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In late April, genre fans crowded into the Timberline Lodge in Mt. Hood, Ore., for a new horror film festival, but they didn’t spend the whole weekend watching movies. Instead, the newly founded Overlook Film Festival used its contained setting to showcase an emerging creative field that may point the way to the future of entertainment: the immersive experience.

“The value of showcasing immersive storytelling at film festivals, to me, is that it can only stand to add texture and flavor to the overall programming,” said Dylan Reiff, co-founder of Bottleneck Immersive. The gaming company, which presented an escape room at Fantastic Fest in Austin last fall, invited Overlook participants to opt in to an immersive horror game. “It adds this underbelly of energy that permeates the space.”

For his Overlook project, Reiff and his collaborators gave participants wristbands when they arrived at the hotel, and throughout the weekend...

After a summer dominated by big budget Hollywood blockbusters, we could all use a film that reminds us of the humanity and joy of the medium. Teal Greyhavens’ Cinema is Everywhere follows actors and directors from four disparate cultures, creating an interwoven narrative fabric that lovingly renders the importance of film across the globe. Greyhavens’ documentary makes effort to explore cinema in countries where social and political barriers limit or restrict free speech; often, movies are the best opportunities people have to express their thoughts, fears and hopes. With such an ambitious scope the film could easily spread itself too thin, but the director tells each story with simplicity and grace, and succeeds in crafting a work that feels authentic in its universality.

Greyhavens, who filmed the documentary in 2009 while travelling on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, below talks about the literal and figurative journey of making Cinema is Everywhere.

Today on indieWIRE, we featured interviews with BFI London Film Festival director Sandra Hebon on the eve of her departure from the festival and Teal Grehavens, director of "Cinema is Everywhere," shared an excerpt from Brian Kellow's new Pauline Kael biography, showcased the trailer for Werner Herzog's new documentary, and more! Futures | “Cinema is Everywhere” Director Teal Greyhavens On His “quasi-academic project” Greyhavens recently saw the U.S. premiere of ...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: A handful of stellar titles with Oscar aspirations have been programmed into this year’s Austin Film Festival schedule, which begins on Oct. 20 with an as-yet-unnamed Opening Night selection.

In between, Aff audiences will get their first looks at Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants,” Steve McQueen’s “Shame,” Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” Rodrigo Garcia’s “Albert Nobbs” and Sean Durkin’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene” – all films with awards hopes that will screen as part of the festival’s Marquee category.

“We’re proud to be taking our program in some exciting new directions while maintaining our focus on strong writing and engaging stories,” said new Film Programmers Stephen Jannise and Stephen Belyeu.

In addition, the fest has set up special screenings of “Toy Story” (presented by John Lasseter), an “Edward Scissorhands” screening, and a tribute to Polly Platt...