Dates for the 2025 Great Wonders Uplift Film Festival are all set

Are you a cinephile? Do you enjoy watching films made by area filmmakers?

You’re in luck because the dates for the 2025 Great Wonders Uplift Film Festival are all set. This year’s film festival will be held Jan. 9-11 at the Route 66 Event Center and Route 66 Theater. 

“This is the second annual Great Wonders Uplift Film Fest,” said President of Great Wonders Productions Steve Head. “It’s not just a film fest, but it’s a film festival that focuses only on Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. So, it’s filmmakers from our own region and they submit films from June to December 31. We gather all of those films. We have a panel of 12 judges and go through all of those films and then we have three days of screening blocks where the public can come and watch films they normally wouldn’t get to see.”

A breakdown of each day can be seen below.

On Thursday, there will be a Meet and Greet with the filmmakers scheduled for 4-5 p.m. at the event center before the first film screening block takes place from 6-9 p.m. at the Route 66 Theater.

The schedule for Thursday:

• Block #1 Introduction (0:5:00)
• Flip (0:09:06)
• Monstrosity – From Dunks to Trucks (0:26:46)
• With You (0:11:47)
• Midnight’s Ghost (0:04:44)
• Father’s Love is Like a Mountain (0:14:11)
• Intermission
• Voices of the O-Gah-Pah (0:50:00)

On Friday, film screening block No. 2 will take place from 9 a.m. to noon at the Route 66 Theater:

• Block #2 Introduction (0:5:00)
• I’m So Glad – Kansas City and the Roots of Black Gospel (1:57:57)
• Intermission
• Gateway to a New Life (0:54:00)
  
  A filmmaker roundtable will take place from 1 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. at the event center before the film screening block No. 3 from 2 to 4:50 p.m. takes place at the Route 66 Theater:
•  Block #3 Introduction
• Terminal (02:48:24)

Friday wraps up with Workshop: AI in Filmmaking with Mark Cline from 5 to 5:50 p.m. at the event center before the final screening film block No. 4 from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.:

• Block #4 Introduction (0:5:00)
• Greenwood (0:16:47)
• Trauma: The New Epidemic (0:32:56)
• Life of Trees (0:06:05)
• Kerry’s Last 100 (0:05:22)
• Intermission
• Hope Lives Here (0:15:07)
• Shadow of Guilt (0:09:36)
• #Dad Life (0:03:58)‍
• Interlude (0:13:44)
• The Broken Door (0:11:15)
• After Taste (0:16:36: Mature Theme
• Shift (0:17:15) Mature Theme

Saturday will have the fifth block of films screening at the theater from 9 to 11:50 a.m.:

• Block #5 Introduction (0:5:00)
• Eden’s Twilight (0:01:56)
• Intermission
• Doom and Despair (0:21:13)
• Small Town Girl (0:30:00)

From 1 to 3:30 p.m., the sixth block for film screening will take place:

• Block #6 Introduction (0:5:00)
• Combined  (0:18:55)
• Sugarhouse (2:04:00)

Saturday continues with a special sneak preview of a film not yet released in theaters, airing at the Route 6 Theater from 3:30 to 5:25 p.m. before there will be a Q&A Session with CEO of Kingdom Story Company Kevin Downes, an actor, director, producer and writer, from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at the event center.

Saturday wraps up with the Awards event from 8-10:30 p.m at the Harry M. Cornell Arts and Entertainment Center at 212 W 7th Street in Joplin:

Doors open at 7:30pm

8:00 – Red Carpet Arrival Reception / Hors d’oeuvres

8:30 – Welcome/Sponsor Thank You

8:45 – Kevin Downes

9:15 – Short Intermission

9:30 – Awards Presentation

Close approximation 10:30-10:45

An after party mixer will be held from 10:45 to midnight at Club 609 in Joplin.

For more information, visit https://www.upliftfilmfest.com/.