Cucalorus Film Festival

The Cucalorus Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is one of the largest film festivals in the U.S. South and recognized as a destination film festival for indie filmmakers.[1] MovieMaker magazine recognizes it as "one of the coolest film festivals in the world", and "one of 50 film festivals worth the entry fee".[2][3] The Brooks Institute named it one of the top ten film festivals in the nation.[4]

Cucalorus Film Festival
LocationWilmington, North Carolina, U.S.
Founded1994
LanguageInternational
Websitewww.cucalorus.org

Dan Brawley is currently the head ("chief instigator") of the festival.[5][6]

Jengo's Playhouse in Wilmington, NC during Cucalorus Film Festival 2021

Purpose

The Cucalorus Film Festival presents around 150 independent films each year, often controversial, and putting an emphasis on supporting films directed by women and by people of color. The festival also showcases performance art, fringe-style theatre and panels about social justice.[7][8][9][10]

History

The festival was founded in 1994 by independent filmmaker collective Twinkle Doon. The first official Cucalorus was one standing-room-only night of locally-made indie films dubbed "An Evening of Celluloid Art: a film festival for open minds." Since then, the event expanded to multiple venues in Wilmington and became a permanent fixture in the arts calendar of the town.[11][12]

The event grew into an interdisciplinary foundation[13] supporting innovation in film, arts and performance and business with programming throughout the year.[14][15][16][17]

Aaron Hillis is one of the festival programmers and curates the "Convulsions" genre program since 2013.[18][19]

The festival's name is a reference to the term "cucoloris."

References
  1. "Cucalorus Film Festival is worth a road trip to Wilmington; in: CLture (Bradley Bethel); October 29, 2017". 29 October 2017. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  2. "Moviemaker Magazine: Film Festival of the Week: Cucalorus; by Tim Molloy (May 22, 2021)". 22 May 2021. Archived from the original on November 5, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  3. "Moviemaker Magazine: "The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World 2021, Presented by FilmFreeway"; July 28, 2021". 28 July 2021. Archived from the original on October 14, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  4. "Cucalorus Film Festival Shares Ranks With Sundance"; in: Wilmington Biz, 2010
  5. "November Executive Spotlight: Dan Brawley, Chief Instigating Officer - Cucalorus"; in: NCTech, 1 November 2018
  6. "Cucalorus Film Festival Fosters Beautiful, Diverse Community of Art Lovers through Four Days of Movies, Music, & Dance"; in: CVNC, 14 November 2021
  7. IndieWire: "How the Cucalorus Film Festival Survived 20 Years" Archived 2021-04-14 at the Wayback Machine, article by Shawna Kenney; November 19, 2014
  8. "VisitNC, Cucalorus Film Festival". Archived from the original on 2021-08-01. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  9. "Filmmaker Magazine; Winter 2017" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  10. "MovieMaker: Dan Brawley and Aaron Hillis (Cucalorus Film Festival)" (in MovieMaker; November 18, 2020)
  11. "8 things to see at the Cucalorus Fest", by John Staton; Wilmington StarNews, 11 November 2021
  12. "Cucalorus Film Festival to begin next week", WECT, 7 November 2022
  13. Cucalorus grants 2021
  14. "Cucalorus Film Festival Rumbles into 27th year with Racer Trash, Porcupine, Giving Birth to A Butterfly and more; in: WAGM TV; October 15, 2021". Archived from the original on November 5, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  15. ""Cucalorus Film Festival in Downtown Wilmington Features New Venues"; in: The Pilot; August 10, 2021". Archived from the original on August 28, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  16. "WECT News, Ashlea Kosikowski, April 29, 2021". Archived from the original on April 29, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  17. ""Paving The Way: Cucalorus continues to evolve, welcomes live music and Superchunk to the stage"; in: Encore, August 6, 2018". Archived from the original on February 20, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  18. "Convulsing Cucalorus: Curator Aaron Hillis talks about the Convulsions block of movies at the 21st film festival" (Encore, 2015)
  19. "MovieMaker: Dan Brawley and Aaron Hillis (Cucalorus Film Festival)" (in MovieMaker; November 18, 2020)
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