2022 Hobnobben Film Festival lineup is now available
The full film lineup for the 2022 Hobnobben Film Festival is now available. Film descriptions, showtimes, sponsorship information and more can be viewed here. The festival runs October 13-16. We’ve also created handy mobile-friendly day schedules for you to screenshot or download for ease of access during the festival.
Festival passes are also available for purchase. Single day passes are $30 each, except for Opening Night (Thursday, October 13) which is only $15. A 4-day pass is $60, and an All-Access VIP Pass is $150. General admission tickets will be on sale at the end of August.
All festival films will be shown at Fort Wayne Cinema Center, 437 E. Berry St., following two years at the Embassy Theater during the pandemic. Cinema Center reopened its doors to the public again in November 2021 following a 20-month closure during the pandemic.
“We love the Embassy, but we’re happy to have our festival back at Cinema Center,” said Hobnobben co-chair Alix Watson. “We have two screening spaces here — the Main Theater and the Spectator Lounge — so we can showcase more films and more unique voices. It’s a very friendly space for film lovers, filmmakers and the film-curious.”
This year’s festival features a record number of 128 films, doubling the amount of screen time from last year. Selections include films from 25 countries representing 17 languages. More than 25% of the films have an Indiana connection, and the festival’s Opening Night will showcase an Indianapolis-based feature film, It Happened One Weekend about two friends who get dumped on the same weekend, and six shorts with a Hoosier connection: The Water’s Edge, Encore, The Brewing, First Day Creeps, Two Soles, and The Colorful Mind of Jayce Dean Parker.
Other highlights of the festival include an Awards Ceremony on Friday night, followed by a showing of Sweet Disaster, a charming German feature film about a middle-aged woman who finds herself pregnant and abandoned by the father of the child. The film includes an amusing cameo by “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff.
Although Hobnobben showcases films from around the globe, filmgoers this year will have a chance to see some familiar American faces on screen. Oscar Isaac (Star Wars sequel trilogy) and Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) star in The Letter Room, a short film about a kind-hearted prison officer. Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids) stars in Shark, a short about a prankster couple, and Samantha Spiro (Sex Education) stars in POPS, a British short about a father’s eccentric last wish. Allison Tolman (Fargo) stars in Return to Sender, a chilling short film produced by Jamie Lee Curtis.
On Saturday, Hobnobben organizers have once again curated a late night block of films specifically for suspense and horror fans. The eerie nightcap will feature three short films and an Indiana-based feature film, The Leech, about a priest whose faith is threatened by two presumptuous houseguests at Christmastime.
Hobnobben 2022 will also feature a number of Burmese films, including the Closing Night film: what happened to the wolf? This brave feature-length film is about two terminally ill women from Myanmar who meet in a hospital and find comfort, and love, together. The film is a radical offering from a country where LGBTQ+ people can face legal persecution, imprisonment, and even state-encouraged violence. The film will be followed by a panel discussion, one of six Hobnobben panels featuring film and subject matter experts at this year’s festival.
The Hobnobben Film Festival, now in its seventh year, showcases diverse stories and voices that are typically excluded from the mainstream film industry, offering a one-of-a-kind festival that invites participants to see themselves on screen — and be seen by others. The festival is supported by local sponsors and community members and is an annual fundraiser for Fort Wayne Cinema Center, a not-for-profit arts organization founded in 1976.
