In The News

Mike Perreault, executive director of the Maine Film Center, was recently presented the Central Maine Growth Council and KV Connect 2022 Emerging Leader of the Year award.

Perreault has continued to empower filmmakers throughout the country under his leadership, managing Maine Film Center’s Maine International Film Festival, a 10-day event that showcases Maine and New England’s most innovative and creative filmmakers.

A bad sense of déjà vu is settling over the industry as the year winds down. Hollywood is in the throes of transition, and an economic downturn is on the horizon. And Hollywood’s scribe tribe is restless. The outlook for the next six months is starting to look a lot like it did in the summer and fall of 2007, the last time the entertainment industry’s biggest employers faced a work stoppage with the Writers Guild of America. There is no doubt that the guild is bracing for a battle. The studios are hastily starting to get there as well. The dreaded S-word — stockpiling — is happening, the industry equivalent of troops gathering at a border.

Disney joins Netflix and Paramount in moving from uniform policies while keeping them in place on some productions.

The latest iteration still empowers producers with the ability to require vaccines, though it appears fewer are choosing to do so as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations dwindle compared to this time last year. The pivot from some producers in their approach to keeping their sets virus-free is a sign that they might be less wary of the risk of costly production suspensions amid a lull in COVID-19 transmission.

The International Maritime Film Festival in Bucksport kicks off a full weekend of screenings that started Thursday night. The festival begins with a viewing of “The Perfect Storm” at the Alamo Theater followed by “The Oystermen” Friday night at the Buck Memorial Library.

From mid-August to early October, the Maine Outdoor Film Festival travels the state for its Selects Tour to bring specially curated film programs to area residents. The Waldo will be hosting a two-hour screening of outdoor adventure and conservation films from all over the world AND Maine as we connect community and the outdoors through film.