The Anchorage International Film Festival has joined some lofty company. The festival, which will hold its 23rd rendition this winter, has joined the Sundance Film Festival and SXSW, among others, in Movie Maker Magazine’s list of “The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World.”
The list was published earlier this month and the Anchorage festival’s inclusion was both a surprise and delight to festival co-director Ida Theresa Myklebost.
“We are shocked and ecstatic,” she said in a statement. “Our festival doesn’t run on much money, it runs on blood, sweat and tears — and a whole lot of enthusiasm from our awesome local audiences, filmmakers and supporters.
“Today is a day of celebration, for all of Anchorage and Alaska. Today we celebrate everything we have come together to build up over these past 23 years at AIFF.”
Movie Maker’s Tim Molloy wrote the festival is a great place for both audiences and filmmakers with “a strong list of films from all over the world, with an emphasis on independent filmmaking in Alaska.
“We listed Anchorage as one of our 20 Great Film Festivals for First-Time Filmmakers last year not only because of its coolness, but also because of its supportive ratio of submitted-to-accepted films, which means you have a decent chance of getting in with a strong project.”
Submissions are now open for this year’s Anchorage International Film Festival, which runs from Dec. 1-9.