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TCFF 2016 is less than 24 hours away! Here are 24 things you should know before heading into this year’s festival.

1. Norte! Bike Valet – Brand new for 2016, please take advantage of our bike-friendly city with the FREE bike valet, courtesy of Norte! Bike valet parking, running throughout the festival, is available in Clinch Park next to the Bijou by the Bay.
2. Festival Loop – Park all day and night with no cost, because the festival offers a FREE shuttle service to all filmgoers. The loop stops at each movie theater, the free festival parking lots as well as downtown parking decks.
3. New Media at The Woz – Experience the future of storytelling at the hands-on interactive gallery The Woz, at a new location this year at the Hotel Indigo. We’ve partnered with Michigan State University to bring you transmedia projects that go beyond traditional screens. Check it out for FREE! 
4. Walk of Fame – You don’t have to go all the way to Hollywood to see the handprints of the stars. Check out our Walk of Fame, which we have in Downtown Traverse City! Head outside the State Theatre to walk in the footsteps of the celebrities that have come across that berth.
5. Pokemon GO to the movies – For all of the Pokemon trainers out there – you know who you are – we have the perfect spots to help you catch ‘em all. With 14 poke stops and 11 gyms, check out our guide here. 
6. Standby Line/Vouchers – Nothing is ever sold out at TCFF! A standby ticket line forms one hour before each show, for the opportunity to purchase tickets to the screening. Patrons with vouchers can go to the front of the standby line, and anyone can purchase them – they don’t expire until the end of next year!
7.  Cinema(n) – Did you know that only a small fraction of Hollywood movies are made by women? This year, ALL of our Official Selections (US) for fiction and documentary are directed or – co-directed by women. Pretty cool, right?
8. Centerpiece Screening – Tickets are still available to “Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru.” Watch a movie from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (“Paradise Lost” trilogy) that explores the man behind the myth of Tony Robbins, famous self-help infomercial personality. And meet the director, as well as Tony Robbins, at the Friday screening!
9. Michigan Made – Take a journey through recent history and explore Judge Keith in “Walk with Me: The Trials of Damon J. Keith” From his start as a Detroit-born janitor to his role as the Honorable Judge Keith, this legend has lived a tumultuous and important 94 years through the civil rights movement and beyond.
10. Animal Lovers – No animal lover should miss “The Champions,” the little-known story of what happened to the dogs in NFL-star Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring, and the effect that kind-hearted humans can have on a pup that is looking for a second chance. We’ll have the director of the film in person, as well as a very special subject — rescue dog Cherry!
11. Become a Friend — Becoming a Friend of the Film Festival offers you some fantastic perks. Early access to tickets special screenings, and more! Become a Friend for 2017 before Sunday, July 31 and be entered to win a pass to next year’s fest!
12. Kid’s Fest – Going to the movies can be a family affair! Check out our Kid’s Fest at Lars Hockstad Auditorium where kids movies are only $1! And don’t forget to head to the FREE Lawn Party after the screening!
13. The Doug Benson Movie Interruptions – Who says that you can’t talk at the movies? Doug Benson’s Movie Interruptions will have you laughing until you cry as he gives his two cents on “Kisses for My President” and “Bloodsport.”
14. Read the TCFF Blog – Don’t forget to check out TCFF’s daily news for the lowdown on what’s going on around the festival. Read interviews with filmmakers, breaking events, and so much more!
15. Volunteer! – We LOVE our volunteers, so hang out with the best at our venues or parties! You’ll get an awesome tshirt, the chance to help out one of the coolest film festivals around, and if you volunteer late night, you get vouchers for swag. How can you beat that? 
16. The Sidebar: Food on Film – Watch a mouthwatering documentary, sample a bite inspired by the film, and hear from top chef’s — including the legendary Jeremiah Tower of “Jeremiah Tower: The Last Maginficent.” Seriously, where can I sign up?
17. Parties – Parties galore, there are so many to check out it’ll make your head spin! Check out the Opening Night party on Tuesday, The Woz party on Wednesday (FREE!), Filmmaker Party on Saturday, and the Closing Night Bash on Sunday (FREE!). 
18. Centennial – It’s the celebration of the State Theatre’s 100th birthday! We’ve decided to pair one of the greatest movie theaters in all the land with a special screening of one of the greatest movies of all time, “Citizen Kane,” — with Orson Welles’ own daughter, Beatrice Welles in person.
19. Open Space – No tickets needed. 65′ screen on the Grand Traverse Bay near Clinch Park. “Pitch Perfect.” “Wayne’s World.” “Adam’s Rib.” “Shrek.” “Jurassic World.” “Frozen.” FREE. Need we say more? How about that all the Open Space films this year were directed and/or written by women! 
20. Panels – Check out the FREE panels TCFF has to offer. From The Comedy Panel to Film Under Trump, there’s something for everyone!
21. Film School – We have a great lineup of film experts teaching classes for filmgoers of all ages to experience at the festival! Test your acting chops in class, learn how to pitch a movie idea that’s been on your mind, or hear about music in film at our Film School this year.
22. TCFF Music – Come out and enjoy some pre-show music before film screenings, courtesy of our talented group of volunteer musicians who have vowed to entertain our audiences!
23. Cinema Salon – Watching a movie is great, but talking to audience members about your shared experience is even better! Chat with folks after the show to share your takeaway about the film.
24. WE COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU – We say it a lot, you hear it a lot, and it’s the truth! Without our dedicated volunteers, our generous sponsors, and an audience as curious and passionate as we are about film, this festival would not exist. So thank you, thank you, and thank you again. Please enjoy the 2016 Traverse City Film Festival!

Board Member and unrivaled cinephile Mark Cousins shares this personal letter to Orson Welles. Celebrate Orson Welles and the State Centennial with us at our screening of “Citizen Kane” featuring Orson Welles’ daughter Beatrice Welles on Wednesday, July 27 at 3 pm. 

Dear Orson Welles,

Can we go around the world together? You’re dead, of course, but that doesn’t stop me imagining us as a gruesome twosome, on the road. Maybe you will accept my offer because you were a mendicant friar. When Hollywood didn’t know what to do with you, you set off and out to Spain and France, Yugoslavia and Morocco, to ply your trade, to set up your baroque stall in souks and courts and on stages, between rages.
From where I’m sitting – about which, more in a moment – it looks like you couldn’t stop making films, Orson, from Citizen Kane onwards. You had a will to cinema, a longing for it, or maybe not quite a longing because that implies that it was outside you, far away, something to be reached for when, in fact, it’s better to say that it was inside you. You embodied movies. It’s hard to write to you and not use the word embody, Orson. Your body was like an echo-chamber, like the belly of Ahab’s whale; it produced that voice of yours that rumbled, and all those kings you played.

So can we go on this travelogue, Orson? We could see it, also, as an epilogue. An epilogue to your life, which was so baroque that it is begging for one. I wish this letter could be a dialogue, Orson. For me it is a kind of dialogue. Shall we make it a decalogue? Shall we visit ten places around the world, with cinema on our mind the way Diego Rivera had Frida on his mind, in that great picture he did of himself? To mention Frida and Diego is to think of Mexico, of course. Can we travel the world together without going to Mexico? Without thinking of Sergei Eisenstein’s time there? Without nodding our caps now to the fact that part of the reason for travelling, the compulsion to travel, the propulsion of travel, is what Eisenstein called “exstasis”: the desire to get out of yourself, the rapture of self-loss, the hope that, if we are fleet of foot, we might be able to outwit ourselves, leave them behind, reverse the polarity of self and other?

Indulge me, Orson. Let’s strike out together on this travelogue, epilogue, dialogue, Decalogue. Let’s travel the world and, as we do, ask a simple question. What are the movies? Years ago, when I was in my twenties (and as close to handsome as I was ever going to get), I went to Naples to film a grand lady in her 60s, Flora Pinto d’Albavilla mariata Capaldo. As her name suggests, she was from aristocratic stock. Just as the years of Garibaldi were long gone, so was her money but, somehow, she managed to ignore this fact and live in a small apartment gussied up with chandeliers and French furniture. One evening, after filming, she told me that she’d like to take me to “la plus belle balcon du monde.” We drove for an hour in her fancy car, arrived in Ravello, from where she took me to a balcony overlooking the bay of Naples, the Costa Amalfitana. The moon was full and twinned with its reflection in the sea. As we stood on the balcony, Flora told me that Greta Garbo took Leopold Stokowski there. It was indeed, for me, a working class Belfast boy, the most beautiful balcony in the world. As we stood there, so said to me: “Travel the world with me. I have not long to go, but we could visit the great art galleries together. I would pay for everything. All I’d ask for in return is your company and, occasionally, for you to wear swimming trunks”. Did Tennessee Williams write her lines that night? Did he write this scene, Orson? Did you? I mention it here, of course, because her invitation – “travel the world with me” – seemed to me then, and still does, one of the most risky and beautiful things that one person can say to another. And so I say it to you, Orson.

1

Can we start our journey here, where I am now? I’m in Cannes, France. I’m sitting in a cheap restaurant called La Frigate. It’s lunchtime. The sky is grey – the Magritte colours are only here in the sunshine, as you well know – and, just to further dispel the glamour, I can tell you that I smell of sweat (I’ve been schlepping around town today) and vin blanc provencal. I’m away from the numbers, as someone called Paul Weller once wrote, beyond the Cannes film festival bubble; it’s where I want to be. There’s a quietude in this small restaurant. Nobody’s talking about the film business.

I don’t need to describe Cannes to you, of course, because you were here often. In 1948, you lived in the exclusive Eden Roc hotel at the Cap d’Antibes, near hear, didn’t you? And in that year Rita Hayworth visited you at the Cap, to try to reconcile your relationship. Two years later, you took a taxi from Italy to the hotel, at a cost of $500, to try to convince producer Darryl Zanuck to fund your film of Shakespeare’s Othello. You dropped to your knees and begged him. The place went silent. Perhaps to bring the moment to an end, and out of embarrassment, he offered you $100,000 to play a part in Prince of Foxes. You accepted. The money helped fund your film. You charged him for the taxi. Two years later, in 1952, Othello won the Palme d’or here. And, then, in 1966, you were given a prize here for your contribution to world cinema. Jean Cocteau’s lover Jean Marais made the announcement. Raquel Welsh, whose beauty then brought tears to our eyes, took you to the stage. Behind you stood Mademoiselle Presidente du Jury, Sophia Loren, who was from Naples and who, therefore, had probably stood on la plus belle balcon du monde. So I don’t need to tell you about this place. Unlike me, you’ve seen its inner sanctum, its upper echelons, its holiest of holies, its tracking shots, its foleys.

But what does Cannes tell us about the movies, Orson? As I sit in this restaurant, ten metres from the sea, with scooters buzzing by like wasps, I notice what I’ve always noticed about this place. There’s no smell of the sea. I’ve heard, several times – can this be true? – that before the Cannes film festival starts, they comb the sea to remove the seaweed. If they do do this, why? To make the water look cleaner, clearer? Seaweed gives the sea its smell so, removing it, makes the water more like an ideal but, also, more distant, because it isn’t confirmed by smell. Is it the wine that makes me see, in this, a metaphor for the movies? What we see in a film is there and not there, isn’t it Orson? Just like you’re here and not here now. Movies are over-available to some senses and completely unavailable to others. Read more

Who better to lead a panel of strong, talented women than a strong, talented woman! Indiewire journalist Anne Thompson will be joining the TCFF team and moderating our Friday panel “Who Let the Women In?” where women filmmakers will discuss the struggles and triumphs of creating movies. Click here to read Anne’s article about TCFF 12 and the role women will play in this year’s festival.

Last year’s TCFF series The Sidebar: Food on Film was a resounding success, and we’re bringing back this tasty program for film fans and foodies to enjoy alike. Food on Film presents screenings of mouthwatering documentaries that encourage you to munch on more than the movie popcorn. Stay after the films to listen in on candid conversations between stars of the Michigan food scene, and enjoy delectable bites prepared by the chefs and inspired by the films.

With a fantastic lineup of chefs, including talent from excellent Michigan establishments like Trattoria Stella, Selden Standard, Alliance, and The Cooks’ House, the conversations are not to be missed. As a fantastic last-minute addition, the legendary subject of “Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent,” Jeremiah Tower himself, will be here in person.

This year’s Food on Film offerings are:

“Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent” – Fri 3 pm City Opera House

The influence of Jeremiah Tower in the culinary world can’t be overstated. One of the earliest to gain the status of “celebrity chef,” the internationally-renowned Chef Tower opened his first restaurant in 1984, the world-famous Stars, and most recently led the kitchen at New York City’s Tavern on the Green. In this documentary, everyone’s favorite culinary commentator Anthony Bourdain examines the peaks and valleys of Chef Tower’s career and seeks to restore his reputation as a king of the cooking scene.

Featuring:

Chef Jeremiah Tower
Director Lydia Tenaglia

“Cooking Up a Tribute” – Sat 6 pm City Opera House

If you’ve recently out-staged one of the most famous restaurants off all time to be placed on the top of the list of Restaurant magazine’s “Best Restaurant in the World,” the last thing you would think of doing would be to close up your business for five weeks and take your show on the road, worldwide. But after watching the incredible story of Spanish Eatery El Celler de Can Roca and the three Roca brothers who run it, this great documentary might make you want to reconsider.

Featuring:

Myles Anton, Trattoria Stella	Simon Joseph, Harvest/Gaijin	Pete Peterson, Tapawingo/Alliance

“Noma: My Perfect Storm” – Sun 6 pm City Opera House

Trust us when we say this tasty and thought-provoking film is one you won’t want to watch on an empty stomach. After winning the title of “Best Restaurant in the World” three years in a row, this follows the story of famed Copenhagen restaurant Noma’s star chef Rene Redzepi’s journey as he attempts to reclaim the throne. Filled with imagery of what can only be defined as edible art, this drool-worthy documentary is a can’t-miss.

Featuring:

James Bloomfield, Alliance	Andy Hollyday, Selden Standard	Eric Patterson, The Cooks' House

For the first year, we’re also worked with Taste the Local Difference and Cherry Capital Foods to become a certified local food event! All those tasty bites you’ll enjoy following the film will be sourced locally! Learn more about this here.