The Cordillera International Film Festival, in its seventh year, not only sets the stage for filmmakers from 83 countries to screen their feature and short films; it also opens doors for local filmmakers.
The event boasts five days of film screenings, and select screenplays receive table readings by professional actors. At PitchFest!, 10 hopefuls have three minutes (only talk, no audio or visual tools) to pitch their projects before a panel of judges and a live audience. The public gets a peek behind the scenes, and filmmakers get valuable exposure and opportunities to connect with people in the film industry.
“The Cordillera Film Festival has helped with networking,” said Reno filmmaker Bryon Evans, who first submitted his work to Cordillera in 2018. Last year, he directed and cast actors for roles at a table reading.
Evans fell in love with comic-book art and its sequential style of storytelling while watching Tim Burton’s Batman on the big screen. He sketched comics of his own, a skill he would later utilize in storyboarding for films. While producing more than 300 30-second commercials in five years for Charter Media, Evans learned the many facets of film production, from the initial client contact to the final edits. When his position narrowed in scope to writing and directing, he was reluctant to relinquish his work in cinematography. Instead, he launched Bryon Evans Films in 2013.
“Every project is a little different,” he said about his leap to freelancing. “I get to learn so much about so many different subjects.”
He continued producing commercials and expanded his offerings to music videos, documentaries and narrative films, flying to Eastern Europe and South America for travel-TV pilots. He’s journeyed to 14 different countries to date. In 2016, Evans brought on board his wife, Shannon Balazs, an experienced photographer with solid artistic chops, to assist with production.
In 2018, Evans entered his short horror film Inflatio into Cordillera. It was his first foray into film festivals, and he didn’t know what to expect. He was the writer, director and cinematographer, and he storyboarded each scene. He refers to the darkly comic thriller short as his “baby.” Balazs oversaw costumes, makeup and production design. She created intricate spiderwebs, and even mold to capture the gritty vibe of the desolate cabin where a desperate man pleads with his silent, brooding captor. Upon Inflatio’s nomination for Best Nevada Short, a pair of Los Angeles directors recommended that Evans submit it to other festivals. The film was well-received at a variety of genre film festivals, scoring honors at Horrible Imaginings, Crimson Screen, Nightmares Film Festival, Highlands Film Fest and the Short. Sweet. Film Fest.
Evans took home an Audience Choice Award in the 2020 installment of Cordillera (which took place pandemic-year-style—virtually and at the West Wind El Rancho Drive-In theater in Sparks). This accolade was for Art Within Nature, a 22-minute documentary about Trails & Vistas, an annual, organized, three-mile hike with stops along the way for viewing art installations, musical performances and spoken-word readings. Evans and his crew filmed the 2019 event, which took place in Tahoe City, Calif. The shoot presented some unusual challenges. So as not to interfere with the hikers’ experience, the crew of four often hid, shooting from a distance, and quickly interviewed performers once the hikers had moved on.
Though he’s not on a panel this year, Evans is looking forward to the 2024 festival. He and Balazs supplied their respective talents as cinematographer and production designer to two entries in this year’s festival, Un Homme and a Lady, a black-and-white French new wave film; and Watching Walter, a drama based on a true story about a holocaust survivor. Los Angeles-based director and Cordillera veteran Mitch Yapko directed both short films.
“For my filmmaking career, CIFF is an important experience for me,” Evans said. “It showed me a place where filmmakers, new or seasoned, are treated with respect and celebrated, and their work is showcased with the highest regard. I consider Cordillera Film Fest, and film festivals in general, as a necessary venue to help propel new and upcoming narrative work and celebrate new artists.”
The Cordillera International Film Festival, featuring 150-plus films, celebrity panels, red-carpet premieres and parties, will take place Thursday, Sept. 26, through Monday, Sept. 30. The main events will take place at Galaxy Theatres Legends, 1170 Scheels Drive, in Sparks, with other events at venues around Reno. For tickets and information, visit www.ciffnv.org.