FilmColumbia Returns to Chatham for 23rd Annual Festival

FilmColumbia will return for its 23rd year to the Crandell Theatre in Chatham, NY for a selection of this year’s top features, documentaries, and short films. The event will feature many Columbia County-based filmmakers, live Q+As, and the annual FilmColumbia Kick-Off Party. 

The festival will feature widely anticipated films such as Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s animated masterpiece, The Boy and the Heron, as well as director Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, a ghost story starring Claire Foy, Andrew Scott, and Paul Mescal.

New York native Scott Cohen (Gilmore Girls, Billions) will star in the breakout comedy The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed. The debut feature from writer, director, and star Joanna Arnow will be screened alongside a Q+A from Arnow and Cohen on Friday, October 27.

We tried to show as much good local talent this year as possible. We recognize their strength in our community and celebrate the abundance of talent in our region—proving how essential it is to keep our historic single-screen cinema open and refreshed so they may continue to show their works in a place that is welcoming, and well, ideal.

Co-Artistic Director Laurence Kardish

Staten Island’s own Joan Baez will be the subject of I Am A Noise, a documentary showing a glimpse of Baez’s life and psyche during the 60s. Co-directed by Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle, and Karen O’Connor, the film will screen at FilmColumbia on October 25, followed by a Q&A with fellow New Yorkers Navasky and O’Connor.

During FilmColumbia’s opening weekend, producers and founders of Killer Films, Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler, will be honored for their vast and pioneering bodies of work. As frequent collaborators with director Todd Haynes (May December, Carol), they have constituted a leading force in independent cinema for over 30 years. The festival will screen three Killer Films productions on October 21: Camp (2003) at 11 am, I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) at 1 pm, and May December, the latest from Haynes, at 3 pm. In addition, a Q+A with the producers will directly follow the last screening.

The FilmColumbia Kick-Off Party will take place on October 21 from 6-8pm, hosted at the Spencertown, NY home of Jack Shear, a Crandell Theatre benefactor. Vachon and Koffler will also be recognized and celebrated at the Kick-Off.