Why the OFF Matters

Nice blog post, "Why the Oxford Film Festival Mattes," by Eric Snider, one of the film critics who attended the festival:

Oxford just wrapped up its sixth edition, with 29 features and more than 50 shorts unspooling over the course of a long weekend at the local cineplex, and festival organizers say attendance has been steadily increasing with each passing year. It's easy for outsiders to assume that a festival in a small town -- especially, let's not beat around the bush here, one in Mississippi -- would be of little interest to average moviegoers, but that hasn't been the case. The screenings tend to be full, with students from Oxford's University of Mississippi comprising part of the audience, along with plenty of regular ol' local residents.