# Maryland Film Festival

The Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day international film festival taking place each March in Baltimore, Maryland. The festival was launched in 1999, and presents international film and video work of all lengths and genres. The festival is known for its close relationship with John Waters, who is on the festival's board of directors and selects a favorite film to host within each year of the festival.
Each U.S. feature screened within the festival is hosted by one or more of its filmmakers. The many internationally known filmmakers who have presented their work within Maryland Film Festival include Barry Levinson, David Simon, Kathryn Bigelow, Melvin Van Peebles, Lena Dunham, Lisandro Alonso, Bobcat Goldthwait, Amy Seimetz, David Lowery, Joe Swanberg, Greta Gerwig, Barry Jenkins, Todd Solondz, Anna Biller, and Jonathan Demme.
In addition to forty or more new features and fifty or more new short films, each Maryland Film Festival includes one favorite film selected and hosted by legendary filmmaker and MFF board member John Waters. The films presented by John Waters within Maryland Film Festival have ranged from Joseph Losey's Boom! to Gaspar Noé's I Stand Alone.
Major names in contemporary music have presented favorite films within the festival, including Beach House, Dan Deacon, Branford Marsalis, Marin Alsop, Ian MacKaye, Will Oldham, Jonathan Richman, Bill Callahan, and members of Animal Collective. Each festival also includes a silent film with a live score by Alloy Orchestra. Additionally, personalities ranging from Harry Belafonte to Cal Ripken Jr. have appeared at the festival alongside documentaries about their lives and work.
The festival also programs film events in and around Baltimore year-round, including the film component of Baltimore's annual summer Artscape festival and many events for its membership support group Friends of the Festival.

## Festival history

The first Maryland Film Festival screening took place Thursday, April 22, 1999, with an Opening Night presentation of Barry Levinson's documentary Diner Guys (about the real-life inspirations for his first feature film, Diner) at the historic Senator Theatre.
Full programming began April 23, 1999, using all five screens of the historic Charles Theatre. These screenings were the first public use of the newly renovated Charles, which had expanded from one to five screens.
In 2002, the festival dedicated its Opening Night to a collection of short films, and has done so each year since 2004.
In 2009, the festival expanded its offerings of international films, with the stated goal of expanding the scope of international films brought to Baltimore, and in future years bringing a filmmaker to host each foreign feature film screening as the festival does with all U.S.-made feature films.
In 2013, the festival announced its expansion to 5 days, shifting its Opening Night to Wednesday, May 8, 2013. Previous festivals had been 4 days, with opening nights taking place on Thursdays. The festival continued as a 5-day festival in each subsequent edition.
The 18th annual festival took place May 4–8, 2016 using 5 screens in and around the Station North Arts and Entertainment District as well as the auditoriums of the Baltimore Museum of Art and Walters Art Museum.
The 19th annual festival took place May 4–7, 2017 using the 3 screens of the newly restored and expanded Parkway Theatre as well as three additional screens on the nearby Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) campus.
The festival's feature-film programming has emphasized independent films represented by their filmmakers, as well as international works handled by such art-house and specialty film distributors as The Cinema Guild, Oscilloscope Laboratories, Factory 25, Milestone Films, Strand Releasing, and Kino.
The festival has offered the world premieres of such American independent features as Eugene Kotlyarenko's 0s & 1s (2010), Josephine Decker's Butter on the Latch (2013), Stephen Cone's Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (2015), Josh Crockett's Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks (2017) and Stephen Cone's Princess Cyd (2017). The 2017 edition featured the U.S. premieres of Hugh Gibson's The Stairs and Ashley McKenzie's Werewolf.
The festival launched a year-round, 3-screen venue anchored by a historic, restored 1915 auditorium, The Parkway Theatre, in May 2017.
Longtime director of programming Eric Allen Hatch, who began working for MdFF in 2007, departed as lead programmer of Maryland Film Festival and The Parkway in February, 2018, citing creative differences detailed in a Filmmaker article concerning the need for greater risk-taking and attention to diversity in independent-film festivals and alternative venues.
In November 2022, it was announced that Maryland Film Festival would not hold a 2023 edition, explaining the festival would "recalibrate its business model amid major changes in the film industry."
In May 2023, it was announced that Baltimore radio station WYPR, in partnership with former Maryland Film Festival director of programming Eric Allen Hatch, would hold the New/Next Film Festival in August 2023, taking place at The Charles Theatre. The festival was planned as a reaction to the news that Maryland Film Festival was not holding a 2023 event. The first New/Next Film Festival was held August 18–20 in Baltimore's Charles Theatre.

## The Parkway Theatre

In December 2013, the festival announced its plans to restore The Parkway Theatre, located at North Avenue and North Charles Street in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, for use as its year-round venue. The Parkway was built for film exhibition in 1915, and became one of Baltimore's first art-house movie theaters in the 1950s, operating under the name Five West, but it closed in 1977. Maryland Film Festival's restoration preserved the original auditorium, and built two smaller screens in an adjacent space.
In Spring 2017, the Parkway restoration project was completed and the theater opened on May 3, 2017, with the opening night of the 19th Annual Maryland Film Festival The first public screening in The Parkway was the Opening Night Shorts Program of the 2017 Maryland Film Festival on the evening of May 3, 2017, hosted by Josephine Decker and Kris Swanberg and the directors of each short film presented. The first short presented, and therefore the first film to play in The Parkway in decades, was Jessica Kingdon's Commodity City. The other shorts presented that evening were Terence Nance's They Charge For the Sun, Jeannie Donohoe's Game, Matthew Salton's Richard Twice, and Nathan Truesdell's Balloonfest. The first feature film screened in the Parkway was Barry Levinson's television film The Wizard of Lies on the afternoon of Thursday, May 4, 2017. The first theatrical film screened in the Parkway, Theo Anthony's Rat Film the same evening, was also a part of the Maryland Film Festival. The first 35mm film screened in the Parkway was Agnès Varda's Vagabond, guest-curated and hosted by the band Beach House, on the evening of Saturday, May 6, 2017. These screenings all took place within Maryland Film Festival 2017. The first live music performance in the restored Parkway was Alloy Orchestra's live score for the German silent film Variety within Maryland Film Festival 2017 on Sunday, May 7.
Films shown at the 2022 event included Navalny, Sirens, and Homebody.
The Parkway Theater closed in January 2023, but announced in May 2024 that it would re-open to host the 25th Maryland Film Festival.

## Closing night films

| Year | Film | Hosted By |
| 2003 | Standing in the Shadows of Motown | members of The Funk Brothers |
| 2004 | BAADASSSSS! | Mario Van Peebles and Melvin Van Peebles |
| 2005 | Swimmers | Doug Sadler |
| 2006 | The Eagle with live score by Alloy Orchestra | Alloy Orchestra |
| 2007 | Rocket Science | Jeffrey Blitz |
| 2008 | Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha | Melvin Van Peebles |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker | Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal |
| 2010 | Mother and Child | Rodrigo García |
| 2011 | Sing Your Song | Harry Belafonte |
| 2012 | Dark Horse | Todd Solondz and Jordan Gelber |
| 2013 | Mother of George | Andrew Dosunmu and Bradford Young |
| 2014 | Little Accidents | Sara Colangelo |
| 2015 | The Wolfpack | Crystal Moselle |
| 2016 | Hunter Gatherer | Josh Locy and Andre Royo |
| 2017 | The Hero | Brett Haley |
| 2018 | All Square | John Hyams |
| 2019 | Luce | Julius Onah |
| 2020 | N/A | N/A |
| 2021 | Women Is Losers | Lissette Feliciano |
| 2022 | Becoming Fredrick Douglass & Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom | Stanley Nelson Jr. and Nicole London |
| 2023 | N/A | N/A |
| 2024 | TBA | TBA |

## John Waters picks

Within every Maryland Film Festival since its launch in 1999, filmmaker and Maryland Film Festival board member John Waters has selected one film to present to an audience. His selections have ranged from vintage cult and camp titles to contemporary ribald comedies and art-house dramas.
| Festival Year | Film Title | Film Director | Year of Release | Notes |
| 1999 | Boom! | Joseph Losey | 1968 | |
| 2000 | Clean, Shaven | Lodge Kerrigan | 1993 | |
| 2001 | Baxter | Jérôme Boivin | 1989 | |
| 2002 | Fuego | Armando Bó | 1969 | |
| 2003 | I Stand Alone | Gaspar Noé | 1998 | Waters also joined in the MFF 2003 presentation of Noé's Irréversible. |
| 2004 | Dog Days | Ulrich Seidl | 2001 | |
| 2005 | Porn Theater | Jacques Nolot | 2002 | |
| 2006 | Head-On | Fatih Akın | 2004 | |
| 2007 | Sleeping Dogs Lie | Bobcat Goldthwait | 2006 | |
| 2008 | Story of Women | Claude Chabrol | 1988 | |
| 2009 | Love Songs | Christophe Honoré | 2006 | |
| 2010 | United 93 | Paul Greengrass | 2006 | |
| 2011 | Domain | Patric Chiha | 2009 | Waters was joined in his presentation by director Patric Chiha. |
| 2012 | Wanda | Barbara Loden | 1970 | This screening took place from UCLA's restored 35mm print on the evening of Friday May 4, 2012. |
| 2013 | Paradise: Faith | Ulrich Seidl | 2012 | This screening took place the evening of Friday, May 10, 2012. Waters was joined in his presentation by star Maria Hofstätter. This marked the first time Waters has repeated a director in making his selections since the launch of MFF in 1999. |
| 2014 | Abuse of Weakness | Catherine Breillat | 2014 | |
| 2015 | Killer Joe | William Friedkin | 2011 | |
| 2016 | The Deep Blue Sea | Terence Davies | 2011 | |
| 2017 | Roar | Noel Marshall | 1981 | |
| 2018 | I, Olga Hepnarová | Tomáš Weinreb and Petr Kazda | 2016 | |
| 2019 | Mom and Dad | Brian Taylor | 2017 | |
| 2020 | N/A | N/A | N/A | The 2020 Maryland Film Festival, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 2021 | Why Don't You Just Die! and The Road Movie | Kirill Sokolov and Dmitrii Kalashnikov, respectively | 2018 and 2016, respectively | Presented as "John Waters' Russian Shock Night at the Drive-In", a double-feature hosted by Waters at the Druid Hill Park Mansion Lawn. |
| 2022 | Maps to the Stars | David Cronenberg | 2014 | This film was to be presented by Waters at the in-person 2020 Maryland Film Festival, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Festival Year | Guest Host | Film Title | Film Director | Notes |
| 1999 | Kurt Schmoke | The Godfather | Francis Ford Coppola | |
| 1999 | Marc Steiner | The Cool World | Shirley Clarke | |
| 2000 | Jonathan Richman | Cyrano de Bergerac | Michael Gordon | |
| 2000 | Joyce Scott | The Long, Hot Summer | Martin Ritt | |
| 2000 | Taylor Branch | One-Eyed Jacks | Marlon Brando | |
| 2000 | J.D. Considine | The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle | Julien Temple | |
| 2000 | Scott Erickson | Predator | John McTiernan | |
| 2001 | Will Oldham | The World's Greatest Sinner | Timothy Carey | |
| 2001 | Herschell Gordon Lewis | The Gore Gore Girls and 2,000 Maniacs | Herschell Gordon Lewis | |
| 2001 | Martin O'Malley | Into the West | Mike Newell | |
| 2002 | Julian Bond | Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song | Melvin Van Peebles | Bond was joined in his presentation by director Melvin Van Peebles, who delivered his own print of the film for the screening. |
| 2003 | Barry Levinson | On the Waterfront | Elia Kazan | This screening was the Opening Night selection for MFF 2003, held in the historic Senator Theater. |
| 2003 | Margaret Carlson | Notorious | Alfred Hitchcock | |
| 2004 | Marc Steiner | The Battle of Algiers | Gillo Pontecorvo | |
| 2005 | Dorothy Hamill | Mary Poppins | Robert Stevenson | The audience was encouraged to sing along with the songs for this screening. |
| 2005 | Harvey Pekar | The Bicycle Thief | Vittorio De Sica | |
| 2005 | Barbara Mikulski | To Kill a Mockingbird | Robert Mulligan | |
| 2006 | Branford Marsalis | The Scent of Green Papaya | Tran Anh Hung | |
| 2007 | Lodge Kerrigan | A Sense of Loss | Marcel Ophüls | |
| 2007 | Henry Rollins | Maxed Out | James Scurlock | |
| 2009 | Ian MacKaye | Nina Simone: La Légende | Frank Lords | The famed post-punk musician (of Minor Threat, Fugazi, The Evens, and Dischord Records) presented a rare screening of this 1992 French documentary about Nina Simone. |
| 2009 | Laura Lippman | Funny Bones | Peter Chelsom |
| 2010 | Bill Callahan | Faces | John Cassavetes | Callahan (formerly known as Smog), read an original, poetic appreciation piece for this landmark 1968 independent film. He was joined in his presentation by Al Ruban, the film's cinematographer and frequent Cassavetes collaborator. |
| 2010 | Dan Deacon | Total Recall | Paul Verhoeven | This screening led to a subsequent year-round Maryland Film Fest series called Gunky's Basemement featuring 35mm prints of films selected and hosted by Dan Deacon and Jimmy Joe Roche. |
| 2011 | Marin Alsop | The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly | Sergio Leone | A 35mm presentation of this 1966 Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western noted for its Ennio Morricone score, hosted by the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. |
| 2011 | members of Animal Collective | The Boxer's Omen, aka Mo | Chih-Hung Kuei | Avey Tare, Deakin, and Geologist hosted this 1983 Shaw Brothers production, and noted that another favorite film of the group was House. |
| 2013 | Frank Bruni | Absence of Malice | Sydney Pollack | |
| 2014 | Matmos | Barbarella | Roger Vadim | The Baltimore-based electronic-music duo will present the film from which they derived their band name. |
| 2014 | DJ Spooky | Putney Swope | Robert Downey, Sr. | |
| 2015 | Alan Resnick and Dina Kelberman | Showgirls | Paul Verhoeven | |
| 2015 | Abdu Ali | Do the Right Thing | Spike Lee | |
| 2016 | DeRay Mckesson | Fresh | Boaz Yakin | |
| 2017 | Beach House | Vagabond | Agnès Varda | The Baltimore-based duo's introduction on Saturday, May 6, 2017 marked the first 35mm print presented in the newly restored Parkway Theatre. |

## Alloy Orchestra presentations

A recurring highlight within each Maryland Film Festival since 2003 has been a silent film presented with Alloy Orchestra performing their new, original scores for these vintage films. Alloy Orchestra has also presented films at Maryland Film Festival stand-alone events throughout the year; this list is limited to presentations within the annual festival weekend.
| Festival Year | Film Title | Film Director | Year of Original Release |
| 2003 | The Black Pirate | Albert Parker | 1926 |
| 2004 | Speedy | Ted Wilde | 1928 |
| 2005 | Blackmail | Alfred Hitchcock | 1929 |
| 2006 | The Eagle | Clarence Brown | 1925 |
| 2007 | Nosferatu | F. W. Murnau | 1922 |
| 2008 | Underworld | Josef von Sternberg | 1927 |
| 2009 | Man with a Movie Camera | Dziga Vertov | 1929 |
| 2010 | Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness | Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack | 1927 |
| 2011 | "Masters of Slapstick" Shorts Program | Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton | 1916-1920 |
| 2012 | From Morning Till Midnight | Karlheinz Martin | 1920 |
| 2013 | The Lost World | Harry O. Hoyt | 1925 |
| 2014 | He Who Gets Slapped | Victor Sjöström | 1924 |
| 2015 | The Son of the Sheik | George Fitzmaurice | 1926 |
| 2016 | L'Inhumaine | Marcel L'Herbier | 1924 |
| 2017 | Variety | E. A. Dupont | 1925 |
| 2018 | A Page of Madness | Teinosuke Kinugasa | 1926 |

## Vintage 3-D film presentations

Beginning in 2002 and extending through 2012, each Maryland Film Festival presented a vintage 3D film in the two-projector 35mm format. Each screening was hosted by Baltimore Sun film writer Chris Kaltenbach.
| Festival Year | Film Title | Film Director | Year of Original Release |
| 2002 | House of Wax | André de Toth | 1953 |
| 2003 | Creature from the Black Lagoon | Jack Arnold | 1954 |
| 2004 | Fort Ti | William Castle | 1953 |
| 2005 | Gorilla at Large | Harmon Jones | 1954 |
| 2006 | The Mad Magician | John Brahm | 1954 |
| 2007 | Man in the Dark | Lew Landers | 1953 |
| 2008 | Miss Sadie Thompson | Curtis Bernhardt | 1953 |
| 2009 | Inferno | Roy Ward Baker | 1953 |
| 2010 | Jesse James vs. The Daltons | William Castle | 1954 |
| 2011 | The Stranger Wore a Gun | André de Toth | 1953 |
| 2012 | Those Redheads From Seattle | Lewis R. Foster | 1953 |

## List of features played at the festival

Each Maryland Film Festival has presented forty or more feature films, with the screenings of each U.S. film hosted by one of its filmmakers.
| Year | Films |
| 1999 | Arlington Road, The Brandon Teena Story, The Cool World, Crime Wave, Divine Trash, Hands on a Hard Body, Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, My Son the Fanatic, Radiohead: Meeting People Is Easy, The Saltmen of Tibet, Without Limits |
| 2000 | The Corner, Forbidden Zone, I Am Cuba, Kill by Inches, King Gimp, Panic, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, Wattstax |
| 2001 | The American Astronaut, Investigation of a Flame, Mutant Aliens, Plaster Caster, Portrait of Jason, Startup.com, Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, Unfinished Symphony: Democracy and Dissent |
| 2002 | Blue Vinyl, Charlotte Sometimes, Cyberman, Derrida, The Execution of Wanda Jean, Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme, How to Draw a Bunny, Paperboys, Soft For Digging |
| 2003 | BaadAsssss Cinema, Capturing the Friedmans, Funny Ha Ha, Horns and Halos, Hukkle, Irréversible, L'Auberge Espagnole, Melvin Goes to Dinner, The Mudge Boy, Stevie, Unprecedented |
| 2004 | The Agronomist, BAADASSSSS!, Born into Brothels, High Tension, Imelda, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, The Saddest Music in the World, Saved!, Travellers and Magicians, Word Wars |
| 2005 | 9 Songs, The Aristocrats, The Boys of Baraka, The Edukators, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Mad Hot Ballroom, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Murderball, Mutual Appreciation, Palindromes, Street Fight |
| 2006 | 12 and Holding, Darkon, Head-On, The Guatemalan Handshake, Hamilton, LOL, My Country, My Country, We Go Way Back |
| 2007 | Brand Upon the Brain!, Crazy Love, Frownland, Great World of Sound, Hannah Takes the Stairs, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, Killer of Sheep, The Last Days of Left Eye, Murder Party, My Nappy Roots, On a Tightrope, Quiet City, Silver Jew, Sleeping Dogs Lie, Syndromes and a Century, Viva, War/Dance, Zoo |
| 2008 | American Teen, At the Death House Door, Baghead, Bamako, Beautiful Losers, The Betrayal, Bi the Way, The Black List, Chop Shop, Goliath, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, I.O.U.S.A., Medicine for Melancholy, Momma's Man, My Effortless Brilliance, Nights and Weekends, Woodpecker |
| 2009 | Alexander the Last, The Beaches of Agnès, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, Daytime Drinking, Garbage Dreams, Greek Pete, The Hurt Locker, Lake Tahoe, Make-out with Violence, Modern Love Is Automatic, Munyurangabo, Nollywood Babylon, Not Quite Hollywood, Stingray Sam, Treeless Mountain, World's Greatest Dad |
| 2010 | 12th & Delaware, And Everything Is Going Fine, Beijing Taxi, Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Cold Weather, Cyrus, Daddy Longlegs, Dogtooth, Freedom Riders, La Pivellina, Liverpool, Music by Prudence, Night Catches Us, The Oath, Putty Hill, Tiny Furniture, Until the Light Takes Us, Wheedle's Groove, Wuss |
| 2011 | Better This World, The Catechism Cataclysm, The Color Wheel, The Dish & the Spoon, If a Tree Falls, The Interrupters, Last Days Here, Magic Trip, Meek's Cutoff, My Joy, Ne Change Rien, Nostalgia for the Light, Restless City, Septien, Silver Bullets, Terri, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, A Useful Life, Viva Riva!, Weekend, We Were Here |
| 2012 | Attenberg, Come Back, Africa, The Comedy, Compliance, Dark Horse, Ethel, Detropia, Gayby, God Bless America, Jeff, Kid-Thing, Love Free Or Die, Lovely Molly, LUV, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Oslo, August 31st, The Patron Saints, Pilgrim Song, Porfirio, Reconvergence, Save the Date, The Source Family, Sun Don't Shine, Supporting Characters, Tchoupitoulas, This Is Not a Film, The Turin Horse, Under African Skies, V/H/S, Vito, Volcano, Wild in the Streets, Wuthering Heights |
| 2013 | 12 O'Clock Boys, 16 Acres, Aatsinki, After Tiller, Augustine, Before You Know It, Berberian Sound Studio, Bluebird, Boy Eating the Bird's Food, Butter on the Latch, By and By, Computer Chess, Downloaded, Drinking Buddies, Fill the Void, Good Ol' Freda, Here Comes the Devil, Hit & Stay, I Am Divine, I Used to Be Darker, If We Shout Loud Enough, It Felt Like Love, Leviathan, Mother of George, Museum Hours, Paradise: Faith, Paradise: Hope, Paradise: Love, The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, Pit Stop, Post Tenebras Lux, Prince Avalanche, The Rambler, Remote Area Medical, Swim Little Fish Swim, A Teacher, This Is Martin Bonner, Touchy Feely, V/H/S/2, Watchtower, We Always Lie to Strangers, White Reindeer, Willow Creek, Zero Charisma |
| 2014 | Abuse of Weakness, Actress, Approaching the Elephant, Appropriate Behavior, Art and Craft, The Auction, Baltimore in Black and White, Brewmore | Baltimore, Buzzard, Call Girl of Cthulhu, The Case Against 8, Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari, Club Sandwich, Deep City: The Birth of the Miami Sound, Everybody Street, Evolution of a Criminal, Faults, Fight Church, Fort Tilden, Freedom Summer, Glena, Happy Christmas, Hellion, The Hip-Hop Fellow, I Play with the Phrase Each Other, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, Manakamana, The Mend, The Militant, Moebius, Obvious Child, Ping Pong Summer, Point and Shoot, September, Positive Force: More Than a Witness, The Strange Little Cat, Stray Dogs, Summer of Blood, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, Water Like Stone, Welcome to Deathfest, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger, Who Took Johnny, Wild Canaries, Young Bodies Heal Quickly |
| 2015 | 6 Years, Beats of the Antonov, Best of Enemies, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Breaking a Monster, Call Me Lucky, Christmas, Again, Crocodile Gennadiy, Deep Web, Digging for Fire, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, Entertainment, Field Niggas, For the Plasma, Frame by Frame, Funny Bunny, A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile, Girlhood, God Bless the Child, Henry Gamble's Birthday Party, In the Basement, Jauja, Limbo, People, Places, Things, Prophet's Prey, The Reaper, Rebels of the Neon God, Results, Sailing a Sinking Sea, Stinking Heaven, Tab Hunter Confidential, Tired Moonlight, Two Shots Fired, Uncle Kent 2, Unexpected, Venice, Welcome to Leith, Western, The Wolfpack, A Wonderful Cloud |
| 2016 | Always Shine; The Apostate; Boone; Cameraperson; Cemetery of Splendor; Chevalier; collective:unconscious; Donald Cried; Do Not Resist; The Fits; Fraud; The Greasy Strangler; The Guys Next Door; He Hated Pigeons; High Rise; Hotel Dallas; How Heavy This Hammer; Hunter Gatherer, Ixcanul; Koza; Lamb; The Legend of Swee' Pea; Life, Animated; Little Men; Little Sister; Lovesong; The Love Witch; MA; The Master Cleanse; Morris From America; No Home Movie; Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You; Nuts!; Orange Sunshine; Salero; Shu-De!; Slash; A Stray; Trapped; Under the Shadow; Untouchable |
| 2017 | Austerlitz; Beach Rats; The Blood Is at the Doorstep; The Departure; Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks; Family Life; Finding Joseph I: The HR From Bad Brains Documentary; Golden Exits; Hermia & Helena; The Hero; The Human Surge; Intent to Destroy; Kékszakállú; Lemon; The Little Hours; Love After Love; Maineland; Mimosas; Motherland; Park; Person to Person; Princess Cyd; Rat Film; Roar; The Stairs; The Strange Ones; Sylvio; Tell Them We Are Rising; Thirst Street; Vagabond; Variety; Werewolf; Whose Streets?; The Wizard of Lies |
| 2018 | August at Akiko's; The Pain of Others; Alanis; Damsel; Charm City; Clara's Ghost; Black Mother; Caniba; First Reformed; Madeline's Madeline; Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.; On Her Shoulders; Shakedown; Sickies Making Films; Sollers Point; Strangely Ordinary This Devotion; Let the Corpses Tan; Time Trial; We the Animals; Wobble Palace; Won't You Be My Neighbor? |
| 2019 | American Factory; Abessa; The Art of Self-Defense; Before You Know It; Being Impossible; The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales...; Boy Howdy! The Story of CREEM Magazine; Cold Case Hammarskjöld; Decade of Fire; Donbass; Don't Be a Dick About It; Fig Tree; For Sama; Frances Fergusson; The Gospel According to Al Green; Greener Grass; Ham on Rye; The Hottest August; In Fabric; Knives and Skin; Lost Holiday |

## Gunky's Basement Film series

Gunky’s Basement was a Maryland Film Festival series curated and hosted by musician Dan Deacon, video artist Jimmy Joe Roche, and MdFF programmer Eric Allen Hatch. Each title screened from a 35mm print and was promoted in part with original screenprinted posters created by Baltimore-based artists.
Gunky’s Basement was a year-round extension of the Maryland Film Festival Guest-Host program, in which a person best known for work outside the world of film selects and hosts a favorite film. Prior to Gunky’s Basement, Dan Deacon was a guest host in Maryland Film Festival 2010, selecting Total Recall.
The series originally took place in The Charles Theatre. Beginning with the July 12, 2017 screening of The Shining, all Gunky's Basement screenings took place in Maryland Film Festival's year-round venue, The Parkway Theatre. The series came to a close when film curator Eric Allen Hatch departed MdFF in February, 2018.
| Date | Film Title | Film Director | Year of Release |
| October 21, 2010 | The Thing | John Carpenter | 1982 |
| December 9, 2010 | Repo Man | Alex Cox | 1984 |
| January 27, 2011 | Alien | Ridley Scott | 1979 |
| March 3, 2011 | Beetlejuice | Tim Burton | 1988 |
| April 21, 2011 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Robert Zemeckis | 1988 |
| September 27, 2011 | Starship Troopers | Paul Verhoeven | 1997 |
| October 25, 2011 | Videodrome | David Cronenberg | 1983 |
| November 29, 2011 | Dune | David Lynch | 1984 |
| December 13, 2011 | Groundhog Day | Harold Ramis | 1993 |
| July 18, 2012 | They Live | John Carpenter | 1988 |
| August 15, 2012 | The Silence of the Lambs | Jonathan Demme | 1991 |
| December 4, 2012 | Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me | David Lynch | 1992 |
| January 9, 2013 | Manhunter | Michael Mann | 1986 |
| February 6, 2013 | Die Hard | John McTiernan | 1988 |
| March 6, 2013 | Dead Man | Jim Jarmusch | 1995 |
| October 30, 2013 | In the Mouth of Madness | John Carpenter | 1995 |
| November 13, 2013 | Point Break | Kathryn Bigelow | 1991 |
| December 4, 2013 | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | James Cameron | 1991 |
| February 26, 2014 | Batman | Tim Burton | 1989 |
| July 12, 2017 | The Shining | Stanley Kubrick | 1980 |
| August 9, 2017 | Little Shop of Horrors | Frank Oz | 1986 |
| September 27, 2017 | RoboCop | Paul Verhoeven | 1987 |
| November 8, 2017 | Something Wild | Jonathan Demme | 1986 |
| December 6, 2017 | The Running Man | Paul Michael Glaser | 1987 |
| February 28, 2018 | American Psycho | Mary Harron | 2000 |

### Night Zones with Jimmy Joe Roche

As an offshoot of Gunky's Basement, Maryland Film Festival and video artist Jimmy Joe Roche partnered for a series exploring Roche's love of horror films. As with Gunky's Basement, each title screened from a 35mm print, and was promoted in part with original screenprinted posters created by a Baltimore artist.
| Date | Film Title | Film Director | Year of Release |
| September 26, 2012 | Lifeforce | Tobe Hooper | 1985 |
| October 31, 2012 | The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | Tobe Hooper | 1974 |
| November 28, 2012 | From Beyond | Stuart Gordon | 1986 |
| October 7, 2015 | Brainscan | John Flynn | 1994 |
| October 14, 2015 | Slither | James Gunn | 2006 |
| October 28, 2015 | Phantasm II | Don Coscarelli | 1988 |