# Port Townsend Film Festival

The Port Townsend Film Festival a nonprofit organization which presents films and film festivals, supports and nurtures filmmakers, and hosts educational and artistic programming through and about the medium of film.
PTFF is a multi-faceted Festival held in mid-September each year with 5-8 indoor theatres screening 50-70 films in Port Townsend's walkable National Historic District. Port Townsend, Washington, United States). Port Townsend is at the end of a peninsula surrounded by Port Townsend Bay, Admiralty Inlet and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is adjacent to Olympic National Park.
Theatres include the beautifully restored vaudevillian-era Rose Theatre and crystal-chandeliered "Starlight Room," with views of the snow-peaked Cascade mountains. Additional theatres are "created" in downtown buildings for the three-day weekend by installing large screens, projectors and state-of-the-art sound. Theatre seating ranges from 45 to 250.
Independent documentary and narrative film submissions are accepted from January–April, and are evaluated by a team of 34 reviewers. The Festival charges a small fee for submissions.
PTFF's mission is "Sparking community through film." Between 40-60 filmmakers attend the Festival annually to meet audiences, network with other filmmakers, and participate in Q&A after their screenings. Filmmaker panel discussions, workshops and other learning events are included in the PTFF Forum.
The Festival invites 200 volunteers to assist with managing the Festival. PTFF operates year-round with a full-time staff of four, and is supported by donors, local business sponsors and pass sales.
The most popular gathering place between films during the Festival is the Festival Lounge, housed in a small building adjacent to the city dock, overlooking Port Townsend Bay.
The City closes off one block of Taylor Street (between Water and Washington Streets) in downtown Port Townsend during the Festival to house the Outdoor Lounge and to accommodate the Outdoor Movie, which begins at dusk (7:30 p.m.), Friday, Saturday and Sunday. PTFF offers a free family-friendly film each night. The Outdoor Movie is projected onto a gigantic inflatable screen, nicknamed after the orca whale Keiko, with limited seating on wood benches. Bringing a chair is encouraged.
Pass sales range from a 3-Pass ($42) to Patron Pass with all-access benefits ($750). There's a pass for every film enthusiast.
The full Fall Festival schedule, links to film trailers and synopsis are posted in August at http:// ptfilm.org

## Noteworthy guests

The following actors, directors, screenwriters, producers, critics and authors have made appearances at PTFF. This is by no means a complete listing:
* 2000
** Actor Tony Curtis
** Film Historian Robert Osborne
* 2001
** Actress Eva Marie Saint
** Actor Vincent Schiavelli
* 2002
** Actress Patricia Neal
** Screenwriter Stewart Stern (Rebel Without a Cause, The Ugly American)
* 2003
** Actress Shirley Knight
** Actor / Director Peter Fonda
** Actress Verna Bloom
** Film critic / Screenwriter Jay Cocks
** Screenwriter Stewart Stern (Rebel Without a Cause)
** Director Mark Decena (Dopamine (film))
** Actor John Livingston (Dopamine (film))
* 2004
** Actress Jane Powell
** Former Child Actor Dickie Moore
** Writer Tom Robbins
** Director Zana Briski (Academy Award winner Born into Brothels)
** Actor Tshewang Dendup (Travellers and Magicians)
* 2005
** Actress Debra Winger
** Actor / Director Arliss Howard
** Mountaineer Jim Whittaker
* 2006
** Actor Malcolm McDowell
** Actress Greta Gerwig (LOL (2006 film))
** Director Joe Swanberg (LOL (2006 film))
** Producer Mike Kaplan (The Whales of August)
** Filmmaker Linda Hattendorf (The Cats of Mirikitani)
* 2007
** Actor Elliott Gould
** Actress Melissa Leo
** Director Charles Burnett
** Poet Billy Collins
* 2008
** Actress Piper Laurie
** Writer / Producer Sherman Alexie
* 2009
** Actress Cloris Leachman
** Author Gail Buckley (Daughter of Lena Horne)
* 2010
** Actress / Director Dyan Cannon
** Radio Host Sedge Thomson
* 2011
** Actor / Screenwriter / Director Buck Henry
** Film Critic Moira MacDonald (The Seattle Times)
* 2012
** Actor Bruce Dern
** Actress / Singer Chely Wright
** Composer / Keyboardist Wayne Horvitz
** Radio Host Sedge Thomson
* 2013
** Actress Karen Allen
** Mountaineer Lou Whittaker
** Film Critic Robert Horton
* 2014
** Director / Writer John Sayles
** Producer Maggie Renzi
** Filmmaker Lynn Shelton
** Director / Writer Ari Seth Cohen
** Author Daniel James Brown
** Film Critic Robert Horton
* 2015
** Actor Beau Bridges
** Actor Chris Cooper
** Actress / Writer Marianne Leone Cooper
** Director Ali Selim
** Producer Jim Bigham Sweet Land
* 2016
** Actor / Writer Andrew Perez
** Actress / Director Karen Allen
** Director / Composer Alexander Janko (Year by the Sea, My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
** Director Charlie Soap (The Cherokee Word for Water)
* 2017
** Director Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom)
** Director / Actress Karen Allen
** Editor / Producer Doug Blush
** Astronaut Trainee Alyssa Carlson
** 'Bionic' Chef Eduardo Garcia
* 2018
** Actor / Director / Activist Danny Glover
** Director Charles Burnett
** Director Jane Campion
** Filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi (Academy Award winner for Period. End of Sentence.)
** Director Tedy Necula (Beside Me)
** Director / Screenwriter Megan Griffiths
** Human Rights Advocate Rais Bhuiyan
* 2019
** Actor Stephen Tobolowsky
** Writer Cheryl Strayed
** Director / Actress Karen Allen
** Director Michael Brown (film director)
** Director Ward Serrill (The Heart of the Game)
** Editor / Producer Doug Blush (Academy Award winner for 20 Feet from Stardom and The Elephant Whisperers)
** Film Critic / Author Robert Horton (National Society of Film Critics, Scarecrow Project)
** Film Critic Moira Macdonald (The Seattle Times)
** Co-publisher & Co-editor Joseph Bednarik (Copper Canyon Press)
** Educator / Film Producer Warren Etheredge
* 2020 Virtual Festival only
* 2021 Virtual Festival only
* 2022
** Former Director & Programmer John Cooper (Sundance Film Festival)
** Filmmakers Jared and Jerusha Hess (Napoleon Dynamite)
* 2023
** Actress Lindsay Wagner
** Actor and Stunt Performer Alex Kingi
* 2024
** Director / Production Designer / Producer Catherine Hardwicke
** Director & Cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg

## History

The Port Townsend Film Festival is a 501c3 non-profit, and held the first festival in 2000. It occupies offices year-round in the historic Baker Block Building, at 211 Taylor Street, Suite 401-A, 98368. 360-379–1333.
The Festival is juried each year by a team of film professionals and awards "Best of" in 4 categories as well as other special recognition prizes. Since 2016, PTFF has awarded one film the "Jim Ewing First Feature Award" in memory of Jim Ewing, one of the Festival's founders.
In 2014, the Festival began a "Film Fellowship" program, offered to one film professional needing several weeks to months of rent-free housing to work on a project. The program was revamped into the "Filmmaker in Residence" program in 2021.
From 2013-2019, the Festival offered annual scholarships (two-night free lodging and festival passes) to film and journalism students.
The Festival also, from the beginning, has partnered with local non-profits at no charge, to provide films that help support their missions.
The largest annual fundraiser for PTFF was historically held in late February or early March, with live music, dinner, drinks, and a simulcast of the Oscars. The Annual Gala Fundraiser has been held as a kick-off to the Fall Festival since 2023.

### Founders

The Port Townsend Film Festival founders, Jim Ewing, Rocky Friedman, Jim Westall, and Linda Marie Yakush, were all veteran attendees of the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado. That festival served as the model for the Port Townsend event. The PTFF founders also established an organizing committee consisting of Erik Andersson, Nancy Biery, Michael Harvey, Sherry Jones, Peter Simpson, and George Yakush.

## Upcoming Events

Mar 14-16, 2025 Focus: Black Film in the PNW | Jun 6 & 8, 2025 Port Townsend Pride screenings | Sept 18-21, 2025 The 26th Annual Film Festival