Opinion: Why Cincinnati Deserves its Own Annual Film Festival

This story is featured in CityBeat's Nov. 29 print edition.

We’re getting used to seeing movies at least partially filmed in Cincinnati open up with strong Oscars buzz. This goes back at least to Rain Man, which debuted in December of 1988 and went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman and Best Director for Barry Levinson. 

This year, such an Oscars buzz film was set to be The Bikeriders, a drama about motorcycle gangs based on the photographs and interviews of Danny Lyon, one of this country’s greatest living photographers. Partially shot here, it had been set to open Dec. 1 but was put on hold because of the prolonged strike by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA). On Nov. 22, Deadline reported that Focus Features had taken over the global rights to the film, which initially belonged to 20th Century Studios/Disney.

From 1963-1967, Lyon followed members of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club; he published his work in 1968. (It has recently been republished). The film, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, has won early accolades and praise — especially for actor Austin Butler (of Elvis fame) as biker Benny. It is directed and written by Jeff Nichols. 

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Thinking about the buzz and excitement accompanying this film — similar to that which awaited such other prestigious Cincinnati-shot films as 2000’s Traffic, 2011’s Ides of March, 2015’s Carol and Miles Ahead, and 2019’s Dark Waters — made me realize that these would make a pretty terrific line-up for a Cincinnati on Film Festival. And there would still be so many more choices for future installments.

This could be an annual festival that features movies that, in some way, have a Cincinnati angle — they could have been shot here, set here, feature directors and/or actors from here or have some combination of the above. Such a fest also could include documentaries.

And I’ve got a great movie-star guest for opening night — Aftab Pureval. Well before he entered politics and became Cincinnati’s mayor, he appeared as a high school student in Blue Car, a 2002 drama/coming-of-age film shot in Dayton. It’s a small role, but it’s notable because it comes right at the start — he mocks a girl (Agnes Bruckner) reading her poetry to his class and, as a result, gets scolded by the teacher (David Strathairn). It would be interesting to hear Pureval explain to an audience how he got into acting, and why he gave it up for politics. The film, sensitively directed and written by Karen Moncrieff, centers on the relationship between Bruckner’s and Strathairn’s characters — how they form a bond based on her poetry and how her trust is ultimately betrayed. 

While such a fest would primarily have a retrospective focus, there will always be new films with strong Cincinnati connections. Greater Cincinnati has been punching above its weight as a filmmaking location, thanks to the efforts of the nonprofit Film Cincinnati to land projects. 

Including documentaries would allow presentation, for instance, of Married to Comics, a brand new film from director John Kinhart about husband and wife Justin Green and Carol Tyler, the innovative creators of graphic novels and comics/comix who were key members of Cincinnati’s arts scene until Green died in 2022. (They had moved here from Sacramento in the late ‘90s). Many consider him the creator of adult-oriented, autobiographical comics for his 1972 Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary. Tyler’s 2015 A Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father: A Daughter's Memoir is, too, highly regarded.

Now, here are a few other movies that have some type of Cincinnati connection. 

• Homebodies (1974): Director co-writer Larry Yust went to the West End to film this darkly perverse horror-comedy about elderly tenants forced to leave their long-time homes due to urban renewal. In an effort to stay put, they start gruesomely killing all those trying to get them to leave.  

• Harper Valley PTA (1978): Phil Borack was an important figure in the Cincinnati movie world — he started Tri-State Theatre Service, a booking agency, in 1971 and still had a relationship with it when he died in 2020. Along the way, he produced a few movies, starting with this adaptation of the hit 1968 song by Jeannie C. Riley that called out small-town hypocrisy. Starring Barbara Eden of I Dream of Jeannie TV fame, this was a surprise national hit that was well-received as a comedy. Borack later co-produced the documentary The Yogis of Tibet.

• The American Sector (2020): This doc travels the U.S. to look at where and why Berlin Wall panels wound up where they are. A highlight is a visit to Cincinnati’s National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, where longtime local activist Carl Westmoreland (now deceased) speaks eloquently about what the local panel means to him. It might surprise you.

• Redlegs (2012): A Cincinnatian, Brandon Harris directed and co-wrote this film about three young men in Cincinnati for a weekend to grieve and process the murder of a fourth. In a positive review, The New York Times complimented Harris on being “unabashedly influenced by John Cassavetes’ Husbands.”

• Anomalisa (2015): The downright visionary screenwriter and director Charles Kaufman chose Cincinnati for the setting of his film about a man suffering from Fregoli delusion, in which he perceives everyone he meets as looking the same. One exception is a woman he meets in his Cincinnati hotel — and they have sex. The movie is in stop-motion animation and was the first R-rated animated film nominated for an Oscar.

• The Fits (2015) A mysterious and touching film written and directed by Anna Rose Holmer, casts the West End’s Q-Kidz dance troupe and local actor Royalty Hightower as dancers stricken with mysterious seizures. One hopes Hightower and Holmes both go on to Hollywood greatness — they deserve it after this. 

• Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017): Maybe the best Cincinnati-filmed movie of the past 10 years and also one with many recognizable Cincinnati settings, this is a very tough watch in its quietly methodical telling of a contemporary family driven to — and beyond — despair by a mysterious young man with a grudge. Greek director/co-writer Yorgos Lanthimos based it on a Greek myth. With Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman.

Obviously, there are many others that could be in a Cincinnati on Film Festival — if you have suggestions, let CityBeat know.

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