It doesn’t get much farther from the bright lights of Hollywood or the glitz and out-to-be-seen star power of Sundance, but Cody, Wyoming, wants to break in as a destination for film festival junkies.
The first Yellowstone Film Festival will show the first film in its 78-film lineup at Big Horn Cinemas in Cody on Friday. From March 21-28, dozens of feature films, animated shorts, documentaries and other projects from local and international filmmakers will be screened.
This isn’t another Western film festival. The Yellowstone Film Festival's tagline encapsulates everything it wants to be.
“The park is closed, (so) come see the world,” said founder Jacob Graham. “Our vision is to have people from all over the world come to Cody and share their stories. Millions of people will visit Yellowstone National Park in 2025, and they're bringing the world with them. So, let’s watch.”
And who wouldn’t travel halfway around the globe to watch the premiere of “When Santa Was a Communist” set in post-war Bosnia or “Nobody Wants to Shoot a Woman,” a film set in New York City about a mother who embraces violent crime to ensure her family’s survival?
Filling The Lull
Graham worked at Big Horn Cinemas long enough to notice the lull in moviegoers in winter. Not many people are going to the movies in late March, but Graham believes even the busy seasons with big-ticket blockbusters don’t have much variety to offer.
“Most movies are cookie-cutter studio stuff,” he said. “They play it safe. They don’t take a lot of risks. So, I asked my boss if we could try this and see where the chips fall.”
Graham envisioned bringing independent films to Cody’s audiences. They might not have the same appeal as a Marvel flick, but he believes they’re using the medium of filmmaking to innovate while the big studios focus on reliable profits.
“Independent cinema has become very accessible to the masses,” he said. “Those filmmakers might be inspired by Hollywood, but they're not necessarily looking to make Hollywood movies. They can take risks.”
Hosting a festival for independent films aligned with Graham’s goals of bringing more movies to Cody, both on the screen and in production. He’s gotten enough people passionate about the idea to try it in 2025.
“I think all the puzzle pieces were already there,” he said. “Anybody else in my shoes probably would have had this festival going 10 years ago, but I'm a little slow to the draw. I didn’t know if we could get films and people to watch them, but we could at least try.”
Near But Not Yellowstone
The Yellowstone Film Festival isn’t a Western film festival. That’s one of the biggest preconceptions Graham is working to change.
“Most people I've talked to assumed this was going to be all Yellowstone documentaries, and it’s not,” he said. “We’re inviting people from all over the world to show their films in Cody.”
Graham highlighted the “main” features as examples of what he wants the festival to be. “Eastern Western” is set in the American West but produced by a team in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while “Tokyo Cowboy” is about a Japanese businessman who travels to Montana to convince ranchers to ditch Angus beef for Wagyu.
The 2025 lineup includes several American independent films and productions from Serbia, Italy and Iran. Graham wants the Yellowstone Film Festival to be an international showcase in northwest Wyoming.
There will also be an award for Best Picture, including an appropriately Western equivalent to an Oscar: a custom-made belt buckle from Montana Silversmiths.
“The idea is that the park is closed, so come see the world,” he said. “We want people from all over the world to show their films here.”
There’s also a “Local Spotlight” of three films produced in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. The Wyoming-based "The Great Wyoming Singer-Songwriter Competition" is one of the documentary features included in the lineup.
A Week For An Industry
Graham hopes the Yellowstone Film Festival will build momentum for more ambitious aspirations. At the very least, it’s an off-season event that will give people a reason to spend in Cody.
“An extra week of revenue in early spring would be an awesome thing for a lot of businesses in Cody,” he said. “We’ll have people staying at our hotels, eating in our restaurants and food trucks, and spending their time here for a unique event.”
Graham hopes to make it a town-wide event in the future. The four screens at Big Horn Cinemas could be augmented by the screens available at The Cody Theatre and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, as well as other businesses with the space for a “pop-up screening.”
Graham also wants to organize filmmaking workshops for Cody students – something fun and productive to keep them occupied during spring break.
“It’ll be a chance for them to learn about filmmaking, whether it's acting, screenwriting, directing, or producing,” he said.
Most of all, Graham hopes the Yellowstone Film Festival will help people realize the possibilities of independent filmmaking in Cody. That could lead to future productions in the area and, with the right interest and investment, a film production company based in Cody.
“The festival is a good way to get people's wheels turning as far as what's possible with filmmaking,” he said. “People are doing things you couldn’t do 30 years ago. Feature films have been shot on iPhones, distribution costs are lower, and every aspect of production is more accessible. I hope the festival will get people thinking about what movies could be made here.”
Extended Feature
With the opening of the first Yellowstone Film Festival less than a day away, Graham acknowledged that he hadn’t reached all his targets regarding ticket sales and overall interest. However, he doesn’t find that surprising or discouraging.
“I had a number of tickets that I wanted to sell, and I could be wrong, but I don't think we're going to hit that,” he said. “The response has been very mixed so far, and I expected that. If it bombs this year, that’s my fault. I’ll know what I did wrong and what to do differently next year.”
Graham knows it'll take years to get the festival to where he wants it to go, but his team is determined to keep going. Their goal is to use the Yellowstone Film Festival to bring more films to the screen for a week while building momentum for more full-scale productions in the future.
“There will never be another Sundance, but we have a lot of people here that love movies,” he said. “We have filmmakers in Cody and people who run Hollywood studios with homes in Cody. We will learn what to do better this year and in future years because the pieces to make it happen are already here. All the ingredients are here, so let's make this work in Cody.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
