Happy New Year from the AAFF

From left to right first row: Marin Smith, Katherine Pertuso, Tom Bray

Bottom row: Angela Lenhardt, Leslie Raymond

“You all at AAFF are amazeBALLs. Thank you so much. It's gonna be a wild ride, just so grateful knowing you are out there!” - Elisa Guyton

As the end of the year approaches, your support is vital to ensure the Ann Arbor Film Festival can continue being an exceptional platform for experimental film art in addition to being amazeBALLs! We are so excited about the possibilities for our next festival and can’t wait to see you all again virtually for the 59th Ann Arbor Film Festival, March 23-March 28, 2021.

While this year has been challenging, it has created opportunities for changes. Here are just a few of the things we’ve been able to accomplish in 2020:

The 58th AAFF became our first virtual festival (in only twelve days!) as well as the FIRST film festival to take our programs online
16,000 unique IP addresses from 101 countries tuned in and nearly 100 filmmakers attended the online Q&As
We made a commitment to our BIPOC filmmakers
We will begin paying our artists to screen their films in competition
We learned “CCCCC” means claps, which we saw a lot of at the 58th AAFF 👏

Here’s to making even more positive and mind-bending changes as we move into the new year. Make your gift today to help us keep the positive momentum going. Most importantly, thank you, our global community of filmmakers and film lovers, for all that you do for the AAFF. You’re amazeBALLs! P.S. December 31 is the final day to make a fully tax-deductible 2020 gift in support of this work. Oh, and Happy 2021!

Cheers,

Leslie Raymond, Festival Director Angela Lenhardt, Operations Manager Marin Smith, Community Engagement Coordinator Katherine Pertuso, Communications and Marketing Manager Tom Bray, Technical Director