Searching for Sonny premiered at the Austin Film Festival in October to two sold-out crowds, with some movie-goers being turned away, Disney said. On Nov. 12, the film made its Fort Worth debut at the fifth annual Lone Star Film Festival to another sold-out crowd. A second screening was added.

“It was fun to have our hometown premiere,” said Andrew Disney, the films writer. “My first short film played at the first Lone Star Film Festival and it’s been cool to see the festival grow. The programming was outstanding this year. They brought in so many great artists and so many great, buzzed-about films. I feel like this year is the year Lone Star really came into its own. I’m excited to see what they do next.”

Red Sanders, President of Red Productions, the Fort Worth film development firm who shot the film, agreed. He said the Lone Star Film Festival took “a big step up this year,” with the number of industry experts brought in this year coupled with films that he’s sure will be Academy Award contenders.

“Fort Worth has always been a city that’s supportive of arts and we’ve now seen film becoming grouped in with that art scene,” Sanders said. “Searching for Sonny is a testament to how much talent there is in the D-FW area, or Fort Worth, really. The whole film was shot in Fort Worth. The community rallied behind us and helped us get locations. We even got an airport and we’ve never done something like that outside of L.A. It would have been completely prohibitive. Two film festivals so far and sold out at each. That’s really exciting and special to see people showing up to see it.

As written by Celestina Blok - Special to the Business Press. Click here for the full article.