Hello London - I’m Matt Brown and you’re listening to The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things London, and maybe some other stuff too. It’s brought to you by London Ontario Online News. That’s The Loon for short. It’s a good show today. Diana Tamblyn, a co-owner here at The Loon and our Arts and Culture editor, joins me for a conversation with Forest City Film Festival Executive Director Ethan Hickey. He’s going to tell us all about the upcoming 11th annual film festival that is launching, today. In this episode, Ethan Hickey talks about the, now more than a decade old, Forest City Film Festival. Ethan is serving his first year as the festival’s executive director and he’s been connected to the festival in various ways since 2019. This year’s festival has a program launch party set for 5pm today (Thursday, September 3rd). It’s being held at Museum London, it’s open to the public and you don’t want to miss it because Ethan and his team will be announcing the full slate of films - all 144 of them - that will be playing over the festival’s 11 day schedule. The festival officially kicks off on Thursday, October 15th at the Goodwill Industries building on Horton with a gala event that includes an Impact Award presentation recognizing a London celebrity that has made it big not just here at home in Canada, but across North America and internationally. The festival offers a full line up of films, speakers and industry events. This is a festival that showcases films that have a strong tie to the Southwestern Ontario region, whether that’s a core member of the film team from the area like the director, producer, lead actor, or sound designer, or the film was shot in the region, or features a regional story. In fact, the Forest City Film Festival’s mission is building, broadening, and bettering the film culture of Southwestern Ontario. Since 2016, the festival has introduced London audiences to the best features, shorts, documentaries and animation from the region. This year, the festival will wrap up with an awards event at Wolf Performance Hall, presented in partnership with Film London. Ethan is here to tell us all about it. So, let’s go!