Film Buffs Line Up Early For First Day Of Festival

People were lining up early to get a good seat for the films of their choice at the first official day of the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Karen Werner is from Orange County and Trish Weinstock is from Colorado. This is the fifth year they have lined up together to see one of the first films of the festival. But they’re not stopping there. They plan to see as many films as possible to take advantage of their time in town.

“The reason I come to the film festival is because there is no other way you can see a lot of these films,” said Weinstock.

“It’s just got an excitement all of it’s own,” said Werner.

The festival kicked off last night at Palm Springs High School with the film “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” but with almost 200 films, people around town have plenty of time to see the unique productions from the more than 70 countries.

“You just don’t see any of this in mainstream cinema,” said Werner.

Diane Johnson lives in Cathedral City and has been to the festival four times. She also has a few films she wants to watch.

“Thirty-seven, 38, something like that,” said Johnson.

This is the fourth year that Pam Williamson and her husband have visited the Valley all the way from France. They said Palm Springs is the perfect place for a film festival.

“Every year it’s on our calendar because it’s fun even being outside waiting for the films here,” said Williamson.

She said they enjoy the flexibility the festival gives them as far as which films they can see.

“We’ll easily see 35, 40 films,” said Williamson.

Williamson said she loves coming to the festival because it’s different from home.

“We don’t get a chance to see English films in France so this is our opportunity to get English subtitles even though they’re foreign films,” said Williamson.

If you plan to hit the theaters during the festival, make sure to get in early and plan ahead.