Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center is hosting the 16th Fort Myers Film Festival. -ALEX MACCARTNY / FLORIDA WEEKLY

The Fort Myers Film Festival returns for its 16th year to celebrate independent filmmakers from across the world. The festival kicks off May 20 at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center.

The festival will once again bring filmmakers, actors and audiences to downtown Fort Myers for five days of screenings, premieres and Q&As.

The festival will run from May 20-24. Additional screenings throughout the week will take place at venues across Fort Myers, including the Alliance for the Arts, IMAG History & Science Center, Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium and The Laboratory Theater of Florida.

This year’s opening night lineup includes Ted Dintersmith’s documentary “Multiple Choice” and Jordan Axelrod’s short film “Szypliszki,” alongside other independent films screening throughout the week.

For Dintersmith, returning to Fort Myers after 11 years feels deeply personal.

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“When we got the word, we were selected, I said, ‘This is fantastic,’” Dintersmith said. “I’ll be there with a great deal of excitement.”

Dintersmith first attended the festival in 2015 with his documentary “Most Likely to Succeed,” which was also that year’s opening night film. More than a decade later, he said he still remembers conversations he had with audience members after screenings.

“There’s just so much energy around the festival,” Dintersmith said. “I remember staying really late talking to people.”

This year, Dintersmith returns with “Multiple Choice,” a documentary examining the future of education through career-based learning.

“The opening night film is a huge deal,” Dintersmith said. “It will be electric because I know how enthusiastic the community is about the festival.”

The documentary follows a school in Winchester, Virginia, built around career-based learning. Offering students opportunities in fields ranging from carpentry and welding to cybersecurity and digital media.

“When I visited the school, I had zero intention of making another documentary,” Dintersmith said. “But after spending a day there, I said, ‘This is a story America needs to hear.’”

What stood out most to him, he said, was the atmosphere among students.

“These are very engaged, happy kids,” Dintersmith said. “There are smiles everywhere and a sense of purpose among all these kids.”

The film’s title reflects its main message.

“When kids graduate high school, they feel they have multiple life choices going forward instead of being trained to take multiple-choice exams,” Dintersmith said.

The feedback he’s gotten has been very supportive, with some people expressing to him that it’s more than just a documentary about education.

“A lot of people have told me, ‘I thought I was seeing a film about a high school, but I realized it’s really about a community,’” he said.

Lori Hammel. -COURTESY PHOTO

Actress, director and writer Lori Hammel will bring her short film “Resume of Regrets” to the festival for its Florida premiere. The bittersweet comedy, co-directed with Tom A. Capps, asks the question, what would happen if, in a routine job interview, it turned into an emotional reflection on unfinished ambitions?

The film blends home movie footage from Hammel’s grandfather with live-action storytelling to explore the fear of wasted potential and the journey of finding purpose again.

Hammel, whose acting credits include Broadway’s “Mamma Mia” and television appearances on “Law & Order” and “Blue Bloods,” took on this project. Independent film festivals create connections between artists and audiences that traditional theaters cannot replicate.

“I’m extremely grateful,” Hammel said. “I feel like I’m part of storytelling at an indie level. It means other people are just as passionate about film and storytelling as I am.”

For Hammel, being selected represents more than professional recognition.

“It feels like a sense of belonging,” Hammel said. “It’s extraordinary to have a story you created seen by people who had nothing to do with it, but who still want to participate in watching your story.”

The origins of “Resume of Regrets” were deeply personal. Hammel stated the film grew out of her own unfinished film projects and turned a lack of motivation into creative inspiration.

“I had sort of given up on making a film,” Hammel said.

That changed during a conversation with fellow filmmakers after wrapping another independent project.

“One of my friends told me, ‘Look around you. Annie’s making her film. Mike just made his film. You’ve got all these friends. If you want to make something, you can make something,” Hammel said.

The conversation happened on her birthday.

“I felt like I had the best birthday present,” she said.

Hammel said that as a first-time director, collaboration became central to the filmmaking process.

“It was the first time I’d ever done it,” Hammel said. “I have a very kind group of people that I work with. It’s all in the spirit of getting something done and working together.”

Tom A Capps. -COURTESY PHOTO

An energy that fosters through the same sense of collaboration and community throughout the festival itself.

“You’re going to see things that no one else has seen,” Hammel said. “You’re in a room with people who care deeply about creating art.”

Unlike traditional movie theaters, film festivals often allow audiences to directly interact with filmmakers through discussions and Q&A sessions.

“This is an opportunity to be in the same room with the people who made the art you just saw,” Hammel said. “That’s a pretty neat experience.”

The Fort Myers Film Festival has built its reputation around showcasing bold independent films while supporting emerging and established filmmakers alike.

Opening night festivities traditionally include filmmaker appearances, red-carpet photos, and audience gatherings outside the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center alongside the “Caloosahatchee Manuscripts” light sculpture.

The final awards ceremony will take place on May 24, after a filmmaker panel and a champagne toast at 6 p.m.

For filmmakers like Dintersmith and Hammel, however, the lasting impact of the festival goes beyond awards or premieres.

It comes from the environment of encouraging creativity and passion.

“A lot of power right now in film is held by streamers. We do such a disservice to people and their intellectual curiosity by dumbing down film,” Dintersmith said. “Fort Myers Festival gives room for these filmmakers to bring in their passion projects and bring them to the community in a really uplifting way.”

And for audiences, filmmakers say that experience is what makes independent film festivals unlike anything else.

Opening night film is $25 for general admission, $100 for VIP and $12-20 for the other locations listed.

For more information on the Fort Myers Film Festival, visit fortmyersfilmfestival.com.

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