Two-year grant awarded to help offset operating expenses, curate year-round programming

The Oxford Film Festival is the recipient of a $32,000 grant from grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC). This grant is a portion of the more than $1.75 million in grants MAC awarded in Fiscal Year 2024 and will be used to support festival operations over the course of the two-year grant period.

MAC’s annual grant funds come from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mississippi State Legislature. Awards were made in 104 Mississippi House of Representatives districts and 60 state Senate districts.

“This grant supports our mission to create transformative film experiences and educational programs, not only during our annual film festival, but all year long,” said Matt Wymer, executive director of OxFilm and the Oxford Film Festival. “This funding opens doors for both present and future filmmakers by supporting our equipment rentals, summer camp programs, screening events, and panel discussions.

“We are grateful to MAC and the Mississippi State Legislature for their continued support of the Oxford Film Festival, Mississippi’s largest film festival nationally recognized for our achievements.”

The 21st edition of the Oxford Film Festival will be held March 21-24, 2024.

The Oxford Film Festival was founded in 2003 to bring exciting, new, and unusual films (and the people who create them) to North Mississippi. The annual festival screens short and feature-length films in both showcase and competition settings. The festival is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization.

For more information about OxFilm and the Film Festival, contact Wymer at matt@oxfordfilmfest.com or visit www.oxfordfilmfest.com.

The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency serving more than two million people through grants and special initiatives that enhance communities, assist artists and arts organizations, promote arts education and celebrate Mississippi’s cultural heritage. MAC is funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation for Mississippi and other private sources.

For more information, visit www.arts.ms.gov.

For information about the Mississippi Arts Commission, please contact Ellie Banks, communications director, 601-359-6546 or ebanks@arts.ms.gov.