Newport Beach Country Club Magazine Winter 2020 | Page 37

L
ast year, the Newport Beach Film Festival
turned 20—not a minor milestone con-
sidering the idea hinged on the vision of
just two men. The numbers speak for them-
selves: a record 3,500 submissions, over 300
feature-length and short films, 500 filmmakers
and more than 50,000 attendees were anticipated
for 2019. This year’s festival, running from April
23-30, promises to be star-studded, evocative and
engaging—all the elements that have kept people
coming back for two decades and counting.
A BOLD IDEA
The festival’s roots run deep. Co-founders Gregg
Schwenk and Todd Quartararo both grew up
in Orange County (Newport Beach and Irvine,
respectively). In 1999, the friends brought
together local leaders to help make their idea a
reality: launch an international film festival in the
city of Newport Beach. At the time, that meant
N E WP O R T B E A CHCC .CO M
convening a meeting of representatives from the
Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau
(now Visit Newport Beach), the mayor’s office,
the Newport Beach Economic Development
Office, the Orange County Film Commission,
the Media Alliance of Orange County and all
of the major local film schools at University
of California, Irvine; Chapman University;
California State University, Fullerton; and Orange
Coast College, all at the same table. Amazingly,
several months later, the duo presented their first
festival in March 2000.
Ambitious right out of the gates, that first
festival screened nearly 200 films, including 100
shorts and almost 80 features, all while utilizing
only three or four screens. It was an impressive,
if not innovative, feat: No one was showing that
many shorts at the time. “We’ve always had a very
strong affinity for short filmmakers and being
able to give them an opportunity to play on the
Top: Newport Beach Film
Festival attendees line up
outside of the Regal Edwards
Big Newport & RPX; bottom row,
from left: actors Keira Knightley,
Jeremy Renner and Benedict
Cumberbatch (being interviewed)
at the annual festival
NEWPORT BEACH COUNTRY CLUB MAGAZINE
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