Editor

"The most important elements of any film festival are the filmmakers and the audience. Tallgrass is grateful to have such an engaged and dedicated community in these areas. Every year you help make Tallgrass an unforgettable experience,” said Programming Director Andre Seward. 

"With a diverse range of independent features and short films selected, we are looking forward to hosting an amazing hybrid festival this year. Thank you for your continued support and I hope you have an incredible time at the 19th annual Tallgrass Film Festival.” 

Along with our traditional spotlight on Stubbornly Independent features (films created with a budget under $500,000) and DOXX (documentary features directed by female-identifying filmmakers), Tallgrass Film Festival has added a new category to our 2021 awards line-up, The Gordon Parks Award for Black Excellence in Filmmaking.

The line-up announcement includes 128 short films, with a variety of program categories including comedy, relationships, and a spotlight on Kansas filmmakers.

“If you’ve never checked out one of our short film programs before you’re going to want to check them out this year. While much of the world has paused during the pandemic, filmmaker creativity sure hasn’t, “said Short Film Programmer Hannah Bothner. “Get ready for some fun, exciting, and brilliant films that will surprise and delight you. Something particularly exciting this year was how brilliantly so many puzzle pieces fit together to create some amazing short film and feature film pairings that I am super excited for you to see!”

The in-person festival will be held October 20-24 in downtown Wichita. The virtual festival will kick off October 24 and end on October 29.

“With our procurement of a grant called Reimagined Spaces, we took the idea to heart, reimagining a lot of the festival this year as we continue in year two of the pandemic,” said Executive Director Melanie Addington. “At the core of Tallgrass, we remain a festival focused on filmmakers finding their audience and creating community around film. Movies are the great bridge-builder that unites us as people. The 19th annual Tallgrass may look different but the core remains always the same.”

Films will play virtually following the in-person festival unless denoted below. Information on visiting filmmakers and Q&As will be added to the website as they are scheduled.

Tallgrass previously announced the out-of-competition spotlight line-up, education & panels, and jurors. See the rest of the in-person line-up here.

We're pleased to announce our 2021 jurors for our 2021 festival awards, including a new partnership with the Alliance of Women Film Journalists and more. Get to know our 2021 jurors here.

Ahead of our 2021 Student Movie Poster Design contest, we're announcing the 6 local artists who will be helping select the winner, which will be presented at the opening night screening of SHREK at Naftzger Park. Learn more about the jurors here.

All of the panels and education sessions hosted at Tallgrass are COMPLETELY FREE! Check out our line-up of conversations in store for this year's festival here. 

Have you seen our Spotlight film line-up? Check out the films here and grab your tickets to make sure you don't miss out on all of the amazing festivities ahead - including - A Gordon Parks tribute with special guest David Parks, a late-night screening of The Room & Miracle Valley with Greg Sestero, and more. Get your tickets to our spotlight films (or better yet - a TALLPass!) here.