For more than a decade, the Oxford Film Festival has supported and celebrated the art of independent cinema. The 13th Annual Oxford Film Festival will begin Wednesday night at the Powerhouse with events at multiple venues in town, finishing Sunday evening.
Within the next five days, filmmakers and film lovers from all over the country will be traveling to Oxford to participate in the festival’s many screenings, panels and social events involving a large selection of independent films.
Oxford Film Festival executive director Melanie Addington has been working with more than 300 volunteers, 150 visiting industry and filmmaker special guests and has coordinated thousands of attendees in a condensed five days all while making sure everyone has fun.
Addington said that despite this being the festival’s 13th year, this year will be like none other.
“We have doubled the number of films,” Addington said. “Tripled the number of panels, added virtual reality films, added more special screenings including anniversary screenings, added more venues, added more events and the list continues.”
Addington said the expansion of the festival and the large diversity of what it has to offer this year can appeal to all different types of people.
“This is a diverse group of projects that will virtually place audience members in foreign lands, scary situations and fascinating worlds in a way that is visceral, dynamic and exciting,” Addington said.
The Oxford Film Festival continues to grow. This year’s selections —both in subject matter, representation from the world, and the sheer number of films chosen —reflect that. The festival screens 
short and feature-length films in both showcase and competition settings.
Sophomore integrated marketing communications major An Le will be serving as a hospitality volunteer coordinator for this year’s festival.
“I worked last year with the festival,” Le said. “But I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like working with almost double the amount of film makers this year.”
Tickets for the festival are available online or upon arrival for specific events, weekend passes and one-day passes.
The first event of the week is the Southern Foodways Alliance Kick-Off Food Film Fest, where attendees will watch films and eat the food being shown onscreen.
The awards ceremony will be Sunday, concluding the festival.
Among many category awards, all films are eligible for the Ron Tibbett Audience Award. Ron Tibbett was the founding director of the Magnolia Film Festival in Starkville, the first independent film festival in Mississippi.
