OJAI FILM FESTIVAL

In 1998, the Film Society’s Program Director, Steve Grumette, was invited to serve as a juror at the Canyonlands Film Festival in Moab, Utah. With a comparable population and boasting both a vibrant arts community and a spectacular natural environment, Moab is similar to Ojai in many ways. So on his return from Utah, it occurred to Steve that if Moab could support a thriving film festival, why not Ojai? From that germ of an idea, the Ojai Film Festival was born.

On November 15, 2000, nearly two years of intensive effort by more than a hundred volunteers culminated in the opening of the first Ojai Film Festival to an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from filmmakers and film-goers alike. The Ojai Film Festival was launched in 2000 with two goals in mind:

• To provide audiences with opportunities to see groundbreaking work that would otherwise be inaccessible.
• To provide filmmakers with an enthusiastic audience including film industry professionals.

Now in its 25th year, the festival maintains its artistic direction to show films that "enrich the human spirit by seeking out important films that in some way uplift people or help audiences feel good about being members of the human race or encourage them to live meaningful lives inspired by the examples of others."