BY KAREN BOSSICK

Stories from the Old Idaho Penitentiary, a kayaking trip down the Snake River to the Pacific Ocean…these are some of the tales you can see on the big screen when the 9th Annual Twin Falls Film Festival hits the stage Feb. 6 and 7.

The two-day festival will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 6-7, at the historic 300-seat Orpheum Theatre on Main Street Twin Falls. The 105-year-old theater has been a cornerstone of Twin Falls’ cultural life since 1921, and the film festival makes it a bastion of global talent and local flavor.

Attendees can meet the filmmakers and screenwriters who bring fresh perspectives to the screen. And special events sponsored by Twin Falls Sandwich Company and Koto’s Brewing will add a hometown touch to the festivities.

Kevin Bradshaw, center, says the film festival has a red carpet and step for photo ops.

This year’s festival kicks off from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, with a free block of foreign films.

The 2 to 4:30 p.m. block will feature such films as “A Refuge of Scouting,” a documentary film about an all-refugee Scout troop based in Aurora, Colo., which provides a safe space for some of the United States’ most vulnerable populations—refugees.

The 5 to 8:30 p.m. block will include “Cheer Dreams,” which looks at College of Southern Idaho cheerleaders in competition.

And the night will be capped with “Mr. Jimmy” at 9 p.m. The film plumbs the devotion of a Japanese man who is obsessed with sounding like Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

Robert Lester won Best Documentary for “Columbia River Canoe Project” at last year’s festival.

On Saturday, Feb. 7, the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. block will include “The Snake and the Whale,” which follows two young kayakers down the Snake River to the Pacific Ocean.

The 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. block will include Kody Newton’s sci-fi horror and the documentary “Alaska Rescue,” which documents how rescuers fixed up a plane that crashed on a mountain top in a fog so it could take off again. Mike Rowe, the host of “Dirty Jobs” and narrator of “Deadliest Catch,” does the voiceover.

The 5 to 8 p.m. block will include “Return to Sender” and “A Hearse & A Hymn.” Both films were inspired by actual crime stories from the Old Idaho Penitentiary.

The 8:30 p.m. Awards Ceremony will be followed by an After Party.

The 112-year-old Orpheum Theater has a balcony and 300 seats.

A full Festival ticket costs $48.10; a One Day Pass, $37.60, and a Single Block, $21.85. To learn more or to buy tickets, go to https://www.twinfallsfilmfestival.com/.

The film festival got its start as the Twin Falls Sandwiches Film Festival with “Sandwiches” an acronym for swords, animation, new drama and other types of genres of film. But the name was a little confusing, in part, because of the Twin Falls Sandwich Company just down the street so last year it changed the name.

The festival didn’t miss a beat during the COVID pandemic, operating online.

Its team of seven includes Katie Neff, a 15-year veteran of the Chicago/L.A. improv scene who was a Second City resident “Mainstage” member in Las Vegas; Steve Kaminski, an improvisation artist who did shows for The Second City; Danny Loughmiller, who has co-created award-winning short films; Rob O’Connell, a professional musician who worked on Rob Lowe’s 2017 TV series “The Lowe Files,” and Larissa Long, who was involved in a Seattle film festival and who brought Twin Falls Comic Con to Twin Falls.

This year’s winners will receive this trophy.

Kevin Bradshaw, who has been with the film festival since its beginnings and has a background in radio, photograph and videography, took over the directorship from its originator Ray Child last year.

The team reviews a variety of films from independent filmmakers that are submitted to such clearinghouses like Film Freeway. People submit everything from 3-minute films to feature-length films. The genres range from drama to animation, said Bradshaw.

“The documentary was done by a young man from Montana who went down the Snake River on a kayak with a cousin just out of high school. They had drones and Dad in a truck to film their whole journey to the Pacific Ocean. And it turned out to be a great feature film,” he added.

A 19-year-old Utah woman created “Storyboard the Musical,” creating all the music and artwork herself. Twin Falls’ Jason Turner followed College of Southern Idaho cheerleaders to a national competition.

And Kody Newton of Boise, who makes films professionally, produced “259,” a sci-fi horror film that boasts great technicals and halfway decent acting, according to Bradshaw.

“We had 12 people from Boise who submitted films. They’re really entertaining, really good filmmakers. A couple were able to take real crime stories at the Idaho Penitentiary and create stories around them,” Bradshaw said.

The free block of international films, which kicks off the festival, was done in part to honor Twin Falls’ refugee population.

“We had filmmakers in Iran, India and Brazil contact us and ask if we could waive the small submission fee that we ask to review films. Twin Falls has a refugee population so we thought we’d create a block and let people in for free,” Bradshaw said.

Previously, the film festival has also judged scripts. But the person in charge of scripts was unable to do it this year so that part of the film festival is scheduled to resume next year.

“We usually read a few lines of the scripts—it’s fun to listen to somebody’s ideas,” said Bradshaw.