PORT TOWNSEND — A Milky Way of film festival stars — from Elliott Gould to Morgan Neville — will appear in A Toast to the Future, a virtual party set for 6 p.m. Thursday.
The Port Townsend Film Festival crew will host it on Zoom; the site to RSVP is PTfilmfest.com. Admission is free to the event, which includes the premiere of a short film, “Up to Something.”
That title comes from something festival guest Bruce Dern said when he came to town in 2012.
“You know, you people are up to something,” the actor declared.
“And we still are,” said Janette Force, the festival’s executive director and interviewer of numerous movie people.
Force and her festival organizers wanted to have an event around Oscar time, only sooner. Their Women & Film virtual festival, streaming online from April 23 through May 2, coincides with Academy Awards night on April 25.
So Force decided to call as many previous festival guests as possible, record video of their thoughts on why film festivals matter, and produce the short film for the Toast to the Future.
Local actor Amanda Steurer narrates the 15-minute picture featuring Dern, Gould, Neville, Karen Allen, Chris and Marianne Leone Cooper, John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ann Hearn and Beau Bridges.
Filmmakers Andrew Perez of “Bastards y Diablos,” J.J. Kelley of “Paddle to Seattle” and Louise Woehrle of “Stalag Luft III” also appear.
So does Eduardo Garcia, the subject of “Charged,” the April PTFF Pic selection to be offered online via the festival website April 5-11.
A Toast to the Future is also a toast to Force, who has announced she’ll step down following the Port Townsend Film Festival’s fall events.
“I reluctantly agreed, yes, we have to talk about my retirement,” she said.
In addition, Force encouraged people to “get fancy,” and wear their finest headpieces for the best hat contest.
And if they’re inclined to make a donation to the nonprofit festival, guests will be entered to win an unlimited pass to the Women & Film festival next month.
“When we had to go into this lockdown thing, what we missed most was connecting with filmmakers” and introducing them to festival-goers, Force said.
During Thursday’s event, guests will have a chance to raise a glass to cinema and the artists who create it.
“Those kinds of connections,” she said, “mean the world to us.”
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
