Tribute to Bill Luckett<\/strong>. The nearly sold-out event celebrated the life of the beloved Mississippi film producer, actor, businessman, arts supporter, former mayor of Clarksdale<\/strong>, and ubiquitous presence in the community.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call for Entries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Submissions can be made at https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/festival\/OxfordFilmFestival<\/a> and more information is available at www.oxfordfilmfest.com<\/a>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Submission Deadlines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Early Bird: July 15, 2022
\u00b7       Regular: September 15, 2022
\u00b7       Late: November 15, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Oxford Film Festival<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Oxford Film Festival was founded in 2003 to bring exciting, new, and unusual films (and the people who create them) to North Mississippi. The annual five-day festival screens short and feature-length films in both showcase and competition settings. The festival is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization. For more information, visit www.oxfordfilmfest.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Popular local film festival will take place March 1-5, 2023 OxFilm will head into its 20th\u00a0Anniversary year with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":119961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[321,12],"tags":[21533,21534,7576,5,21535,4,1409,21536,4684],"class_list":["post-119959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-localfestivals","category-local-film","tag-executive-director","tag-justina-walford","tag-matt-wymer","tag-mississippi","tag-ox-film-2","tag-oxford","tag-ron-shapiro","tag-steven-case","tag-the-hoka"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RonShapiro-MattWymer.jpg?fit=1471%2C1471&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}