Bozeman Has Had a Film Festival on Paper Since 1983. This Weekend It Finally Has One on Main Street.

The inaugural Bozeman Film Festival opens tonight, Thursday, October 8, and runs through Sunday, October 11. It brings 72 films to downtown Bozeman over four days, screened in three historic venues within a few blocks of Main Street: the Ellen Theatre, the Rialto and the Armory. The Bozeman Film Society presents it and calls it "One New Montana Film Tradition."

The "new" part needs a footnote. Lisa McGrory, the Society's executive director, wrote in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that the festival "is not a new idea arriving in town. It is the same habit, established by Bozeman Film Society, compressed into four days, in a town that has grown into it." That habit grew up in the same downtown rooms that host this weekend, and it shapes how the weekend fits together.

A Name the Society Spent Years Living Down

McGrory's essay traces the organization from a campus film series to a festival. Here are the turning points:

1. 1970s: Jack Stonnell, then a young film and TV professor at Montana State, starts monthly classic and world cinema screenings for students. So many townspeople show up that in 1978 the screenings move off campus to the Ellen Theatre.
2. 1983: A handful of downtown business owners and Montana State faculty incorporate a nonprofit called Bozeman Film Festival, Inc. Locals call it BFF. At the time, "festival" meant a celebration of film, and for three decades the name described an ordinary habit of gathering to watch movies.
3. The Rialto years: The board makes the Rialto its home. With help from local film booker Verl Clark, it convinces a skeptical theater chain in Atlanta to send a steady stream of arthouse titles to Bozeman, week after week.
4. 2004: Both Main Street theaters close.
5. 2006 and after: The group moves to the Emerson Crawford Theater and installs the Ellen's old, unused 35mm projector. Later it renames itself the Bozeman Film Society, in McGrory's words, "so people would stop expecting a festival."
6. 2016: When 35mm is phased out, a community campaign called Go Digital or Go Dark pays for a digital projector and brings the Society back to the restored Ellen. "Every screening since has run on a projector Bozeman bought," McGrory writes.

So the group dropped "Festival" from its name because it didn't run one. Now it does, at the same two Main Street addresses that went dark in 2004. "So the name is finally catching up to itself," McGrory writes.

The Rooms That Hold the Weekend

That history explains the layout. There's no tent or fairground. The festival runs out of downtown buildings that the Society's audience has filled for decades, plus a few gathering spots nearby. Addresses come from the festival's Venues & Map page.

The Ellen and the Rialto sit across Main Street from each other, so most of the weekend takes place within a short walk.

The Weekend, Night by Night

Thursday, October 8. The festival opens at 6:30 p.m. at the Ellen with Baby Love and a Q&A. Directed by Joseph Marconi, the film follows an MMA fighter. At 8:30 p.m. the Kick-off Celebration moves to the Baxter Hotel Grand Ballroom, with the Craig Hall Trio playing. That night Glenn Close presents the Andrew Laszlo Visionary Award to Ruth De Jong, a production designer whose credits include Oppenheimer, Nope, Us and The Revenant. De Jong earned an Academy Award nomination for Oppenheimer. Jeff Laszlo sponsors the award. He is the son of Andrew and Ann Laszlo, and the festival lists the family's ties as New York City, Bozeman and Ennis.

Friday, October 9. The evening anchor is the Montana premiere of Hard Twist: Through the Lens of Barbara Van Cleve at 6 p.m. at the Ellen, paired with the short Ball Lightning. The Q&A lists Van Cleve, director Cynthia Matty-Huber and producer Dennis Aig. Earlier in the day, at 3 p.m., the schedule includes The Row and Eastern Western. It also lists Wayward: The Women Who Changed Snowboarding, with panel guests Jen Grace, Ali Spaulding and Sunny Smallwood. The Filmmaker Social takes place at Studio Noble.

Saturday, October 10. One Plant screens at 3:45 p.m. at the Rialto as a Montana premiere, paired with the short The Farmer's Daughter. The Q&A lists director Jordan Berger, subject Ken Elliot and short-film director Melissa Bloom. At 8:30 p.m. the Rialto hosts Shake the Marquee with Tsunami Funk, and the listing says it's open to the public.

Sunday, October 11. The juried awards are presented in the morning at the Ellen. One festival page lists 9 a.m. and another lists 9:30 a.m., so check the start time before you go. The last listed feature is Vanishing: A Love Story, with a Q&A, at 2 p.m. at the Ellen.

A Program That Leans Toward Montana

The festival highlights three films in McGrory's essay: Baby Love, Hard Twist and One Plant. She calls them "premieres with deep Montana roots." Hard Twist looks at ranch life through the work of Montana photographer Barbara Van Cleve. One Plant explores how a single plant intersects with some of today's most pressing issues. The submission categories also set aside a place for Montana-made films.

The panels follow the same theme. The schedule includes three: Montana Through Her Lens, Cinema Soundscapes and Reel A.I. Cinema historian Andrew Patrick Nelson gives a talk called "You Can't Escape the West(ern)." It covers how a century of Western movies shaped the way the country imagines this region, and what happens when filmmakers point a camera at the West as it is now.

Two blocks belong entirely to student filmmakers. One is a high school shorts program supported by Montana PBS Media Mavericks, and the other shows college work. Both play on the same screens as the rest of the lineup.

Not every film is local. Programming director Lincoln Sevier described one submission, a feature-length documentary about homelessness in Los Angeles, in the Chronicle:

"I expected to leave saddened. Instead, I was overwhelmed by the filmmaker's compassion, and by the dignity and humanity he reveals in people whose lives are too often reduced to their circumstances."

That film is The Row. The festival also draws people from out of town. According to McGrory, filmmakers representing 58 of the films are traveling to Bozeman, and passes had sold into 14 states and four countries before the schedule came out.

What a Pass Gets You, and What It Doesn't

The festival lists these prices on its homepage:

• Gallatin Pass (all films): $150
• Bozeman Creek Pass (student): $50
• Single film tickets: $16, or $12 for students
• Shake the Marquee party: $20

A pass doesn't guarantee a seat. The festival tells pass holders to reserve spots for films and parties through the schedule and ticketing site. Pass pickup is at the Rialto box office today, October 8, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 to 7 p.m. The box office stays open during the festival. Thursday's Kick-off Celebration at the Baxter requires a valid accreditation. Saturday's Shake the Marquee is the party open to the public.

Prizes are decided in two ways. A jury of nine industry professionals ranks the 72 selected films by category, with Juried Awards presented Sunday morning at the Ellen. Audiences vote for the Audience Awards for best feature and best short, and the winners are announced by email and social media after the festival closes. That means a ballot cast after Sunday's 2 p.m. screening of Vanishing: A Love Story at the Ellen still counts.

At Charlotte Durham & Co., we follow how downtown Bozeman's historic theaters, hotels and gathering places shape everyday life on Main Street. If this weekend has you curious about the blocks around the Ellen and the Rialto, our team would be glad to share what we know about this corner of town.