Since the fall of 2023, the Yellow Springs Film Festival has turned the idyllic and bohemian village of Yellow Springs into a hub of culture and entertainment, showing films fresh out of the world’s major festivals. The festival often features the filmmakers and actors involved, combined with curated live performances from comedians like Fred Armisen and Reggie Watts and musicians like Raekwon and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. The festival ties the mediums together expertly with varied and noteworthy programming on the level of long-running festivals in much bigger cities.
The festival, which also features a mid-year mini-fest in the spring, has hosted guests like legendary writer/director Jim Jarmusch, director and pop culture icon John Waters, actor/director Steve Zahn and comedian Dave Hill, to name a few.
This year continues the work of previous festivals with appearances from fan favorite writer/director Kevin Smith for a 25th anniversary screening of Dogma, a live performance from actor/comedian and Saturday Night Live alum Kevin Nealon, a talk with Academy Award-winning production designer Hannah Beachler and a Q&A with The National’s Matt and Tom Berninger, among others.
There are also some fun additions this year. “I think we’re trying to scale this in a very measured way, but year three feels like we’re definitely adding some things into the mix,” Mahoney told CityBeat.
Festivities kick off a day early on Thursday, Oct. 2, with a celebration of The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling at Antioch College — where he once studied and later taught. The day includes a marker dedication ceremony on campus, followed by a festival-hosted evening event featuring a live performance of a Serling radio play, a screening of a classic Twilight Zone episode, a talk by author and Serling’s daughter, Anne Serling, and a panel of experts. The celebration doesn’t stop there. On Friday, festivalgoers can catch an outdoor screening of a selection of Twilight Zone episodes on Short Street, another festival first.
Other new additions this year include a live recording of Cincinnati Public Radio distributed podcast The Novelizers, created by former Jimmy Fallon-era Tonight Show writer and Dayton native Stephen Levinson. The live recording will feature actor/comedian Michael Ian Black (Wet Hot American Summer, The State, Stella) as the special guest to perform a reworked and “Novelized” version of The Matrix.
This year’s festival also offers a family-friendly event featuring a performance from the Beavercreek chapter of the School of Rock paired with a showing of the 2003 comedy of the same name, School of Rock, that is free and open to the public.
The festival’s official kickoff is at 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3, with a performance from Nealon for what has become a tradition of sorts for the festival — having a comic start things off and set the tone for the weekend.
“That kickoff party, year one, was sort of a happy accident,” Mahoney said. “We had booked Fred Armisen to do an in-conversation and late in the game, he said he was going to do a little tour starting after our thing and wanted to know if he could do a performance and, so, we figured out that we could put him on a Friday matinee and call it kickoff party and it went over so well, last year we were like, ‘We’ve got to do that again.’ So, we got Reggie Watts to do it last year. That was awesome. Now, it just seems like it’s part of our thing, where we just kick off the festival with a comic and I just love Kevin Nealon.”
Following Nealon’s set, and a little break to enjoy the town, is the opening night screening. The film is She Dances, which debuted at Tribeca this year and stars Ethan Hawke, Zahn and Zahn’s daughter, Audrey Zahn, as the lead. The showing will feature a Q&A with Audrey Zahn afterward. Mahoney is enthusiastic about the screening. “It’s a great film. I’m really excited about that. I think Audrey Zahn is definitely somebody to keep an eye on. It’s good to have someone who’s just getting started and kind of shine a light on them. So, I’m really excited to have her.”
There will also be an afterparty at the Foundry Theater both Friday and Saturday night to keep the celebration going.
Saturday programming starts at 10:30 a.m. with Yellow Springs resident and friend of the festival, filmmaker Steven Bognar’s Film Seminar, along with the start of a full day of events at the picturesque and historic downtown theater, the Little Art Theatre. As it has in previous years, the festival will pay tribute to Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and Yellow Springs resident Julia Reichert, who passed away in 2022. This year, they will honor her with an awards ceremony in her name to honor female filmmakers.
Saturday’s headline event and the fastest to sell out in festival history, is a 25th anniversary screening of the cult classic comedy Dogma, featuring the movie’s writer and director, Kevin Smith. Smith is a fan favorite who has had a loyal following since his debut film Clerks was released in 1993. Mahoney tells CityBeat the booking came about through a mutual friend and Smith’s interest in helping support the festival. “He’s such a champion of independent cinema and independent film and gatherings. I think this was up his alley and it worked out. I’m a huge fan. I love Dogma and we were thrilled to have that as our Saturday night headlining piece this year, to have him come and speak and show that movie.”
The other Saturday night main attraction is a screening of music history documentary We Want the Funk across town at the Little Art Theatre. The screening is in collaboration with WYSO and features a Q&A with directors Stanley Nelson and Nicole London. “It’s a great film, just tracing all of the history of funk music and all of its influence on other types of genres. It’s a really fun ride, it’s a cool, cool film and we’re gonna have an afterparty afterwards where we’re spinning funk music at the Foundry to coincide with that. So, that’ll be super fun,” Mahoney told CityBeat.
YSFF ties in local connections when possible to highlight talent from Southern Ohio, and the 1:15 p.m. talk on Sunday with Beachler is a perfect example. Mahoney talks about what to expect. “Her career and her credits are insane. She does all of Ryan Coogler’s films, from Sinners to the Black Panther series. She worked on Moonlight, she did Miles Ahead, she did all of Beyonce’s Lemonade videos. She’s like a powerhouse creator and went to Wright State film school, so has this really nice local connection and she’s an event I’m really excited about and I think people are gonna be blown away to hear her talk. We’re going to be able to show some of her work on-screen and dig into her process a little bit.”
Keeping with Mahoney’s varied sensibilities and the festival’s connection to music and local artists, there will also be a screening of the 2013 documentary Mistaken for Strangers about Cincinnati band The National’s Matt and Tom Berninger, who will also be on hand for a talk. Mahoney says he came across the film while doing research to direct 2019’s Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero. “I watched that one and absolutely fell in love with it. It’s not really even a music doc; it’s about two brothers’ relationship, really. But, I love the film so much and, ironically, during the Brainiac production, I was connected with Matt (Berninger), who was a huge fan, which I wasn’t aware of, and we ended up interviewing him for the movie. That’s how I initially met him and then he was on my podcast (Kon-tiki) a couple years later.”
Mahoney also talked about using the festival’s platform to highlight films that deserve more attention. “We were just kind of thinking about, ‘What’s a movie that we just really, really love that feels like it’s just kind of flown under the radar?’ I would call people that I know that are fans of The National and I feel like 90% of them had not seen that film. So, I just felt like it’d be a good second opportunity for us to kind of shine a light on something that I thought was such a great piece of work and to have the two guys that made it come to speak.”
The Yellow Springs Film Festival takes place Oct. 2-5 at various locations in Yellow Springs. For a full list of events, visit the YSFF website.