31st annual Cucalorus Film Festival kicks off this week in Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The 31st annual Cucalorus Film Festival is taking place November 19th through the 23rd in downtown Wilmington.

This year’s festival showcases 95 independent and international films, selection from 1,608 submission representing more than 75 countries.

The lineup includes 15 narrative features, 10 documentaries and 70 short films.

Events will take place at Jengo’s Playhouse, Thalian Hall, the Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College and other venues across downtown.

Dan Brawley, Cucalorus executive director says there are two locally produced feature films, Suburban Nights and The Confession. The comedy, Suburban Nights has a lot of recognizable locations from Wilmington.

After almost every film showing there is a Q and A session with the filmmakers to learn more about the film and why they started the project.

On Thursday, at 1pm the Cucalorus Film Conference will kick off at Thalian Hall. Filmmaker Byron Hurt will be the keynote speaker and address attendees after a screening of his newest film Men of Courage at the final session on Saturday at 4pm.

‘Dancealours’ is one of the popular events of the festival. There are numerous short dances that include projections as part of the piece on the main stage at Thalian Hall.

“If you’ve never been to Cucalorus, ‘Dancealorus’ is a good place to start or any of the films that are playing on the main stage at Thalian. It’s really easy, you can just buy a ticket come to Thalian Hall 20-30 minutes before the film and get a ticket to a screening,” Brawley said.

You can buy passes to the festival here.