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Fort Myers Film Festival opens April 10 with red carpet gala at Davis Art Center

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The 9th Annual Fort Myers Film Festival descends on sunny, beautiful Southwest Florida April 10-14, 2019. With historic venues, dozens of exceptional independent films and numerous meet-and-greet/photo opportunities, this year’s festival promises to be more exciting, more glitzy and more fun than ever before.

One big departure associated with this year’s FMff is the venue for the April 10 black-tie red-carpet opening night gala. This year, it will be held in the palatial 86-year-old Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center smack dab in the middle of the historic downtown Fort Myers River District.

With its entrance sandwiched between dual-drum bronze Jim Sanborn light sculptures and waiting atop a short flight of limestone steps, the doors open at 5:00 p.m. for cocktails and musical entertainment. With photo ops and paparazzi at every turn, the Davis Art Center’s cavernous grand atrium is the perfect place to mix and mingle with the legion of local and international filmmakers who will be on hand for the opening night festivities.

Then at 7:00 p.m., the festival gets under way with A Man and His Trumpet: The Leroy Jones Story, directed by Cameron Washington. Both Mr. Washington and featured jazz trumpeter Leroy Jones will be in the house for the film and a post-screening audience talk-back.

The much-anticipated, always appreciated After-Party follows the screening and Q&A. This year, it will include a fabulous full jazz concert featuring Mr. Jones, a fully-stocked bar, and a chance to meet with the stars of the evening’s film, other filmmakers and event VIPs.

Tickets are $25 for the movie only or $150 for the movie and Red Carpet After-Party.

The event, which also features a delicious culinary experience compliments of G3 catering, will benefit the Raddatz Foundation and Florida Arts Inc. [Watch last year’s video here to get a feel for the fun and excitement of opening night.]

The programming begins at 9:00 the next morning and continues through April 14 at venues that include not only the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, but the Edison & Ford Winter Estates (for an under-the-stars screening of the iconic 1903 Black Maria silent movie The Great Train Robbery, a new documentary by Main Sail videographer Ilene Safron, A Tale of Two Halgrims, and Coach by popular homegrown filmmaker Jordan Axelrod), the IMAG History & Science Center (for a film about a movement of young girls and women relentlessly pursuing their passion for aviation), the Alliance for the Arts (for Eliades Ochoa from Cuba to the World documenting the life of the Buena Vista Social Club founder) and the Rush Library on the Lee campus of Florida SouthWestern State College.

Films are $10 throughout the festival.

The 9th Annual Fort Myers Film Festival wraps up on Sunday night, April 14, with a climatic 7:00 p.m. champagne and dessert awards presentation at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre at 1380 Colonial Boulevard. That’s where FMff will honor the winners in multiple categories and show one of the award-winning films. In another FMff first, the festival will confer its inaugural Fort Myers Film Festival Edison Award recognizing distinct innovation and invention in film. Tickets are only $15.

The Fort Myers Film Festival is an intelligent independent filmmaker’s preferred event that strives to create, unite and showcase the finest artistic cinematic works. The Fort Myers Film Festival is known for world-class swagger and support of local filmmakers. The festival event offers ‘the most vibrant intellectual and edgy crowd to grace Lee County in decades.’ The event has featured hundreds of local filmmakers and is a must attend for cineastes who love indie film and film festivals living in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties. That’s right, Fort Myers has a film festival now, so come out for the excitement!

The Fort Myers Film Festival supports Lee County Schools filmmakers, Raddatz Foundation, Florida Arts Inc. and Golisano’s Children’s Hospital. It is proudly sponsored by UNIT A, Florida Weekly, Bennett’s Fresh Roast Coffee, Twisted Vine Bistro, Blu Sushi, J. Bert Davis M.D., F.A.C.S, Facial Surgeon, La Trattoria, Cafe Napole, Sam Galloway Ford, Black Tie Tuxedos, Best Western Waterfront, Riverside Realty, Blu Sushi, Douglas E. Spiegel. P.A., Capone’s Pizza, and Kearns Restaurant Group.

For more information go to www.fortmyersfilmfestival.com or join www.facebook.com/fortmyersfilmfestival for updates and events. TO GET VIP TICKETS for the whole season to see everything head to http://fortmyersfilmfestival.ticketleap.com/.

To buy tickets go to www.sbdac.com. If you are looking for photos head to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fortmyersfilmfestival.

�The Fort Myers Film Festival was awarded the prestigious 2015 Chrysalis Award for Cultural Achievement by the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau and the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce Inc. at their annual Celebration of Business & Tourism Awards Luncheon and Trade Show at the Harborside Event Center in downtown Fort Myers.

March 7, 2019.

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