About Us

Welcome to the Fairhope Film Festival!

The Fairhope Film Festival is a film lover’s film festival held each year on the second weekend in November, offering world-class, award winning films in a unique, picturesque location. Fairhope, Alabama is a quaint, beautiful and historic bayside city located on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, in the center of America’s Gulf Coast. Founded as a nineteenth century utopian experiment, Fairhope has flourished as an arts community for over 100 years.

The main festival venues are walking distance of each other around our famous, flower-filled downtown area (“Carmel by the Bay”) convenient to restaurants, hotels, locally owned shops and the town bluffs, which boast sweeping views of the 413 square mile Mobile Bay.

Our festival’s focus is on national and international film festival competition finalists of the past year: the “best of the best” in cinema arts. Notable foreign and feature films, documentaries and shorts—many that never made it to the big box theaters or were only there briefly—will be selected for appreciative audiences.

Although our festival pulls out all the stops “Southern-style” to host opening and closing events and parties, our emphasis is on the art of filmmaking and the experience of seeing exceptional films. We invite directors, actors, screenwriters and other film industry professionals to participate in the screenings both in person and via live electronic transmission.

Our festival is only possible due to the dedicated efforts of our board and committe members, our hard working team of festival volunteers, the generosity and support of our individuals, businesses and charitable organizations in our community. We look forward to having you join us at our next festival!

Sherry Sullivan

Sherry Sullivan

Mayor of Fairhope

Greetings From Our Mayor

I am so pleased that you have chosen to visit Fairhope for this exciting festival. Our City has always been known as an arts community, and this is a good example of how diverse the arts community truly is in Fairhope.

As you enjoy the award-winning films presented during the next few days, take time to explore and see all that Fairhope has to offer through shopping, dining and the many nature parks and trails.

I hope you enjoy your stay and make plans to come back soon!

Sherry Sullivan, Mayor
City of Fairhope

Letter from the Mayor of Fairhope Welcoming to Festival
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mary Riser

Executive Director

Chairman of the Board

Ken Niemeyer

In-Counsel

Richard Pate

Board of Directors

Marian Walker

Board of Directors

Marshall Riser

Board of Directors

HONORARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS

D. Scott Lumpkin

Prudence Farrow Bruns

Tera Buerkle

STEERING COMMITTEE

Thomas Beckham

Technical Advisor

Vannie Bohlen

Creative Content / Shorts Programmer

Alex Box

Volunteer Chairman

Jack & Kriss Daily

Features Programmers

Ursula Day

Production Intern

Debby Dwyer

Features Programmer

Pat Hawthorne

Events Liaison

Chad Kirtland

Media Consultant

Kelly Moore

Videographer

Jefferson Moore

Videographer

Gwen Pitts

Coffee Talks Coordinator

Corinne Ramming

Features Programmer

Stephen Savage

Photographer

Barb Stassen

Festival Assistant

Candy Sturdivant

Registrar

David Washington

Printer / Shorts Programmer

Dee Washington

Social Media / Shorts Programmer

Savan Wilson

Public Relations Coordinator

Torrey DeKeyser

Co-Chairman

Red Carpet Party

Lillian Parker

Co-Chairman

Red Carpet Party

Stacy McKean

Grant Writer