Oklahoma’s Largest Film Festival Held in deadCenter of State

The deadCenter Film Festival began in 2001 as a one-night screening of short films by Oklahoma filmmakers. Fifty people attended. It has since grown into the largest film festival in Oklahoma and is now a three-day event that draws more than 30,000 people each June to view some of the best independent films from around the world. Moviemaker Magazine has numbered deadCenter among “The Top 20 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” and one of “The Top 50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.” A 501 (c) (3) organization, deadCenter’s mission is to promote, encourage and celebrate independent film arts. It does so not only by holding an annual film festival but also by operating a statewide education program that reaches more than 3,000 students annually and by offering screenings throughout the year through partnerships with museums and various arts organizations. And what’s with the name, you may well ask. It simply refers to the geographic location of the festival: downtown Oklahoma City, which places it not only in the dead center of Oklahoma but in the dead center of the United States as well. The 2019 festival, held June 3 – 6, screened 140 films that were selected from 1,500 submissions. The shown films included 22 feature films, 108 short films and 10 Virtual Reality 360 films. All genre of films are screened, including everything from documentaries to comedies and horror movies. Each year deadCenter offers awards in a variety of categories. Those that have been rated at the top of each category are sent to respected directors, producers, writers, actors, distributors, educators, film critics and prior winners to make the final selections. Films recognized in 2019 included:

• Best Narrative Feature: Colewell
• Best Documentary Feature:Jump Shot
• Best Short Live Action:Peggy
• Best Short Documentary:Lowland Kids
• Best Short Animation: My Moon
• Best Oklahoma Feature:Words from a Bear
• Best Oklahoma Short:The Stand-In
• Best Student Film:Moonwalk with Me
• Special Jury Narrative Feature: Come as You Are
• Special Jury Documentary Feature:Red Dog
• Special Jury Short: Something Like Loneliness
• Virtual Cinema Visions Award:For Us, Not for Her
• Best Music Video: How it Goes - Keenan the First

  The call for entries for the 2020 deadCenter Festival is now open. The final deadline is February 21. Notification will be made May 1, and the festival will be held June 11 -14. It requires help from over 400 volunteers to hold the festival each year. Visit here to learn how you can volunteer, subscribe to the newsletter or help support the festival financially.