The Orlando Urban Film Festival is underway at the CMX Cinemas in Downtown Orlando, with its awards ceremony Saturday night at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. There are celebrity guests, live performances, and 80 films along the way.
Festival Director and Curator Timothy Starks said OUFF stands out as a film fest because its guiding principles include emphasizing collaboration over competition and highlighting diverse artists, both established and emerging.
“They're submitting to an urban festival, which for them means city, community, diversity,” said Starks. “If you think about it, the urban areas are the most diverse. I liken it to a Jazz Festival. When you go to a Jazz Festival, everybody goes there. You don't just see Black jazz musicians, you see musicians of all colors and races. That is urban to us. So our urban philosophy is community, it’s diversity, and it's sharing cultures between one another.”
Stark said there’s data to support the diversity of OUFF. “Just to give you some numbers, 35 to 40% of directors are Black in the festival, then another 25-30% are white, and then the rest were mixed up between Latinos and Asians,” Starks noted. “We represent the global urban community at its best.”
This year is the festival’s 11th anniversary, and the event has grown exponentially. Since last year, OUFF has doubled in size, with 80 films being shown at CMX Cinemas, and then an awards ceremony on Saturday night, August 31st, across the street at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Among the celebrities appearing this year is Emmy Award winning actor, Glynn Turman, who got his start on Broadway but is better known for roles in The Wire, Cooley High, and Fargo.
Starks says he’s very excited about one of the festival’s world premieres. “I begged for it,” he laughs.
It’s called What’s Black About It, and it’s a documentary about Tom Burrell, who created the largest Black-owned advertising agency in the world. Burrell came up with the Marlboro Man, and with using the term “Mickey D’s” for McDonald’s.
Starks noted another documentary, James Hemings. “He’s like the culinary founding godfather of all American cuisine,” said Starks. “And he was a slave.”
Starks says the makers of the Academy-Award winning film The Last Repair Shop surprised him the most. Despite the Oscar win, Stark said, “When we wanted to show it, they said no, we want to be a part of the competition! We want to know what regular folks think…we want to be judged with everybody else.”
Winners will be revealed at Saturday’s award ceremony.
