Naples International Film Festival kicks off

Hit the lights! The 16th annual Naples International Film Festival kicked off on Thursday night.

The festival will continue through Sunday.

You may not know it, but Naples is a huge hub for the arts. People from all over the world are joining together at Artis-Naples.

The Naples International Film Fest is back for its 16th year.

“Because it’s so well received by the community and by the filmmakers, it’s become well known around the world in the film industry,” said Richard and Christine Lublin, sponsors of the Naples International Film Fest.

Twenty-six countries are represented at this festival, with 58 films on the big screen.

“We even have people who came from Israel and from Bangkok tonight,” said Lublin.

Which makes for a true meeting of creative minds.

“For most film festivals, you know, you’re not going to get 1,000 people in theater. That’s just unheard of. You know, very few places can kind of attract that crowd. So it’s, as a filmmaker, it’s very exciting to have your film be shown in front of such a large audience,” said Sam Cutler-Kreutz, director, writer & producer of the film “Trapped”.

And since this festival is in the heart of Southwest Florida, it only makes sense that we’d be represented, too.

Herbert James Winterstern’s film “Sanibel” premiers on Friday.

“It originally was a story about seashell culture in Southwest Florida,” said Winterstern, “and then six weeks into filming on Sanibel, Hurricane Ian made landfall and just completely flipped the script on us.”

Winterstern told WINK News that our very own chief meteorologist Matt Devitt is in the film.

If you’re interested in watching it or any other of the 57 films on display you can click here for more information on how to get tickets.