Twenty years ago, Jonathan and Jill Burkhart founded the Nantucket Film Festival to promote the awareness and appreciation of screenwriting. This week through June 29, screenwriters, actors, producers, agents, and fans will gather on Nantucket for the 20th year of NFF.
Throughout this year’s festival, NFF will commemorate the late comedian-actress Anne Meara, a longtime friend and supporter of the festival. Meara co-hosted the festival’s Late Night Storytelling event for 10 years, performed in numerous staged readings, and in 2008 presented Judd Apatow with the Screenwriters Tribute. Meara’s husband Jerry Stiller, son Ben Stiller, and daughter Amy Stiller have also been supporters of the festival for many years.
“We look forward to stimulating and entertaining conversations, panels and screenings, and welcoming filmmakers, actors, presenters and festival supporters to the island,” said Mystelle Brabbée, Executive Director of the Nantucket Film Festival.
This year, Golden Globe®-winning actress Robin Wright, and Academy® and Emmy®-Award nominated House of Cards creator and screenwriter Beau Willimon will participate in an In Their Shoes… ® conversation moderated by Chris Matthews at the Nantucket High School on Sunday, June 28. Additionally, Chris Matthews will also sit down with legendary Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning screenwriter Robert Towne on Friday, June 26 at the Dreamland Theater for a conversation. In Their Shoes…® is presented by Final Draft.
A special panel, “Women Behind the Words: Stories from Hollywood’s Front Lines” will be held on Saturday, June 27 in the Dreamland Theatre. Actresses Jacqueline Bisset and Lili Taylor will join USC Professor Stacy L. Smith and A&E Network’s President & CEO Nancy Dubuc for an in-depth and lively discussion. The panel will be moderated by NPR’s Ophira Eisenberg. Bisset’s film Peter and John will also screen at the festival, as will Taylor’s film A Woman Like Me.
Theo James (Divergent, Insurgent) will be at this year’s Film Fest for his film Franny and Diane Guerrero (Orange is the New Black) for Peter and John, a film set on Nantucket shot on the island.
Additional guests attending include Kyle Patrick Alvarez (The Stanford Prison Experiment), Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), i, Christian Coulson (Peter and John), Jay Craven (Peter and John), Elizabeth Giamatti (A Women Like Me), Robert Gordon (Best of Enemies), Donald Margulies (The End of The Tour), Ben Niles (Some Kind of Spark), Andrew Renzi (Franny), Kate Lyn Sheil (Men Go To Battle), Alexandra Shiva (How to Dance in Ohio), Trey Edward Shults (Krisha), among others.
