Maryland Film Festival Blog

You’ve asked for it, you’ve got it: When MFF goes public with its line-up in early April, you’ll see 10 or more foreign features included!

MFF has always prided itself on bringing a filmmaker host for each feature film it screens — a director, writer, star, cinematographer, editor, or producer attending every screening, introducing their film and fielding your questions.

This year, we decided to do things a little differently. Every domestic feature we screen will still have a filmmaker host, and some of the foreign films will have filmmakers present, but we’re not going to pass on an exceptional foreign film just because the filmmaker can’t attend.

Why the change? We’re laying a foundation for future years. By devoting a significant portion of our line-up this year to foreign films regardless of whether or not the filmmaker can attend, we’re setting a goal for the near future, envisioning an MFF with the audience, budget, and international reputation needed to bring in filmmakers for every single feature we screen — even if the director lives and works in Senegal, Switzerland, or South Korea.

We’re not ready to announce titles for MFF 2009 quite yet, but I can say that this year’s line-up will be MFF’s most diverse thus far, connecting audiences with the visions of artists from all over the world (rest assured that when we say foreign films, we don’t just mean European films!).

Since cutting-edge international cinema is one of my passions, I couldn’t be more excited to see MFF heading in this direction. If, like me, you’re a foreign-film addict, please vote with your attendance! With your help, we can make MFF a destination festival for the audiences, critics, distributors, and, of course, the filmmakers who keep international film culture alive!

–Eric Hatch, Programming Administrator, MFF