OKC's deadCenter Film Festival is going strong after 25 years with Oscar qualifiers, new records

As the 97th Academy Awards are handed out Sunday, March 2, at Hollywood's Dolby Theater, organizers of Oklahoma City's deadCenter Film Festival will be thankful for the Academy ahead of this summer's milestone fest.

Oklahoma's largest film festival, deadCenter is celebrating its 25th anniversary June 11-15 at various OKC venues with its yearly curated selection of short and feature films, plus panels, workshops and networking opportunities for filmmakers and movie lovers. The 2025 event will be extended to a five-day Wednesday-Sunday format, compared to the four-day Thursday-Sunday schedule the fest has followed the past several years.

The festival's silver anniversary will get an extra golden shine as deadCenter has been designated an Oscar-qualifying film festival in a third Academy Awards category: best documentary short .

"We are on track, of course, to set records again with submissions, which is always a great problem to have. And with our third Oscar-qualifying category, I think it's going to be amazing the short films we will get to show this year in every single block," deadCenter Film Executive Director Cacky Poarch told The Oklahoman.

In which Academy Awards categories has OKC's deadCenter been named an Oscar-qualifying film festival?

In 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , the organization that hands out the Oscars, designated the popular Oklahoma City event as an Oscar-qualifying festival in two categories — animated short film and live-action short film — starting with the 2022 fest.

Last fall, deadCenter organizers learned that the OKC festival would be designated as an Oscar-qualifying fest in the documentary short film category in time for this summer's 25th anniversary event.

"It's been very exciting, and we're happy to include and reward all those filmmakers working in those different formats," said deadCenter Director of Programming Sunrise Tippeconnie . "There are not that many American festivals that have the documentary (short) category, and we feel very privileged to be included in that list."

To mark the fest's 25th anniversary, deadCenter has partnered with the Inasmuch Foundation toname the new Oscar-qualifying award the Inasmuch Foundation Award for Best Short Documentary.

In the Sooner State, deadCenter is the only Oscar-qualifying film festival on the 98th Academy Awards Short Films Qualifying Festival List, a global roster of acclaimed events.

The list includes some of the most esteemed festivals in the world, including Italy's Venice International Film Festival, Canada's Toronto International Film Festival , Germany's Berlin International Film Festival, France's Cannes International Film Festival and America's Sundance Film Festival, South By Southwest and Tribeca Film Festival .

What does it mean for OKC's deadCenter to be an Oscar-qualifying film festival?

Becoming an Oscar-qualifying festival is a prestigious honor that has made OKC's deadCenter Film Fest even more attractive to the makers of short films.

"Obviously, it increases the kinds of submissions to those (categories) that would not maybe normally submit. So, international films start to become a little bit more of a draw. ... The competition does increase," Tippeconnie said.

"For people who have never been to Oklahoma, when they do get accepted from outside of the state or internationally, coming here then becomes a new opportunity not only for them, but also for the local community here. Filmmakers in Oklahoma can then interchange and connect with people that might not have otherwise considered coming to Oklahoma."

The short films that win one of the three Oscar-qualifying festival awards at deadCenter 2025 may be eligible to submit for consideration at the 98th Academy Awards in 2026 . Winning the right award at an Oscar-qualifying fest means shorts filmmakers can skip some of the costly steps they might otherwise have to take to be eligible for Academy consideration.

"If they want to be Oscar-qualifying, that means that they would have to pay for a commercial run in any of the large metropolitan areas. That's probably Dallas and Chicago that are the closest places, if we're talking about regional filmmakers here, specifically in Oklahoma. They'd have to purchase rental space in a theater in one those cities, and they'd have to run it for seven consecutive days . And that would allow them to be in contention," Tippeconnie said.

"We're hoping that is valuable to filmmakers that we're able to alleviate that burden in just the fact that they're able to play in our festival and win in these categories, which means that they don't have to go through those added expenses."

Attracting high-quality shorts also allows deadCenter to introduce its attendees to the top filmmakers of the future: Before their hit feature "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won best picture at the 2023 Oscars, directors The Daniels' showed their short "Interesting Ball" at deadCenter 2015.

"The short form allows people to be very expressive in many ways — you can be very experimental, test things out — and there's less of a financial burden," Tippeconnie said. "For the audience, it's great for them, because they see films by a variety of voices all in one two-hour program."

What are other changes are coming to OKC's deadCenter Film Festival in 2025?

Poarch, who established the nonprofit deadCenter Film as a corporation in 2004, said she hopes to have a shadow at the 2025 fest, as she plans to step down after the 25th anniversary event.

"I can't believe it's already my fourth festival since I've come back. Time flies. But this was never going to be a permanent gig for me. It was just to jump-start the organization after COVID . ... When I was asked to return to deadCenter in 2022, it was primarily to stabilize the organization," Poarch told The Oklahoman.

"Since that time we have brought on new staff members. We have built up our board with some really dynamic board members. ... To get to the 25th anniversary, it feels like a great time to bring on a new dynamic leader who's going to write the next chapter of deadCenter."

Hopefully, the search committee will announce her successor ahead of this year's festival, Poarch said.

"Then, they can shadow us through the festival. ... We're gonna have visiting filmmakers, we're gonna have an awards ceremony, so there are a lot of moving parts. I think it's really important that someone comes on board to see what that is like, while they have support from other staff members," she said.

"I, of course, will always be available for questions, because it seems like we never really leave deadCenter."

She added that she is proud of all deadCenter Film has accomplished in its first 25 years, especially in boosting Oklahoma's growing film and television industry .

"We are thrilled to celebrate 25 years of showcasing diverse voices in film, and the additional Oscar-qualifying status elevates our mission to inspire, promote and celebrate creativity and community through film," she added in an email. "This recognition not only highlights the quality of work we present but also underscores Oklahoma's growing presence in the film industry ."

25TH ANNUAL DEADCENTER FILM FESTIVAL

• When: June 11-15.

• Where: Various OKC venues.

• Information: https://deadcenterfilm.org .

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: deadCenter designated Oscar-qualifying film festival in third category