168 Film Festival will hold its 19th annual awards event November 4th and 5th at The Town Stage at Trilith near Metro Atlanta. The event will include film screenings, discussion panels, a red carpet and VIP after party sponsored by Enzo Italian Steakhouse.
The 168 Film Project is an incubator for writers and filmmakers to explore scripture and to practice their craft. Started in 2003, it challenges filmmakers to draw a random scripture and shoot and edit a short film in just seven days.
“We get entries from all over the world,” says 168 Film Festival founder John David Ware. “What we do is we take a pile of stones in the shape of a cross, and each stone has a hidden Bible verse underneath it. They pick one and that's their filmmaking destiny for the next 17 days. We allow them 10 days of pre-production before they start shooting. They can't write or shoot before they get their verse. Then after 10 days they can start shooting. For production and post it's seven days, so 168 hours.”
Today the competition includes speed films and non-speed films with awards in many different categories. There is a category called Write of Passage , a short screenwriting competition. There’s even animations and an open category which attracted some international entries, from countries like Canada, England and Iran.
Ware says one of the film screenings will be "SuperSpreader," which is a film about an evangelical Christian singer Sean Feucht, who stands up for religious liberties during the COVID-19 lockdowns by holding mass outdoor worship concerts. “We'll have the producer of that film, Michael Malden, and he'll come and watch the film. And then we'll get to talk to him afterwards on the panel discussion.”
Four-time Emmy winner Michael Learned (The Waltons) and actor Kim Estes at 168 Film Festival Awards Show in 2014.
The films are now complete and the judges’ results are under lock and key. “We are going to keep it secret until the award show. And so, there's a lot of excitement based on who won, there’s huge anticipation for the filmmakers as well as their friends, family agents, talent managers, and everybody,” says Ware. “We have all skill levels, anywhere from beginner to expert filmmakers. One of the filmmakers teaches school right here in the Trilith area. He’s a 40-year veteran director and cinematographer named Billy Dickson," Ware explains.
Dickson, who has worked on productions like "Ally McBeal" 1997, "Believe" 2016 and "One Tree Hill" 2003, led a group of students to make this year's 168 film titled, “It’s Not All About Me,” where a high school stud(ent) learns that he is NOT the center of the universe.
"It was a gigantic project. So, there's all different skill levels and we show all the films because wherever someone is on the spectrum of experience, we want to move them forward so they get more experience, they get more confidence, and they make better films and advance their career, on both sides of the camera.”
168 Film Jury 2022 (Clockwise) Cameron Arnett, Gary Hall, Mark Fincannon, Yvette Sams, Leilani Downer, Brian Bird
Judges this year included Yvette Sams, who wrote the currently streaming film "A Royal Surprise" for BET; Brian Bird, a writer producer from "When Calls The Heart" and "The Case for Christ;" Leilani Downer has worked on "Hanging with Mr. Cooper," the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and Netflix’s "Julie and the Phantoms;" Gary Hall is the founder of Hollywood Impact Studios, which teaches ex-convicts the art of filmmaking. He's also a writer, producer and former senior VP of Fox TV post production; and Casting director Mark Fincannon, who recently worked on "The Resident," a film called "Genius," "The Wonder Years," and "The Blind Side," which won an Academy Award for best actress, Sandra Bullock.
John David Ware presents the Faith, Hope and Love Award to "Unplanned" actress Ashley Bratcher in 2018
Also judging was John David Ware himself who directed the film Unbridled with Eric Roberts and TC Stallings. He also produced a film called "Final Frequency," which is 168’s first feature film production. In 2017, 168 gave away a feature-film budget as a prize and the contest winners, Rachel Lowry and Director Tim Lowry, graduated from shorts to making feature films.
Ware would like people to know that this competition has changed many hearts and makes for extreme creativity and it always results in fireworks. “Amazing things have happened with the verses that are connected with these films. One guy, whose son had died, recognized his assigned verse. It was the same verse that was on his son's tombstone. One girl in particular was planning to kill herself and then she heard about this project and she thought, ‘Oh, I want to try filmmaking before I kill myself.’ She got on a set and people were kind to her. And not only did she decide not to kill herself, but she also became a believer.”
The tickets are available at 168film.com/tickets and award nominations can be found at https://www.168film.com/festival/nominations-awards.
