The SCAD Savannah Film Festival, like the city it calls home, casts an unforgettable spell over all who visit, fans and filmmakers alike. Here are some favorite memories from the first 20 years of this hippest, happiest, most hospitable film festival in all the world.
1. Even though tickets are free for all SCAD students, in the earliest years of the festival, we had some difficulty getting students to attend screenings and talks, largely because they didn't realize the festival was created for them (which, it is). In the second year of the festival, John Waters changed that. The queue of students awaiting his talk at the Lucas Theatre wrapped around an entire city block. John delivered a masterful performance, part standup comedy, part film history, blowing the doors off the Lucas with laughter. Ever since, the students have come in droves.
2. In 1999, after a screening of The Thin Red Line, I watched a student speak with director Terence Malick for nearly an hour. According to a few overheard snippets, they were vigorously discussing how one expresses philosophy and ideas through film. When the conversation was over, the student turned to a festival staff member and said, "I get it now. We have this festival so that I can talk to Terence Malick for an hour!" Exactly.
3. In 2004, Peter O'Toole took the most magnificent five-minute bow on the stage of Trustees Theater, before accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award. He made eye contact with seemingly every audience member — more than 1,100 cheering, adoring fans. A magical admixture of gratitude and glamor emitted from this legendary actor's eyes. I get chills, still, thinking of this moment.
4. On the topic of Hollywood royalty, I'll never forget the year Debbie Reynolds attended the festival. After the special screening of The Unsinkable Molly Brown at the historic Lucas Theatre, she stood up and addressed 1,000 audience members from her box seat. She didn't even require a microphone!
5. The filmmakers and students interact at a very personal level, such as when Miloš Forman, Academy Award-winning director of Amadeus, peeked into an editing booth one day at SCAD's Hamilton Hall. Foreman knocked on the door and asked the unsuspecting student what she was working on. "I'm re-cutting a scene from Amadeus," the student said. "Do you know the film?"
6. Many favorite memories of the festival take place early in the morning in the lobby of the Marshall House, where SCAD Professor Michael Chaney conducts Coffee Talks with filmmakers and students, who never know in advance who's going to make an appearance. Maybe it's the father of sound design, Walter Murch, winner of Academy Awards for Apocalypse Now and The English Patient, or Alec Baldwin, a perennial festival favorite, who bounded down the stairs in his best Mike Myers voice. "Time for Coffee Talk!" he said to the students. "It's like buttah!"
7. Speaking of Mike Myers, during the comedian's masterclass in 2014, he improvised scenes with members of the SCAD improv group. At one point, he and two students were pretending to be horses, galloping across an imaginary prairie. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a rehearsal studio, ever.
8. During her masterclass, Molly Shannon spoke with students about her initial rejection by Saturday Night Live. "It felt like the end, for my career," she said. She returned home and focused on creating characters she loved, for a live theater show back in L.A. Two years later, SNL called back, and she got the gig, largely the result of all the new material she'd developed during those two years. This story deeply moved the students, who were encouraged to hear of the determination and faith required to make the dream real.
9. After the screening of Moonlight, Mahershala Ali conducted what may have been the most meaningful Q&A in festival history. He spoke about how to maintain your values while making difficult creative decisions, and when every student question was eagerly directed his way, he selflessly invited his Moonlight costar, the young actor Ashton Sanders, to share his own insights. It was a valuable lesson for our students, to see this mega-movie star shine a light on his up-and-coming castmate.
10. In 2016, SCAD debuted the world's first VR musical, "Say It with Music." What an unforgettable memory, to see audience members emerge from the theater with tears of empathy at the storytelling power of this technological feat — especially when the audience includes La La Land director Damien Chazelle. "That was amazing," he said afterwards to the student filmmakers, who then promptly began floating three feet off the ground.
11. After a screening of Meet the Patels, director Geeta Patel spoke about her parents (the real stars of her film), and the moderator said, "Wouldn't it be great if they were here to answer the students' questions?" At that very moment, her mother and father entered the stage and brought the packed house to its feet. Trustees Theater shook with thunderous, rapturous joy.
12. Members of the SCAD community fondly recall the year George Kennedy brought a bowling bag to the theater, containing his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Cool Hand Luke. Why had he brought it? In case anybody wanted to take a photograph with it, of course, which turned out to be everyone. George was a sweetheart and made his fans feel so very loved.
13. SCAD students were dazzled by three members of the legendary Redgrave family, Vanessa (Howards End, Camelot), Lynn (Kinsey, Gods and Monsters), and Corin (A Man for All Seasons, In the Name of the Father). They marched across the city and campus in a joyous herd of exclamation, reciting poetry and monologues and making friends wherever they went. By the end of their visit, their herd had grown considerably.
14. One change in the film festival, over the last two decades, has been the manner in which film personalities and students interact. Back in 1998, it was all about autographs. Today, it's all about the selfie. I'll never forget the inimitable Stan Lee walking down the line in front of the theater, taking photo after photo with giddy sequential art students and lovers of all things Marvel. This beautiful soul, born 86 years before the iPhone, is a natural.
15. One night, Sir Ian McKellen and his host, SCAD Professor Mark Tymchyshyn, were strolling through the Savannah squares when Sir Ian said, "How about a little Shakespeare tonight?" An hour later, after an email went out to everyone in the performing arts department, the actor stepped onto the stage of the SCAD Mondanaro Theater, now full of eager students. He kicked off his shoes and commenced to recite the great speeches of Lear from memory, his blue eyes shining.
16. I'll never forget the night two SCAD film students approached honoree Alan Cumming on Broughton Street and dreamily asked if he would be in their student film. "I would love to," he said. The next morning, after his Coffee Talk with the students, Alan was in their film!
17. Actor Jeremy Irons was so inspired by our students that after he spoke about his role in Lolita, he gave a bonus lecture on heritage conservation and sustainability at the SCAD Thomas Center for Historic Preservation. Students were awed to witness the polymathic gifts of this Academy Award-winning artist. "Wait, he knows about this, too? Whoa," one was overheard saying.
18. A few years ago, beloved critic Roger Ebert led students in an epic, three-day dissection of Citizen Kane. "When you see something you want to discuss, we'll stop the film and talk," he said. Every minute or two, someone would exclaim, "Stop!" and ask a question. At one point, a student spotted an editing error. "There!" the student said, "The hat moved!" Roger couldn't believe it. "The hat moved?" he said, rewinding the scene. "I've never noticed that! The hat moved!" He was ecstatic to see something new in a film he'd viewed a hundred times.
19. In 2015, talent manager Tina Thor, who works with Meg Ryan and Lena Heady, attended the festival. Tina stopped by the SCAD Casting Office one day and looked through a few headshots, finding three she especially liked. "Can I meet these students?" she asked. The next day, she signed all three.
20. My favorite memory of all time is also one of the first. We'd just launched this new festival in our splendid little Southern city. Would people come? Would it last? Our very first guest was A Room with a View director James Ivory, one of the great gentlemen of filmmaking. At the end of his visit, in which he engaged with students every day, he turned to Danny Filson, executive director of the festival for many years, and said, "Danny, this has been for me a time out of time. Thank you." That's when we knew: We had something special here, at SCAD. The Savannah Film Festival provides, for all who come, a time out of time. What a memorable 20 years it's been.
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Paula Wallace is president and founder of SCAD, named by Variety as one of the world's "Stellar Film Schools" of 2017. The 20th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival takes place from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4, 2017, with a full week of screenings, panels, and talks. SCAD students and graduates have contributed their talents to films that have won Oscars, Emmys, and more, and earlier this year, the SCAD-produced show "The Buzz" won a Student Emmy for Best Scripted Series. Wallace is also the founder of SCAD aTVfest and SCADFILM in Atlanta, providing career advancement opportunities for working professionals across animation, gaming, virtual reality, film, television, performing arts and video production.