Planning a film festival is no small feat, but it can be an effective way to foster interest in a destination. Visit Knoxville President Kim Bumpas knows this because she has been a driving force behind the organizing of this year’s Film Fest Knox, which will be held Nov. 14-17 at the Regal Riviera movie theater in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Bumpas says Visit Knoxville launched the festival last year in partnership with the Visit Knoxville Film Office and movie theater chain Regal to promote the city to visitors and filmmakers alike. This year, the organization hopes to spring from the event’s initial success and build upon it. “This is our second year, and we’re so excited about it because we set the bar so high in 2023 that we are really looking forward to delivering on that while adding a lot of new events to it,” she says. Add-ons to this year’s festival include an opening night film screening, opening night party, closing night party at Scruffy City Hall, and a VIP reception at local venue The Vault.
The lineup this year includes about 40 films, a combination of feature-length films and shorts. Categories include American Regional, International Currents, Revival, and Made in Tennessee. The American Regional Cinema Competition is the centerpiece of the festival, which this year includes five films that spotlight the diversity and quality of work being made outside of New York City and Los Angeles, California. The winner of the American Regional Cinema Competition receives an Oscar-qualifying run at Regal theaters.
Bumpas says strong partnerships such as the one with Regal have been instrumental to putting all the components together. “Regal has been our number one partner, right out of the gate,” she says. “And it’s such a blessing that we have Regal headquartered right here in Knoxville, Tennessee.” The Public Cinema is another major festival partner, an organization focused on sharing vital works of contemporary film that might be otherwise overlooked by Knoxville audiences. Filmmaker Paul Harrill and film critic and writer Darren Hughes are its co-founders, and have played huge roles in orchestrating Film Fest Knox. “They bring a lot to the table when it comes to aspects like building out the features and the movies and the shorts and how we’re going to get the jurors and all those kinds of things that go into a film festival,” Bumpas says. Visit Knoxville also partners with education and crowdfunding organization Seed & Spark, based in Atlanta, Georgia, which will present a session on creating successful film budgets called “Stretch That Buck: Film Budgeting 101” at this year’s festival.
Visit Knoxville solicits and books over 200 events per year for future years, while partnering and hosting over 350 events itself each year—Bumpas says it is this kind of event-producing know-how combined with the potential to highlight all that Knoxville has to offer that make putting on Film Fest Knox a no-brainer. “We’re producing the film festival part and doing it well by following best models, looking at what other destinations are doing within the space, and above and beyond that is using it as a recruitment tool. We’re thinking about how we can up that opportunity to tell our story on why you should visit Knoxville through the film office, and why you should bring your next production to Knoxville.”
Bumpas says the biggest hurdles to overcome in producing the film festival have been securing funding and ensuring films presented represent a diversity of genres, interests, and levels of work. But she also says it has been very rewarding. “I think the most fun that I’ve had is just seeing it come together, really seeing the local community and the local community of filmmakers come out and the brotherhood that exists there, and being able to deliver on their experience.”
The fun begins Thursday, Nov. 14, with the VIP event at The Vault at 5 p.m., followed by the Elev8or Pitch Competition at 7 p.m. at the Regal Riviera.
