The 19th Annual Virginia Film Festival, held from Oct. 26-29 set an attendance record this year, with a total turnout of almost 15,000 people over the course of the festival.
This annual program is presented by the College of Arts & Science and is sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy.
John Kelly, publicist for the Virginia Film Festival, said he was pleased by this year's turnout.
"This is a gratifying result," he said.
He added that visitors seemed to take an interest in many of the different film genres, including documentaries, and that 32 performances were sold out.
Richard Herskowitz, artistic director of the festival, said he credited the event's central theme of religion as the reason for high attendance.
"Religion is a topical issue that captures attention from a large audience," Herskowitz said.
The film festival featured the appearances of several noted actors and directors. Robert Duvall, actor and director of the movie 'The Apostle' was present during the screening of the film Friday. Morgan Freeman also came to introduce his film "10 Items or Less," and Liev Schreiber introduced "Everything is illuminated" which was his debut as a director.
"The celebrities engaged the audience even more and gave them opportunities to discuss [the] movies with the experts," Herskowitz said.
Christina Tkacik, an intern working for the Virginia Film Festival, said she believed the greatest success of the film festival was inviting guests such as Robert Duvall and David Edelstein, a film critic writer from New York Magazine.
Herskowitz said with this year's high attendance, the committee hopes to initiate another successful event next year to mark the 20th anniversary of the Virginia Film Festival.
-- Editor's note: Tkacik formerly served as a
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
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