The Oil Valley Film Festival is an annual American film festival in Oil City, Pennsylvania.
The festival takes place at the historic National Transit Building and the Oil City Library. The festival comprises competitive sections for American and international narrative and documentary films, both feature-length films and short films, and a curated block of out-of-competition selections. Audience favorites in feature and short categories, as voted on by the attending audiences, receive prizes separate from jury prizes. The festival also includes a screenwriting competition.
Festival Programming The Oil Valley Film Festival consists of film programming over a three-day period. Day one provides the juried short film program. Day two provides the juried feature film program, with a social event for filmmakers and audience members to interact. Day three allows the audience members to watch a curated program consisting of films chosen by the festival's director. Beginning in 2017, the festival began with various panels of discussion featuring filmmakers, actors, and producers from the selected films. Topics for each panel vary.
History The Oil Valley Film Festival was founded by Matt Croyle in 2015, to bring new and established cinema to the underrepresented region of Venango County, Pennsylvania, with the first festival taking place September 1–3, 2016. It is the first international film festival of its kind in Pennsylvania's Oil Region. Croyle stated that his ambition was to bring art house works to an audience who would not normally be able to see non-mainstream films.
The founding of the festival garnered attention from established industry publications and organizations, ultimately resulting in partnerships with Videomaker Magazine and The Writers Store.
In the festival's inaugural year, the feature film Audience Prize was awarded to Vincent Pereira for his 1997 film A Better Place, one of the lesser known View Askew Productions films, produced by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier. A Better Place screened out of jury competition, in the curated block, but was chosen by the audience as their favorite feature of the festival. Filmmaker Zach Daulton, of Ohio, was awarded the short film Audience Prize for his film 'Mayfield.'
In its first year, the Oil Valley Film Festival received submissions from twelve countries on five continents.
On August 25, 2021, the festival was named one of the Top Ten Virtual Film Festivals for September by Filmocracy, due to the festival's online option for viewers.
The 2022 festival featured more high-profile creatives than previous iterations including Oscar winners Cloris Leachman and Olympia Dukakis, in their final screen roles, along with Louis Gossett Jr., Tatum O’Neal and George Chakiris.
The 2023 festival remained a draw for high-profile creatives. Appearing on screen were Abigail Breslin, Jacqueline Bisset, Tom Arnold, and Mercedes Ruehl, with Breslin co-directing a television pilot titled 'Cannibals'. The in-person festival remained without an online streaming option for the second year despite the draw.
Addition of an online screening element The 2020 Oil Valley Film Festival partnered with the streaming service Festivee to bring the selected films to audiences digitally. This decision was made because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The streaming element stayed in place for the 2021 Oil Valley Film Festival, and festival director Matt Croyle has expressed interest in keeping the festival hybrid to accommodate global viewership.
Notable Guests and Interviews 2020: Writer and director James Merendino of SLC Punk and the multifaceted D.B. Sweeney of Eight Men Out, The Cutting Edge, and Memphis Belle.
2021: Natalie Metzger, producer of Werewolves Within, The Beta Test, and Thunder Road, along with screenwriter Jason Usry.
2022: Suzanne Romero, executive director of The George A. Romero Foundation, along with filmmaker Al White, and editor Michael Foster.
2023: Sarah Booth, Canadian actor.
Award winners 2022 Awards Award Film Individual(s) Best Picture - Feature, Narrative or Documentary Beyond the Lake Dir. Dominic Porcari Best Picture - Short, Narrative or Documentary Heavy Petting Dir. Brendan Prost Best Director - Feature Beyond the Lake Dir. Dominic Porcari Best Director - Short House of Brotherly Love Dir. Max Kane Best Director - Documentary, Short or Feature Shepherds of the Earth Dir. Iiris Harma Outstanding Achievement in Lead Acting, Feature Beyond the Lake David Socolar Outstanding Achievement in Lead Acting, Short Return to Sender Allison Tolman Outstanding Achievement in Supporting Acting, Feature Not to Forget Cloris Leachman Outstanding Achievement in Supporting Acting, Short House of Brotherly Love Brooke Gardner Special Jury Prize in Acting Delilah Rainey Qualley Special Jury Prize in Voice Acting It's Always Something Stephen Fry Outstanding Cinematography - Feature, Narrative or Documentary Shepherds of the Earth Visa Koiso-Kanttila Outstanding Cinematography - Short, Narrative or Documentary It's Always Something Bryan Perido Best Editing - Feature, Narrative or Documentary Match Struck Eric Randolph Best Editing - Short, Narrative or Documentary Aping Edwin Porter Ben Simon Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Feature Aren't You the Family? Angelise Milton Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Short Candybyte Diana Foronda Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Pilot Canajoharie Dean C. Cummings 2021 Awards Award Film Individual(s) Best Picture - Feature, Narrative or Documentary Shellfish Dir. Hunter Hopewell Best Picture - Short, Narrative or Documentary A Godless Country Dir. Jesse Richardson Best Director - Feature, Narrative or Documentary The Colour of Spring Dir. Paul Andrew Kimball Best Director - Short, Narrative or Documentary Rent Do Dir. Gavin Michael Booth Outstanding Achievement in Lead Acting Shellfish Savanah Joeckel Outstanding Achievement in Lead Acting Bone Cage Taylor Olson Outstanding Achievement in Supporting Acting A Godless Country Brent Dunner Outstanding Achievement in Supporting Acting Rent Do Sarah Booth Outstanding Cinematography - Feature, Narrative or Documentary My Ture Fairytale Pablo Diez Outstanding Cinematography - Short, Narrative or Documentary Flora Michal Babinec Best Editing - Feature, Narrative or Documentary The Game is Up: Disillusioned Trump Voters Tell Their Stories Marlis Ernst: Lead Editor Best Editing - Short, Narrative or Documentary Congratulations (Mabrook) Sarah Iseley Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Feature The Bridge Builder Michael Greene Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Short The Boy Who Never Existed Laura Wagner Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Pilot The Wolfe-Pointe Julianna Pitt 2020 Awards Award Film Individual(s) Best Picture - Feature, Narrative or Documentary Sockeye Salmon. Red Fish Dir. Dimitry Shpilenok Vadislav Grishin Best Picture - Short, Narrative or Documentary Sac de Merde Dir. Greg Chwerchak Best Director - Feature, Narrative or Documentary Sockeye Salmon. Red Fish Dir. Dimitry Shpilenok Vadislav Grishin Best Director - Short, Narrative or Documentary Anna Dir. Dekel Berenson Outstanding Achievement in Lead Acting Salting the Fly Rory James Leech Outstanding Achievement in Lead Acting Sac de Merde Arielle Haller-Silverstone Outstanding Achievement in Supporting Acting Ghost in the Gun Haley Camille Outstanding Achievement in Supporting Acting Buffalo & Trout Brooke Coleman Outstanding Cinematography - Feature, Narrative or Documentary Sockeye Salmon. Red Fish Dimitry Shpilenok Nikolay Shpilenok Outstanding Cinematography - Short, Narrative or Documentary We Hear Running Jordan Lavery Best Editing - Feature, Narrative or Documentary Sockeye Salmon. Red Fish Anna Sukhova Best Editing - Short, Narrative or Documentary Choker Sunghwan Morgan Francis Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Feature Modern Art Laurence Fuller Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Short Paddy's Tonsorial Emporium Ronald C. Milburn Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Pilot Hometown Adam Dietz 2019 Awards Award Film Individual(s) Best Picture - Narrative Feature This World Won't Break Dir. Josh David Jordan Best Picture - Documentary Feature Making Coco: The Grant Fuhr Story Dir. Don Metz Best Picture - Narrative Short Ways to Look at the Moon Dir. Katherine Clark Best Picture - Documentary Short Outspoken Dir. Emily Harger Best Director - Feature A Black Letter Day Dir. Ekaterina Tarasova Best Director - Short Scrap Dir. Leena Pendharker Best Actor - Feature Last Call Sarah Booth Best Actor - Short Still Young Adrian Ross-Jones Best Supporting Actor - Feature This World Won't Break Roxanna Redfoot Best Supporting Actor - Short A Black Letter Day Igor Shugaleev Outstanding Cinematography - Feature Last Call Seth Wessel-Estes Outstanding Cinematography - Short Minor Key Jose Martin Rosete Best Editing - Feature The Astronot Tim Cash Best Editing - Short Scrap Sunghwan Moon Audience Choice Award for Best Picture - Feature Last Call Dir. Gavin Michael Booth Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Feature Think Forward David Keogh Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Short Homefulness Dan LaTourette Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Pilot Almost Elena Lockleis 2018 Awards Award Film Individual(s) Best Picture - Narrative Feature Blue Dir. Gabriela Ledesma Best Picture - Documentary Feature You Racist, Sexist, Bigot Dir. Pita Juarez Matty Steinkamp Best Picture - Narrative Short Domesticated Dir. Juan Francisco Viruega Best Picture - Documentary Short One Year on a Bike Dir. Martijn Doolaard Best Director - Narrative Feature Blue Dir. Gabriela Ledesma Best Director - Documentary Feature You Racist, Sexist, Bigot Dir. Pita Juarez Matty Steinkamp Best Director - Narrative Short Snow Dir. Alex Murawski Best Director - Documentary Short Nobody Dies Here Dir. Simon Panay Best Actor - Feature Blue Callie Schuttera Best Actor - Short Ainhoa Aurelia Schikarski Best Supporting Actor - Feature After Hours Trading Ariana Livingston Best Supporting Actor - Short Spoken Word Lance Reddick Outstanding Cinematography - Narrative Feature Regionrat Carlos Jimenez Outstanding Cinematography - Documentary Feature Flin Flon: A Hockey Town Soren Neilsen Christine Ng Outstanding Cinematography - Narrative Short 88 Cents Matthew Petrunak Outstanding Cinematography - Documentary Short One Year on a Bike Martijn Doolaard Best Editing - Narrative Feature The Song of Sway Lake Todd Holmes Gabriel Wrye Best Editing - Documentary Feature Poured in Pennsylvania Doug Metz Best Editing - Narrative Short Guard Brian Philip Davis Best Editing - Documentary Short Nobody Dies Here Simon Panay Audience Choice Award for Best Picture - Feature Blue Dir. Gabriela Ledesma Audience Choice Award for Best Picture - Short Domesticated Dir. Juan Francisco Viruega Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Feature Blind-Sighted David Keogh Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Short Cherry Glazed Christine Sherwood Outstanding Screenwriting - Screenwriting Competition - Pilot Peace, Love & Law Enforcement Lorraine Portman