Traverse City Film Festival Tuesdays draws large opening night crowd

TRAVERSE CITY — The Traverse City Film Festival made it’s much anticipated return Tuesday night with their new format.

Following the letter from the film festival back in May, people weren’t sure what the future held for the festival. However, the State Theater was packed with movie goers Tuesday night excited to welcome in a new era of the film festival.

Traverse City Film Festival Tuesdays, just like the previous festival will be showing anything from indie and foreign films to documentaries. Only this time it’s every Tuesday for 52 weeks.

“We’re excited at the fact that it’s all year long,” Executive Director for the State Theater and Bijou by the Bay Angie Forton said. “It supports the theaters, it keeps them viable, it keeps them thriving. It supports the local economy, it supports the local community.”

Judie Martin is a long-time festival goer, attending the festival with her husband since it began. She says she was disappointed when they found out they were changing formats.

“I’m kind of curious to see how it’s going to go. I like the idea of one movie a week, but we don’t live in the area so it would make coming here for the whole festival hard. But we’ll come as much as we can,” Martin said.

However, despite Martin’s concerns, she was the first to get in line waiting over an hour before the doors opened.

“[I’m] definitely excited to see it back. It’s a great opportunity for people to come and see movies that they won’t see at their local theaters up here,” Martin stated.

The festival has sold more than 300 seasonal passes and already had 100 single tickets sold before the doors even opened on Tuesday.

Despite some people being wary of the new format, they say they’re excited to have it back and are looking forward to the future.

“It’s going to have the same feel, the same setup as the previous festival. We still have directors and actors and screenwriters,” Forton explained. “So, that feeling of concern that they were going to miss [the old format], it’s still here, they just have to give it a try. Then go tell their family how much fun they had.”