The 16th annual New Hampshire Film Festival kicks off in Portsmouth Thursday.
Nearly 100 films will be screened over the four-day event. Those films were chosen from more than 1,000 submissions.
“It’s our thirteenth year in Portsmouth, and every year, it’s just grown exponentially,” says Executive Director Nicole Gregg. “It gained word of mouth and just kept bringing filmmakers back year after year as they created and produced new films. We just have such a huge alumni base now.”
Thursday will be a day dedicated to New Hampshire-affiliated films, and will include a tribute to longtime state Department of Cultural Resources commissioner Van McLeod, who died this summer.
“He truly was an icon when it came to arts and culture,” she said. “There definitely will be a void that will be hard to fill.”
Thursday also features “God Knows Where I Am,” a documentary about a homeless New Hampshire woman battling mental illness, and “Food Fight,” a documentary about the Market Basket saga.
Among this weekend’s events will be a comedy panel that will include John Michael Higgins, known for roles in “Best in Show” and “Arrested Development.”
