Seventh Annual Indie Grits Festival 2013 Announces Increases in Attendance and Film Winners

COLUMBIA, SC – May 2, 2013 – After a successful Indie Grits Festival 2013, festival organizers announce that festival attendance increased over 2012’s festival, while approximately 25 percent of festival attendees live outside of Columbia.

The 10-day festival, which highlighted Columbia’s Main Street, took place April 12-21. Hosted by the Nickelodeon Theatre, South Carolina’s only non-profit arthouse theater, Indie Grits features a juried film competition that focuses on empowering all levels of Southern filmmakers with an independent mentality and far-reaching artistic scope.

For the first time, the festival included Peace, Love and Hip-Hop, Columbia’s first hip-hop family day. The festival also included a festival-opening block party on Main Street with 1,500 attendees, Slow Food Columbia at Indie Grits, the Spork in Hand Puppet Slam and Cinemovements, a collaboration between Indie Grits filmmakers and musicians from the South Carolina Philharmonic, funded by a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Live music is always an Indie Grits highlight, and this year’s headlining concert featuring Dent May, took place at the Columbia Museum of Art. Additionally, Indie Grits screened more than 60 films at its new home at 1607 Main Street and Tapp’s Arts Center, a second screening location.

“It’s amazing how much the festival has grown in just a few years,” says Andy Smith, Indie Grits Festival director and executive director of the Nickelodeon Theatre. “Though our focus will always be on film, Indie Grits has consistently grown to offer visiting filmmakers, out-of-town guests and locals more and more each year, and we’re grateful to the City of Columbia and our sponsors for their support. Because we’re in our new, renovated theater, we’re also happy that the festival showcased downtown Columbia by hosting most of our Indie Grits events on Main Street, highlighting all we have to offer on our revitalized Main Street.”

Indie Grits jurors chose the festival’s top films and awards were announced at a filmmaker’s brunch Sunday, April 21 and given to the following:

• Top Grit – Miracle Boy by Jake Mahaffy
• People’s Grit – Get Better by Chris White and Emily Reach-White
• Big Grit – Euphoria by Danny Madden
• Short Grit – April by Alan Spearman
• Young Grit – Moira Angela Darling by Joshua Rainwater
• Experimental Grit – Two Seconds After Laughter by David Rousseve
• Helen Hill Award – Dusty Stacks of Mom by Jodie Mack
• Local Grit – Twenty-One Questions by Michael Troublefield
• Animated Grit – Dusty Stacks of Mom by Jodie Mack

For more details on 2014’s Indie Grits Festival, stay tuned to www.indiegrits.com and www.nickelodeon.org. Follow Indie Grits Festival on Facebook and on Twitter @IndieGrits.