Denver’s own storytellers are getting their moment on the big screen. Denver Film has unveiled the Colorado Spotlight lineup for the 49th Denver Film Festival, taking place October 22 through November 1 across the metro area — and it’s a love letter to the Centennial State. Nineteen films with direct ties to Colorado made the cut: eight features, six documentary shorts and five narrative shorts, screening at venues including the Sie FilmCenter, the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater.
The lineup celebrates remarkable Colorado stories, from a bilateral-amputee climber’s record-breaking attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, to Denver neighbors rallying around newly arrived Venezuelan migrants, to a madcap Colorado road-trip comedy. The beloved True Grit Award also returns as a juried prize for the best Colorado-produced feature, carrying a $2,500 cash prize from the Colorado Office of Film, Television & Media. And in a wonderful touch for the next generation, Denver Film and Amazon are bringing free festival screenings to Denver-area students. A hometown festival celebrating hometown voices — it doesn’t get better than that.
Photo: Jeffrey Beall / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
