Omaha Film Festival

(Just a note before we begin, and to be completely above board, I was a judge for the Omaha Film Festival for a few years, but this is an unbiased review from an attendee perspective to the festival in categories I did not judge/after I hung up my judging cap!)So I just want to begin by saying, Omaha is VERY lucky to have a film festival like this in our own town, especially one that is so well organized and features local filmmakers as well as national filmmakers. They have even had some Oscar winning shorts shown at the Omaha Film Festival before they won their big awards.The cost of admission is very reasonable for all that you get out of this festival. You can buy individual tickets if there are certain films/blocks you're interested in, or you can spring for the All Films pass and bop from theater to theater to things you like and make up your mind as you go.They have a little something for everyone, like a few blocks of shorts, feature length films, a Writer's Theater where the winning scripts and screenplays are read, as well as Q&As with some of the filmmakers. They've had some amazing guests, such as Shane Black, Mauro Fiore, Famke Jansson, and the animator Bill Plympton. Some of my favorite films I've seen at the festival (ones that you would recognize) were Obvious Child, Hotel Mumbai, and Score: A Music Film Documentary. This is a great way for local filmmakers to get their movies shown to an audience, as well as some larger independent filmmakers who wish to have their movies shown at local festivals, and not just the giant ones in LA or New York. There are also a few things the Omaha Film Festival runners host outside of the actual festival. They refer to themselves sometimes as a "teaching festival" and I can totally see why. They have the OFF Academy which hosts middle- and high-school students for two days of behind the scenes filmmaking processes. They also do a 48-Hour Film Challenge each year, which offers local filmmakers the chance to create a short with a specific prop and line of dialogue. They haven't shoot, edit, and complete it all within 48 hours!So aside from being a fun film festival, they also do a lot for the community throughout the year, and not just during the week of the festival each year.I will just conclude my review by reiterating that I think this festival is a super neat thing we have in the Omaha community, for film lovers or just people looking to try out a film festival for the first time!