Denver, CO
45th Denver Film Festival finds robust ticket sales, self-reflection after period of upheaval
Movie festivals are all the time on the transfer, catching as much as and launching traits, churning out themes, and hawking tickets to please longtime members and mint new ones.
The Denver Movie Competition has shifted greater than most. When its forty fifth occasion opens on Wednesday, Nov. 2, it should have survived management turnover, workers defections and two years of pandemic upheaval at its nonprofit producer, Denver Movie, to current its 200-plus titles — all of them in individual this yr.
“We’ve received a comparatively younger, inexperienced workers, which I see as a constructive,” stated Kevin Smith, CEO of Denver Movie. “They bring about an vitality and pleasure round what we’re doing, and it’s been fantastic to open up that pool of candidates as a part of our DEI (variety, fairness and inclusion) efforts.”
Smith, previously Denver Movie’s advertising guru, acknowledged {that a} half dozen or so workers members and contract employees have left in latest months, some acrimoniously, however he hopes to regular the ship. He was named CEO in Might, following the departure of James Mejia, who lasted solely about 17 months within the place.
Previous to that, Denver Movie was run by Andrew Rodgers, who resigned amid a interval of tragedy and different shake-ups at Denver Movie, following the car-accident loss of life of inventive director Brit Withey. Longtime pageant director Britta Erickson additionally stepped down, leaving Smith as de facto director final yr.
The pageant’s Nov. 2-13 schedule, which kicks off with the red-carpet screening of James Grey’s “Armageddon Time” on the Ellie Caulkins Opera Home on Nov. 2, leaves room for reinvention amid its globe-spanning options, shorts, documentaries, panels and filmmaker talk-backs.
Whether or not that’s a very good factor is as much as viewers.
Gone this yr — and with regrets from inventive director Matthew Campbell — is the digital program that allowed viewers throughout the state to catch screenings. Distributors have been pushing onerous for in-theater screenings and limiting titles primarily based on that, Campbell stated, leaving digital attendees within the mud.
Additionally totally different this yr: The screenings, events and digital actuality sometimes happening on the McNichols Civic Middle Constructing have been moved to the Sie FilmCenter, Denver Movie’s residence base, in addition to to the next-door Tattered Cowl bookstore. Different screenings will happen on the AMC 9+10 and Denver Botanic Gardens, as in years previous.
The excellent news? The lineup is muscular and socially acutely aware. Along with the fly-on-the-wall household drama “Armageddon Time,” starring Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Robust, different purple carpet displays on the Ellie embrace “Empire of Gentle” by director Sam Mendes, starring Michael Ward, Olivia Colman and Colin Firth (centerpiece, Nov. 4); and “Girls Speaking” by director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Frances McDormand, about confronting sexual assault in an remoted non secular colony (closing evening, Nov. 12).
A final-minute addition is “The Holly,” author-director Julian Rubinstein’s documentary about Denver’s gang scene as considered by way of North Park Hill Bloods. A earlier screening offered out so rapidly {that a} purple carpet slot was introduced for Nov. 10, pushing a screening of “Loudmouth,” a documentary about Al Sharpton, to the Sie FilmCenter. (Sharpton canceled his look on the pageant earlier this month).
Particular Presentation screenings, as Denver Movie calls them, are simply as magnetic. “She Mentioned” (Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) seems to be on the roots of the continuing #MeToo motion, whereas “The Son” (Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern) delves into psychological well being crises and household dynamics. “The Whale,” starring Brendan Fraser (Nov. 12 and already offered out) will embrace a post-show award ceremony for author Samuel Hunter. Notably, the movie is predicated on Hunter’s play that had its world premiere on the Denver Middle Theatre Firm in 2012.
Hunter will arrive alongside playwright-actor Raúl Castillo (“Inspection,” HBO’s “Wanting”); actor Sheila McCarthy (who seems in “Girls Speaking”); and minimalist legend James Benning (too many movies to depend), amongst others. The worldwide showcase brings again its Italian lineup, together with Irish and U.Ok. titles. Mini-fests similar to CinemaQ, Girls+Movie, and the Dragon Boat Movie Competition may also be represented in programming and discussions about race, abortion, sexuality, gender, LGBTQ rights and extra.
A Colorado highlight part vaunts attractive native titles similar to Alexandre O. Philippe’s “Lynch/Oz,” Netflix’s “The right way to Construct a Intercourse Room,” and shorts by Usama Alshaibi, Kelly Sears and others. Notably interesting: Beret E. Robust and Katrina Miller’s “This Is (Not) Who We Are,” about institutional racism in Boulder.
Extra excellent news: Curiosity is up in comparison with final yr’s comparatively earthbound occasion. Pre-pandemic, Denver Movie Competition collected about $380,000 in ticketing income in 2018, adopted by $350,000 in 2019. That comes out to an common of 35,000 tickets per pageant, Smith stated, and this yr’s gross sales are already in line to fulfill or surpass that, with a number of sell-outs and tickets offered to each single occasion on the pageant.
As well as, Denver Movie’s Summer time Scream fundraiser at Lakeside Amusement Park smashed earlier data. With an immersive theme tapping 50 native artists, the 21-and-up occasion did slightly below $200,000 in income and drew greater than 3,000 attendees. The earlier fundraising report from the occasion was $67,000, Smith stated.
Chris Getzan, co-programmer of Summer time Scream, will return for the fest with an progressive speaker sequence referred to as Tales from Attention-grabbing Instances, which collects various personalities and is geared toward delving deep into thorny subjects of the day.
“I hope it’s going to push some buttons, and get of us to second-guess their assumptions about issues — what they see, how they see it,” stated Getzen, who organized the talks beneath themes similar to Information, Work, Artwork and Meals.
No matter it seems to be like after the pageant ends on Nov. 13, Denver Movie could have reasserted itself as the town’s greatest champion of movie. Or so that they hope.
“We had been fortunate to even pull off the occasion final yr as a result of we had been sandwiched between the Delta and Omicron variants,” Campbell stated. “So we had been on eggshells the entire time. Would we’ve got to cancel? What’s the protocol? After all, we’re not accomplished with the pandemic but, however hopefully we will let our hair down just a little extra this time.”
For those who go
forty fifth Denver Movie Competition. Offered by Denver Movie, with 200-plus options, documentaries, shorts, music movies, digital actuality and different content material screening in individual. Nov. 2-13 on the Sie FilmCenter, 2510 E. Colfax Ave., in addition to the Ellie Caulkins Opera Home, Denver Botanic Gardens, AMC 9+10 and Tattered Cowl Colfax.
Tickets: $2,000 for all-access cross, $450 for the Mile Excessive cross; $250 for the festival-ending cross; $75 for particular person purple carpet screenings; and $11-$25 for all others. Costs discounted for members. Name 720-381-0819 or go to denverfilm.org/denverfilmfestival/dff45 for tickets, the complete lineup and up to date schedule.
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Denver, CO
Prolonged ‘Welly weather,’ our first taste of winter and Lisa’s official first-snow prediction for Denver
Lisa Hidalgo and Ryan Warner were ready to bust out the rain boots for their September weather and climate chat.
Denver7’s chief meteorologist and the Colorado Public Radio host delved into a rare, days-long rainy stretch, our first taste of winter and the pair’s official first-snow-date prediction for Denver.
‘Welly weather’
“Two things happened this week that rarely happen in Colorado,” Warner said. “The first is that when I went to bed it was raining. I woke up and it was raining. And two, the rain meant I could wear my ‘Wellies,’ my Wellington boots.”
“These are rare events,” the green-rubber-boot-clad Warner quipped during the conversation.
Warner and Hidalgo held their conversation on the heels of an unusually rainy spell. In Colorado, rain storms often come and go quickly. This week’s rainfall, though, came during a slow-moving storm.
“It’s more the direction of it and where it camps out,” Hidalgo explained. “So as you get a low pressure system rolling through the state, and we get all this moisture that wraps around the back side of it, it jams up against the foothills. It’s called an upslope flow.”
In the winter, such a storm would’ve meant inches of snow in Denver. With September highs in the 50s, though, it came down as rain in town as it snowed in the high country.
First taste of winter
The National Weather Service in Boulder estimated Tuesday that “a widespread 5-10 inches” of snow fell at the highest elevations – above 10,500 to 11,000 feet – during the September 22-23 storm.
For the snow-lovers out there (keep scrolling if that’s not you)…
Some healthy snowfall over the past ~18 hrs for some of our higher elevations (mainly east of the Continental Divide above 10,500′).
Pictured: Dakota Hill (Gilpin Co; left); Killpecker (Larimer Co; right) #COwx pic.twitter.com/46surChItd
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) September 24, 2025
Hidalgo noted things would quickly warm up after what was the area’s first winter weather advisory of the season.
“But this is just a hint of what’s to come,” she said. “And, obviously, we’re going to see a lot more alerts as we get into fall and into winter.”
When will Denver see its first measurable snow?
On average, the first snowfall in Denver happens on Oct. 18. The window has already passed for our earliest first snow, which happened on Sept. 3. The latest first snow in Denver is Dec. 10 – Lisa’s birthday.
With all of that in consideration, Hidalgo predicted this year’s first snow in Denver would fall on Oct. 24.
Warner’s guess? A potentially soggy evening of trick-or-treating after an Oct. 29 first snow.
More weather in-depth
Lisa and Ryan touched on studies on potential connections between both lightning and snowmelt on Colorado’s year-round fire season. They also discussed a study that suggests the eastern half of Colorado is drying out faster than the western half.
For more in-depth weather analysis, watch their full weather and climate chat in the video player below:
Denver, CO
Some Park Hill residents feel Denver is failing on minority outreach in golf course discussion
Saturday morning at Park Hill’s Hiawatha Davis Recreation Center, the City of Denver held a community open house to talk about its next big project: the city park and open space that was formerly the Park Hill Golf Course.
“It’s quite rare for a city to have this large of a park coming in. So it’s really important to us that that process is driven by the community,” said Sarah Showalter, director of planning and policy at the city’s Department of Community Planning and Development.
Residents got to see the plans for the park and the future the city has in store for the surrounding neighborhood.
“The voters clearly said that 155 acres should be a park, but the community is still looking for access to food and to affordable housing,” said Jolon Clark, executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation.
It seemed to be a good turnout, which the city likes, but two groups that appeared to be underrepresented were Black and Latino people, which is a problem, since Park Hill is a historically Black neighborhood.
Helen Bradshaw is a lifelong Park Hill resident. She and Vincent Owens, another long-time resident, came to the open house and said the problem is simple: the city isn’t meeting the neighbors of color where they are.
“The people who are just the average go to work, they might be at work or they have to work today or, you know, they couldn’t get a babysitter or something like that,” Owens said. “A lot of the elders on my block, they’re not going to come to something like this. So, you need to canvass and actually go get the voice of opinion, or they don’t know about it.”
Bradshaw and Owens say they want a neighborhood park and space for the neighbors by the neighbors. They also want a grocery store and opportunities for people who were part of the neighborhood long before it became a gem for development.
The city says that’s what they want as well, and that’s why they want everyone in Park Hill to give their input until the project is done.
“People can go to ParkHillPark.org and they can fully get involved and find out what the next engagement is, how to provide their input, you know, through an email, through a survey,” said Clark.
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