Charlotte Film Festival opens tomorrow for six days of screenings

The Charlotte Film Festival opens tomorrow, Tuesday, September 22, and runs through Sunday, September 27. Six days of screenings and events are centered on the Independent Picture House, the city’s nonprofit art house cinema on Raleigh Street north of NoDa.

The festival is the largest annual film event in the city and a platform for independent, regional and international work that does not reach the multiplex chains. For people who care about film, it is the one week of the year when Charlotte has a proper festival culture.

Here are the basics for anyone planning to go.

• It runs from Tuesday, September 22, through Sunday, September 27.
• Screenings are centered on the Independent Picture House at 4237 Raleigh Street.
• The cinema has free parking on site, which helps when screenings run back to back.
• Popular screenings sell out, so book the ones you care about most first.

The venue

The Independent Picture House is a converted building in the Hidden Valley area, north of the NoDa arts district. As a nonprofit it runs on memberships and donations, and it shows independent, foreign and documentary films year round alongside repertory screenings and themed series.

It has free parking on site, which is unusual for a cinema this close to the center city and matters more than usual during a festival, when screenings run back to back and people stay for several in a row. A bar serves beer and wine that can be taken into the screenings.

Getting there

The cinema is a short drive from NoDa and a longer walk from the 36th Street light rail station. For a single screening, driving and using the free lot is the easiest option. For a full day at the festival with drinks involved, a rideshare from home is worth the cost.

Planning a festival day

Festival screenings at a single venue run to a tight schedule, so a little planning goes a long way.

• Leave gaps between screenings for food. NoDa is a few minutes’ drive, has more restaurants per block than anywhere nearby and keeps late hours, which suits a screening that ends at ten.
• Consider a membership if you plan to see several films. Members typically get discounted tickets and early access, and the savings can cover the cost inside the festival week.
• Take a rideshare if the day involves the bar. The free lot is the easy choice for a single screening, but not for a full day with drinks.
• Check which screenings include filmmaker talks, since those are often the part most worth attending in person.

Filmmaker events

Festivals at this scale usually build their programming around more than the films themselves, with filmmaker talks and question and answer sessions after selected screenings. Those are often the most memorable part of attending in person and the part a streaming release cannot replicate. Check the festival schedule for which screenings include them.

A busy weekend

The festival’s closing weekend overlaps with Festival in the Park at Freedom Park and Breakaway Carolina at zMAX Dragway in Concord. That puts three large events in the city on the same days, at three different ends of the metro. Plan travel accordingly on Friday and Saturday in particular, and expect the roads around Freedom Park and the east side to be busier than usual.

Why a local festival matters

Charlotte has one art house cinema of note, and its survival depends on audiences showing up. The film festival is the week that brings in people who would not otherwise walk through the door, and a good share of the venue’s members first came for a festival screening.

For regional filmmakers the festival is also one of the few chances to screen to a paying audience in their own city. That is a different thing from an online release, and it is part of why the event has kept going.

Our read: pick one weeknight screening instead of trying to do the whole weekend. The weeknights are calmer, the lots have space and the post screening conversation in the bar tends to be better when the room is not full.

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