Join us at the 9th annual Montana Film Festival
at The Roxy Theater in Missoula, Montana,
October 12-15, 2023
Celebrate independent filmmaking when the eighth annual Montana Film Festival.
Submissions for MTFF open in mid-June.
Th 2022 Festival lineup featured seven feature-length and 21 short films as well as parties, a trivia competition, and numerous Q&A sessions. More below. Stay tuned for updated 2023 information later down the road.
The 2022 MTFF hosts the Montana premiere of the epic Butcher’s Crossing (Oct 13 & 15), a Nicolas Cage-starring adaptation of John Williams’s classic novel about a doomed buffalo hunt. Friend-of-the-festival Lily Gladstone will be in attendance for two films: the elegiac road movie The Unknown Country (Oct 14 & 16) and Quantum Cowboys, a fusion of the western with science fiction, shot using 12 different animation styles. MTFF has always been committed to showing films representing many different genres, and this year is no exception. Bitterbrush, a non-fiction portrait of two female range riders, will be followed by a Q&A with one of the featured riders, Hollyn Cardani (Oct 15). Horror film Glorious, starring Ryan Kwanten as a man who encounters a primordial deity in an adjoining bathroom stall, features the disembodied voice of UM alumnus/Academy Award-winner J.K. Simmons (Oct 13). Funny Pages, a coming-of-age story of a teenage cartoonist written and directed by Owen Kline, closes the festival out on Sunday (Oct 16). A special 35mm screening of Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise is paired with the new short film Stranger Than Rotterdam, which chronicles producer Sara Driver’s attempts to smuggle Stranger Than Paradise into the International Rotterdam Film Festival in 1982 (Oct 15). The additional 20 short films curated by MTFF run the gamut from experimental animation to heartwarming comedy, with eight countries represented.
MTFF: Movies for people who love movies.
2022 PRESS LINKS
Download the 2022 MTFF Press Release (PDF)
Missoulian article, October 6, 2022, Montana Film Fest: Lily Gladstone, Nic Cage, and J.K. Simmons on the Marquee
Missoulian article, October 13, 2022, Montana-made shorts bring ‘poetry’ to Montana Film Festival
Wake Up Montana, October 13, 2022 Montana Film Festival Returns to the Roxy
Missoulian article, October 13, 2022 Review: ‘Quantum Cowboys’ is Animated Brain-melter
The Trail Morning Interviews, October 13, 2022 DJ Mike Smith visits with The Unknown Country Director, Morrisa Maltz
Missoulian article, October 14, 2022 Blackfeet Wranglers, Bison Herds made “Butcher’s Crossing” Possible
Montana Public Radio, interview with Lauren Korn & Mike Emmons, 8th Annual Montana Film Festival Returns
MONTANA FILM FESTIVAL VISION
- To cultivate the appreciation for independent film as an art form during the 4-day festival and year-round through MTFF Presents.
- To celebrate the experience of theatrical exhibition as a way for the community to gather, enjoy, and exchange ideas in a friendly, open atmosphere.
- To inspire and expand the film community throughout Montana by lifting up and highlighting work from and about Montana.
- To foster an understanding of world cultures, global challenges, and living in the contemporary west through independent film.
- To provide opportunities for those who work in the Montana film industry–or those who want to–to make contact with and learn from each other.
Festival Director, Carrie Richer
Programmer, Mike Emmons
