Arts & Entertainment Community

Gig Harbor Film Festival attendance up 57% from 2023

Choked with tears, Pamela Holt could only hug the crew of First We Bombed New Mexico, the first time she watched the film.

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Holt had traveled to the 2024 Santa Barbara film festival to check out some of the films being screened. That’s part of her job, after all — she’s the executive director of the Gig Harbor Film Festival.

“I just couldn’t talk because I was so emotional. And we just started hugging — these total strangers, because they could see the emotion that I experienced from their film and from the issues surrounding the Downwinders,” Holt recalled. “So when I finally regained my composure, I’m like, ‘I want to bring this film to Gig Harbor.’ And so they … submitted their film.”

That’s not how it always happens, of course. Filmmakers from across the country can, without invitation, submit to the annual film festival, which just crossed its 17-year mark.

Gig Harbor Film Festival programs available for distribution on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. Photo by Angie Mitchell Photo.

Attendance up

Held at the Galaxy Theatres Gig Harbor, this year’s festival — which began on the evening of Sept. 26 with the screening of The Dawgfather, and culminated on the morning of Sept. 29 with an awards ceremony — treated audiences to a mix of 85 feature-length and short films.

Holt said that while the festival went “into hibernation,” for a couple years during the initial phase of the ongoing pandemic, this year saw more than 3,000 seats filled for all four days of movie screenings. While this does not mean that more than 3,000 people showed up — some people attended multiple screenings — it did represent a 57% percent increase in attendance over last year. The festival also distributed 400 free general admission tickets to community members in August.

Holt specifically credited the hard work of the festival’s digital media coordinator, Natalie Lynch, and its programming director, Josh Hope, for the festival’s success and increase in attendance, as well as and her own background in marketing. She also said that one of this year’s standout films, The Dawgfather — a movie about the late legendary football coach Don James — brought with it about 130 individual guests, including alumni football players, the crew and investors from across the country.

Former Washington Husky Michael Jackson before the premiere of “The Dawgfather: The Legacy of Don James” at the Gig Harbor Film Festival on Thursday, Sept. 26. Photo by Angie Mitchell Photo.

This particular film, Holt said, also overlapped interests, attracting folks who enjoyed football, people who were interested in coaching, leadership, and motivation, and still others who were interested in a slice of Washington state history. Kent Loomer, the film’s director, won the festival’s award for Best Director.

Birthday girl

But The Dawgfather wasn’t the only film to highlight a Washington state story. Last Lap — this year’s winner of the festival’s Best Washington-Made award — focused on Gig Harbor born-and-raised athlete, Doris Brown Heritage. Heritage won multiple international titles and a hefty collection of medals, including fifth place in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico, and gold at the International Cross-Country Championships five times in a row. She later retired and became a coach.

“[Heritage was] the first woman to run a mile under 5 minutes, and we had so much fun having her here with her entire team,” Holt said. “She did a great Q&A, and it was Doris’s 82nd birthday, so her team brought in trophy chocolate cupcakes for the entire audience.”

And how many cupcakes was that?

“Well, let me look here and see if I can see,” Holt said, skimming through her notes, before exclaiming with a laugh, “Oh my goodness! 125 chocolate cupcakes!”

Holt also said that “there was a big cake for Lois, and she blew out all the candles. Former runner — she still had pretty good lung power.”

The marquee inside the Galaxy Theatres Uptown during the Gig Harbor Film Festival. Photo by Angie Mitchell Photo.

The festival never sets a theme for any year, and this year was no exception. But, Holt said, “when I was in The Dawgfather, and then I went to screen Last Lap, there were similarities in themes as to how Don James was so successful, and how Doris Brown Heritage … were so successful, and my friend and I kind of looked at each other, and we’re like, ‘Wow, this could be from The Dawgfather.’”

“I think it just organically came together that way,” Holt continued. “I just thought it was interesting that … in some films … I saw a consistent theme about life lessons that help you be the best that you can be in life.”

Award winners

In addition to The Dawgfather and Last Lap, this year’s winner lineup included Death Pays Flora A Visit, which won Best Narrative Short Film; The Presidents’ Tailor — From Auschwitz to the White House, which won Best Documentary Short Film; Taylor Dalton Curtis whose performance in And Through the Portal We Go, netted him the festival’s Best Actor award; First We Bombed New Mexico, which won Best Documentary Feature Film; 7000 Miles, which won Best Narrative Feature Film; and One is Too Many, which won The Gig Award, a special festival award “given to filmmakers who have challenged our thinking and broadened our social awareness.”

Filmmakers interested in submitting their films for consideration in next year’s Gig Harbor Film Festival are invited to keep an eye on the festival’s call for submissions on FilmFreeway.