On March 20, 2019, the marquee at the entrance of the Enzian Theatre welcomed guests with “Florida Film Festival 2019 Program Announcement” spelled across it in bold black letters.
The Florida Film Festival is an annual international film festival that has been celebrated by Enzian for 28 years. As an international film festival, films from a diverse pool of producers and directors are screened at the theatre. The festival will be paying homage to UCF-born film, The Blair Witch Project. Celebrities have also been a part of the festival; award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn being a famous figure who attended the event in 2018.
The party began at the lobby, where a buffet, a popcorn bar, and a refreshments bar were decked with complimentary snacks. The guests filed in and proceeded to the theatre hall where the screen portrayed graphic design pieces and the logos of the organizations supporting the event, specifically Full Sail University.
The Enzian theatre offers a more intimate atmosphere when compared with the commercial theatre due to it being single-screened and supported solely by its members. It usually showcases movies that have been long gone from the big screen, which adds to the theatre’s uniqueness.
The first trailer to fill the screen was for the opening night film Woman in Motion, a documentary about the story of Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Lieutenant Uhura from Star Trek, and her achievements in recruiting women and people pertaining to minorities to the space exploration field.
The films and shorts are divided into categories. Some of these categories include 5 X Real, which are documentaries that are considered as the staff favorites, Animated Shorts, International Showcase, Family Films, Florida Films, and Midnight Movies, which contain material not advised for children to view them. Some films under these categories are Pickle Man, Las Del Diente, Mother’s Instinct, Minuscule – Mandibles from Far Away, Marching Forward, and Dachra.
The 2019 Florida Film Festival will begin Apr. 12 and will end Apr. 21. Some of the films will be also screened at Regal Theatres in select dates and times.
