The Nantucket Film Festival Returns To The Island This Week

The 31st Nantucket Film Festival opens this Wednesday, June 17th, and runs through the 22nd, highlighted by the debut screening of “The Five Star Weekend,” the much-anticipated Elin Hildebrand adaptation that was filmed partially on Nantucket last fall.

Notable guests at this year’s festival include “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” star Rashida Jones, “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig, “Toy Story 4” story writer Will McCormack, and Nantucket Film Festival regular Ken Burns. Burns, the iconic documentarian known for his work on the history and culture of the United States, has attended the festival several times and will discuss his critically acclaimed documentary “The American Revolution” to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States' independence.

“The Five Star Weekend,” an NBC limited series based on Hildebrand’s novel of the same name, captured the island’s attention last September when the cast and crew arrived to film a portion of the series on location. Following a food blogger attempting to combat loss with a special Nantucket weekend, the series stars Jennifer Garner, Chloe Sevigny and Regina Hall, among other well-known Hollywood stars. It will also feature a number of local Nantucketers who participated in the filming as extras and stand-ins. A deep dive conversation with Hilderbrand and showrunner Bekah Brunstetter follows each of the two screenings. For the first session, Sevigny will join them.

The festival’s opening film will be A24’s “The Invite,” directed by Olivia Wilde and starring Wilde, Ed Norton, and Penelope Cruz. “The Invite” was written by Jones and McCormack, who will be at the festival. The centerpiece film is “Give Me the Ball!”, a documentary about tennis player Billie Jean King.

Other noteworthy films include the Sevigny-produced Grateful Dead fan-community documentary “Summer Tour,” Emmy-winner Jay Duplass’s “See You When I See You,” and “Knife: the Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie.”

Another Nantucket connection at this year’s festival is “Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult,” a new HBO documentary series about model Hoyt Richards and the Eternal Values spiritual group. The documentary includes interviews with former members of the group, which Richards, who is often considered one of the first male supermodels, eventually escaped. Richards first met the leader of the cult at Nobadeer Beach on Nantucket. He spent many summers on the island, and it eventually became the site of his initial descent into the cult. The screening of the film will be followed by a panel discussion with Richards and filmmakers Chris Smith and Ryann Fraser.

Other notable events include the festival’s successful “Late Night Storytelling” and “Morning Coffee With…” series.

The 31st edition of the Nantucket Film Festival will also include the 25th annual Teen View class, now a writing intensive for incoming 8th-11th graders.

Tickets for the festival are available here.