The Overlook Film Festival, showcasing exciting work in new and classic genre cinema, live events, and its trademark interactive activities returns to New Orleans, June 2 through June 5, 2022.
Screenings and events will take place at the Festival Headquarters in the newly branded Prytania Theatres at Canal Place, located in Downtown New Orleans. Newly refurbished by the Brunet family, owners of the historic Prytania Theater, the Prytania is a 100+ year old institution with the distinction of being the longest continually operating theater in the south.
Per festival guidelines and mandates, all attendees will need to provide proof of vaccination, and must wear a mask at all venues when not eating or drinking. The Overlook’s interactive content will also be re-imagined in 2022 with COVID-19 safety measures in place. The festival’s signature weekend-long immersive game experience will return, designed by NOLA’s premier escape room experience creators, Escape My Room. Further COVID-19 safety measures may be required for participation in any additional interactive and immersive programming.
“We’re pleased to announce that the happy haunt will return! The team has been working diligently and we couldn’t be more thrilled to safely begin in-person screenings and events in New Orleans again,” said festival co-director Michael Lerman. “It’s particularly exciting to be partnering with an institution like The Prytania at their Theaters at Canal Place to execute our creative vision in a way that reflects the pandemic age.”
The city of New Orleans continues working on making a full recovery from the devastating effects caused by Hurricane Ida in August 2021. Next year’s festival is dedicated to giving back to its adopted city, donating a portion of festival pass and ticket sales to the Hurricane Ida Relief and Recovery Fund, a project from the Mutual Aid Response Network led by Imagine Water Works.
“Community is the entire reason we spend our free time putting on our theatre macabre year after year and genre fans everywhere are the bloody, beating heart of the fest so we want to do everything we can to give back to our host city and the fans and filmmakers we’ve missed so much,” added festival co-director Landon Zakheim. “So not only have we found a way to significantly lower pass prices, but we’ll also be donating a portion of all sales to local recovery efforts.”