The Valley Chronicle - 10th Annual Idyllwild Cinemafest graces the va

■ Trinity Houston / Contributed The Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, one of California’s best known independent film festivals, entered its tenth season on Mar. 5 and will continue through Mar. 10, with a new look and a few very lofty goals. Setting its sights on an Oscar accreditation for 2020, the festival organizers promise a future full of great independent films and even more Hollywood star power. With a grand jury that includes A-Lister Anne Archer at its helm, renowned cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia, actress Irene Bedard (the voice of Disney’s Pocahontas) and Queen drummer Roger Taylor, among others, IIFC will hit its aluminum anniversary with a bang. With an overhaul of its main theatre venue as well as a new location for its annual IDY awards ceremony, the Hemet Historic Theatre in Hemet, IIFC has come into its own as a truly important film festival. The Idyllwild Rustic Theatre, a historic venue in its own right, now promises super comfort with more spacious audience seating and a new digital sound system to complement its state of the art projection setup. The Idyllwild Town Hall building will once again serve as the festival’s second screening venue for 2019, and the four-star Creekstone Inn will provide a smaller, more intimate space for viewing the amazing films included in IIFC’s 2019 schedule. With over 100 movies from almost every continent on the planet, the Idyllwild Festival 2019 is an event not to be missed. Over the past few seasons, IIFC has had to turn away a great number of willing film fans from its awards ceremony due to a demand that exceeded the number of seats available at the Rustic Theatre. The move to the Hemet Historic Theatre for the awards show will solve that problem nicely, providing nearly 400 seats in its nostalgic yet luxurious “Old Hollywood” setting. The theater was built during the WWI period and is now in the hands of a non-profit trust which maintains the day to day upkeep of this one of a kind venue. The Hemet Historic Theatre is less than a half hour from Idyllwild, and as a majority of the attendees come from the Los Angeles area, Hemet is a convenient last event stop for those headed home on the festival’s closing day. IIFC continues under the guidance of executive producer Trinity Houston and the festival’s founder, film and television director Stephen Savage, who are both coming off a successful year of commercial creative work with iconic companies like Tesla and Honda. This culminating in their commercial work screening to half a million people at this year’s huge CES show in Las Vegas. With a couple of upcoming film projects in both the US and the UK, as well as running the film festival, Houston and Savage are well aware they have their hands full. But as always, the duo is looking forward to the best year yet at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema. For more information visit www.idyllwildcinemafest.com.