The Chapel Hill-based Film Fest 919 wrapped up its 2022 showcase on Sunday, capping off a full five days of blockbuster, international and indie film screenings.
The festival, which returned to a full slate of in-theater films for the first time since 2019, ran from Wednesday through Sunday night at the Silverspot Cinema and The Lumina Theater in Chapel Hill.
“We had such a great time with everyone this year and were thrilled to be able to share this incredible lineup with a community of film lovers,” festival founders Randi Emerman and Carol Marshall said in a release after its closing.
As is tradition, audiences at Film Fest 919 voted through the week on their favorite movies screened — and for the second year in a row, a pair of movies split the honor. Emerman and Marshall announced “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “The Quiet Girl” won the festival’s Audience Favorite Award, saying the honor had some “luck of the Irish” flavor since both films are based in Ireland. Festival-goers in 2021 also voted a tie between “King Richard” and “C’mon C’mon” as their favorites.
As is tradition for the festival, the opening night screening was paired with an award to one of the filmmakers. This year, “Devotion” director J.D. Dillard received the first Film Fest 919 Horizon Award. Dillard, whose Korean War drama is set to release in November, attended screenings to accept the award and speaking with audience members. He said it was an honor to screen the project, which details the story of the United States’ first Black naval aviator, in an area with lots of his family nearby.
“I want to thank y’all for letting us do that here,” Dillard said ahead of “Devotion.” “I’m so excited to come here.”
Director J.D. Dillard (center) stands in front of a packed theater ahead of the opening of Film Fest 919 and a screening of his film, “Devotion.” Festival co-founders Carol Marshall (left) and Randi Emerman (right) presented Dillard with the Horizon Award for his efforts on the project.
There’s also a UNC connection to the Sony Pictures film: producer Rachel Smith is an alumna of the Chapel Hill university and participated in the “Devotion” Q&A panel on opening night. She said it was a special project to her as a book adaptation and her journey in Chapel Hill helped develop her interest in making movies.
“The first film I worked on was [from] a book I first read while at Carolina,” Smith said, “which is called ‘P.S. I Love You,’ [and] was my sister Molly’s first film that she produced. So, a lot of my time at Carolina coincided with where I am today.”
Film Fest 919 also shared its Screenwriting Award to Rian Johnson, the writer and director of Netflix’s blockbuster “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” The film, which will be briefly released in theaters before becoming available on the streaming giant, closed the film festival with showings on Sunday night. Johnson, who is travelling for the movie, was unable to accept the award in person, but shared a brief video message with Film Fest 919 and its audience ahead of “Glass Onion.”
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