by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent During Award Season, no doubt it's the worldwide circuit of film festivals that helps shape predictions and forecasts for feature film (and TV) standouts that will resonate each year, and Film Fest 919 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina has become one of the key indicators to watch for trends leading up to the biggest show of all, The Oscars. Founders Randi Emerman and Carol Marshall hit the target again this time, with their 2021 choices ringi...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent     Posting this from the airport back to LA from Randi Emerman and Carol Marshall, co-founders of Film Fest 919 in Chapel Hill, NC, more to come on closing film SPENCER.   For now, news from #FF919 on which films won the most popular votes. Read on...   Chapel Hill, NC: The 2021 Film Fest 919 was enthusiastically received this week as audiences began to venture out to the movies to enjoy 6 da...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   Smoke machines opened last night’s 2021 Spotlight Award for Diane Warren in advance of the 12-time Best Song Oscar nominee’s arrival at the Caraway Village Drive In. Then, against the eerie artificial atmosphere, a sky-wide laser show tore open Warren’s lyrics sung by Celine Dion, Cher, Lady Gaga, Steven Tyler, and Rita Ora in a weave of colors above the marquee at the fourth annual Film Fest 919 in Chapel Hill.  ...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Four years ago, Hollywood insiders Carol Marshall and Randi Emerman founded a film festival in Chapel Hill, NC that somehow survived the Pandemic, lockdowns, and general upheaval in the entertainment industy to bring forth a little cinematic sunshine in these cloudy times for movies. The dynamic duo rides again this year with honored guests, and literally the top-curated slate of films heading into Award Season. First-time director Reb...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Diane Warren is often cited as among the most distinguished and awarded songwriters of all time, with hits from Aerosmith "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" to Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me," not to mention Toni Braxton's "Un-break My Heart." With a dozen Oscar nominations, Warren will be honored with a sweeping career award from Film Fest 919 in October. Here are the details for the celebration: CH...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   Telluride Film Festival recently showed a drive-in screening as part of its 2020 ingenuity, and this workaround has now come to Film Fest 919 in Chapel Hill, NC. “In the spirit of the ‘The Show Must Go On,’ we are excited to present a reimagined 2020 version of Film Fest 919 with a LIVE event, offering the best in pandemic viewing, using two outdoor venues: the newly-created Drive-in at Carraway Village and The Green at...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent During Film Fest 919, Chapel Hill, NC, on the final day - even though you’ve had all week practically to read the glossy brochure - there is it: A Love Letter to Film on Page 24. It’s black-and-white, quarter-page, a left-hand read drop-shadow framed note from a future groom to his “beautiful Bride-to-be” that compares a theater aisle to “that other aisle” she will soon walk down. If you’re not cry...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent You know it’s a great film festival when you lose track of the calendar count on your daily coverage, meaning today is Day Three, hopefully? Blame Shia LaBeouf’s autobiography-coaster HONEY BOY. Film Fest 919 in Chapel Hill, NC, is showing Shia’s written testament to a Hollywood Childhood on the same bill wit Matt Damon and Christian Bale in FORD V FERRARI, thankfully, because the way HONEY seeps into your soul (especially i...