The Washington West Film Festival will be cooking with Kevin Bacon when it returns to Fairfax County next month for its 13th year.
The “Footloose” star is set to visit the county both virtually and in-person as part of the philanthropic festival, which announced a varied lineup of movies this week that will screen from Oct. 10-13 at Look Dine-In Cinemas in Reston (11940 Market Street) and Tysons (1667 Silver Hill Drive).
Adding a musical twist to the proceedings, Bacon will perform at the Reston Town Center pavilion with The Bacon Brothers, the band he started with brother Michael Bacon, in addition to participating in a virtual Q&A after a 40th anniversary screening of “Footloose” at the Reston theater on Sunday, Oct. 13.
Washington West Film Festival founder and president Brad Russell says he’s most excited about working with Kevin Bacon’s nonprofit SixDegrees.org. As the festival’s charity partner, Six Degrees will receive 100% of the festival’s box office proceeds and use them to fund hygiene and essential supply backpacks for Virginia’s Kids Belong, a Richmond-based foster care and adoption nonprofit.
“Two hours before Footloose, volunteers are invited to come early to help us pack kits, and all together we will create hope for hundreds of at risk kids,” Russell said. “Virginia’s Kids Belong was introduced to us in 2019 by one of our supporters in Richmond. VKB changes the lives of foster children every day, and we’re so happy to support their amazing work.”
The partnership with Six Degrees, which is headquartered in Fairfax City, continues the film festival’s efforts to “create inspiring stories rather than just watching them,” according to a press release.
Since launching in 2011, the festival has donated its box office proceeds to a dozen different nonprofits. Virginia’s Kids Belong, the Henry & William Evans Home For Children, Blu_Print and National Institutes of Health’s The Children’s Inn were the beneficiaries from 2019 to 2023.
Beyond the collaboration wth Kevin Bacon, highlights of this year’s festival include a 25th-anniversary screening of “The Sixth Sense” and “Searching for Amani,” the Opening Night Film. Debra Aroko and Nicole Gormley’s film about a Kenyan man investigating his father’s death won the Albert Maysles Award for best new documentary director at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it premiered this summer.
Friday, Oct. 11 will bring a collection of short films, and gold medal-winning Paralympic swimmer Mallory Weggmann will participate in an in-person Q&A with director Jay Snyder after a screening of their movie “Watershed,” the Closing Night Film, at The Boro on Oct. 12.
Outside the main festival, Washington West has partnered with the Reston Town Center Association for a free, outdoor screening of “The Lion King” (2019) on Oct. 5 as part of the “Arts in the Park” series.
For the Cheuse Center at George Mason University’s 100th anniversary celebration of James Baldwin’s birthday, it will bring three short films about the writer and activist to Reston Community Center’s CenterStage (2310 Colts Neck Road) on Oct. 21. GMU professor Dr. Keith Clark will lead a post-screening discussion.
With the presidential election heating up, the Washington West team focused on unity, empathy and human connection as key themes when developing the 2024 program.
“That’s our aim for this year’s program at Washington West — particularly in the fall of 2024 — to create unity,” Russell told FFXnow. “…This year’s stories have a drawing effect, calling us to participate in the shared, human experience of disappointment, hope, and overcoming.”
Tickets for all films are now on sale. The full schedule, which can be found on the festival’s website, is below.
Saturday, Oct. 5
- 7 p.m. — The Lion King (Reston Town Square Park)
Thursday, Oct. 10
- 7 p.m. — Searching for Amani (Look Dine-In Cinemas Tysons)
- 8 p.m. — The Sixth Sense (Look Dine-In Tysons)
Friday, Oct. 11
- 5:30 p.m. — Short Film Friday (Look Dine-In Tysons)
Saturday, Oct. 12 (all screenings at Look Dine-In Tysons)
- Noon — Climbing to Life with director Melissa Davey
- Noon — GMU Student Showcase with live Q&A
- 12:30 p.m. — Luther: Never Too Much
- 3 p.m. — Champions of the Golden Valley with producer Baktash Ahadi
- 3 p.m. — Local Spotlight: 1001 Cuts and Can’t Retire From This with Q&A
- 5:30 p.m. — The Thinking Game
- 7 p.m. — The Bacon Brothers (Reston Town Center pavilion)
- 7:30 p.m. — Watershed
Sunday, Oct. 13 (all events at Look Dine-In Reston)
- 11:30 a.m. — Environmental shorts program
- 1 p.m. — Kit-build with SixDegrees.org
- 2 p.m. — Porcelain War
- 4 p.m. — Footloose with virtual Q&A
- 4 p.m. — Black Table
Monday, Oct. 21
- 7:30 p.m. — James Baldwin Abroad: A Series of Three Short Films (CenterStage in Reston)
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