Sidewalk Film Festival announces Feature Film Lineup

Sidewalk Film Festival have announced their opening and closing night selections, special presentations, features, and tons more!

The 23rd Sidewalk Film Festival will take place August 23-29 in Birmingham with an opening night screening of Jeff Daniels’ Television Event, and closing night screening of Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe’s The Beta Test.

A press release from Sidewalk Film Fest read,

The Opening Night selection on Friday, August 27 will be Jeff Daniels’ documentary Television Event. The film looks at the build up to ABC’s broadcast of The Day After, a made-for-TV movie about the aftermath of a nuclear war on a small Kansas town. The film was watched by more than 100 million viewers, which made it the highest-rated made-for-TV film in history. The landmark cultural event came about following weeks of buildup and controversy extending all the way to a White House in the midst of a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.
Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe’s The Beta Test will be the Closing Night screening. The horror-comedy follows a married Hollywood agent, who participates in an anonymous sexual encounter after receiving a purple envelope from an unknown person. The encounter leads him down a rabbit hole filled with lies, cheating, and…death at the hands of boyfriends, girlfriends, and spouses who have been cheated on.

Other special events include special roundtables and panels built around classics, beloved films, and anniversary screenings like Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, John Heyn and Jeff Krulik’s Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise, and Chris Columbus’ beloved Mrs. Doubtfire accompanied by a live performance of the film’s score by DJ Hollywood!

Sidewalk Film Festival Creative Director and Lead Programmer, Rachel Morgan, said,

We are beyond excited to be back downtown for Sidewalk 2021! We believe that we've crafted a balanced line-up filled with the best, recent, theatre-worthy indie films spanning all genres, along with the occasional throwback and special event. It's been quite a couple of years and we think the 23rd annual Sidewalk schedule reflects such in a variety of ways - from provoking thought to celebrating humanity to providing an opportunity for shared commiseration. As always we also have a lot of surprises planned, after all, everyone is overdue for a super fun week (with safety in mind, of course); we hope you're as excited as we are!

Passes are on sale now to the 23rd Sidewalk Film Festival. Get yours here and check out the full online schedule of events.