AIFF (Anchorage International Film Festival) Opens Dec 1, 2023 With Wild Life - The Lance Mackey Story

The Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) begins Friday, December 1, 2023 with a documentary about four time Iditarod winner, Lance Mackey. Based on the trailer below, this doesn't seem to sugar coat his troubled life.

Wild life - The Lance Mackey story from MAVERIX on Vimeo.

The Festival runs Dec. 1 - 9 this year and you can see the program of all the coming films here.

You can see the schedule of all the films here.  Above the calendar you can get different options.  The default seems to be by week, and that only shows the first two days.  Look above for the arrow to move to week two.  

This link shows the films in alphabetical order (beginning with punctuation marks) with pictures and brief descriptions of the films.  

I'd note - as does the AIFF website - that MovieMaker magazine has listed the Anchorage International Film Festival in its list of 25 coolest festivals 2023. And no, they aren't all near the arctic.  About AIFF, they say:

“This festival gave me the chance to explore all day and watch films all night — and night starts at 3 p.m., so that is a lot of films,” says Geoff Marslett. “I promise you will come back with stories from this adventure. If you’re lucky, you may even get to play bingo with the good people who run this one.”

You’ll have lots of fun if your bingo card includes a strong list of films from all over the world, with an emphasis on independent filmmaking in Alaska. We listed Anchorage as one of our 20 Great Film Festivals for First-Time Filmmakers last year not only because of its coolness, but also because of its supportive ratio of submitted-to-accepted films, which means you have a decent chance of getting in with a strong project."

So, if you live in Anchorage or nearby, you can save the cost of airfare and a hotel and enjoy one of the coolest film festivals in the world.  

You can get passes for all the films   Individual feature length films or programs of short films are $12 each.  So if you're going to see 10 or more films, it's definitely worth it.  And even if you won't see more than six, having a pass will save you some lines and buying individual tickets and add a little contribution to the Festival.  

ALL FILMS Passes 2023
$110.00 Pass for all AIFF 2023 in-person screenings from Friday, December 1 through Saturday, December 9, including Opening Night and all other festival screenings at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub.

In the past I've posted "Questions and Answers People Should Be Asking About The Festival." Here's a link to the last one I did in 2019.  Some specific things - like venues and free events change from festival to festival.  But a lot of it might be useful for people not used to going to film festivals.  

This year's venues include The Bear Tooth, Anchorage Museum, E Street Theater, and the Awards event will be at The Nave on Spenard.  You can find all the details at the AIFF website.

I'll try to highlight some of the films that will be showing during the festival.