CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Approaching a decade in its life as a yearly event, the Wyoming International Film Festival seems to gain more momentum each time it’s held.
And between the 128 films from 18 different countries shown over four days this weekend (having started Thursday with a Sunday end date) at Laramie County Community College, it’d be hard to find a totally unsatisfied moviegoer with all of the options on offer.
“We can kind of track with our audience ballots how people are responding … [and] what I’ve seen as [I’m] recording the audience ballots [are] a lot of fours, a lot of fives. And that’s out of five,” festival executive director Rudi Womack said during the event’s third day Saturday. “So much above-average into the range of good and excellent.”
With a variety of short and feature-length films, the festival has played host to movies featuring crews of all backgrounds, including some that call Wyoming home, for eight years. Womack said that this year’s edition was the event’s biggest one yet and that there’s already plans in the works to expand it even more for 2023.
Wyoming’s sparse and scattered population — along with the fact the state is one of 14 with no film production tax incentive in place — can make it difficult for its filmmakers to break out and find proper connections, Womack said, something he noted that he found out quick during his upbringing in Cheyenne (Womack is now the lead editor for Tiny Hero, a California-based movie and television trailer company).
That’s why he and others find the festival to be such a key career resource; not only does it bring Wyomingites in the film industry together, Womack said, but it also gives them an opportunity to network and learn from people hailing from places that are hubs for quality filmmaking.
“By seeing the Wyoming filmmakers able to interact with the L.A. or New York or Atlanta directors and producers [and] ask them questions and learn more about the industry, it’s been absolutely phenomenal,” Womack said.
“You’ll see filmmakers out of Cody or Jackson or Sheridan networking with filmmakers out of Cheyenne or Laramie or Casper, and they don’t have that opportunity very often. So it’s strengthening the film community here in the state as well as reinforcing Wyoming as a place that can sustain productions from outside producers and directors.”
Some of those outside workers found themselves in the Cowboy State for the first time this weekend. Jack-of-all-trades Dave Rosenberg said he traveled 27 hours from New York to Cheyenne for the Friday screening of his film “The Reunion” — in which he was an actor, writer and co-creator — a project that he said “means the world” to him.
The 91-minute drama film, based on Rosenberg’s real-life adult encounter of a childhood bully, is available on various streaming platforms with a trailer on the movie’s website. Rosenberg said that this weekend marked the first festival he attended for the film without what he called his “Reunion family,” but overall found the experience to be pleasant.
“I think somebody had sent me something that [said], ‘You know, you should enter into Wyoming,'” Rosenberg said. “We got in and I was like, ‘Well, I’m on summer break. I’ll drive out.’ And then the reception has been great.
“It’s nerve-wracking. I sat in the back row and I watched it and one person got up and walked out at one point in the beginning, and I went, ‘Alright, hang in there buddy. Hang in there.’ … But the reception after was fantastic and people really got it. They asked great questions and stayed for the Q&A, and it was great.”
Audience participation and direct conversation with filmmakers was made easy throughout the festival with Q&A sessions following the flicks, giving attendees the opportunity to immediately discuss the material they saw with its creators. That openness, Womack said, helps build connections and benefits the state’s filmmaking scene as a whole.
This weekend’s event may not be a world-renowned film festival like Cannes or Sundance, but it’s Wyoming’s. And Womack believes the value of that can go a long way.
“Once they see the potential in the audience here in Wyoming and how the audience responds to their films, it is so overwhelmingly positive that they can’t help but be attracted to the state,” Womack said. “I have noticed so many of the filmmakers are completely looking over larger markets like Denver in favor for Wyoming because we have that genuine Wyoming hospitality where there’s no ulterior motives. We’re happy to have them here. We want to show their films. We enjoy the projects that they bring.”
