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About

The Big Ears Festival is a dynamic, interactive experience that explores connections between musicians and artists, crossing all musical genres while interfacing with film, performance and the visual arts. In 2016, AC Entertainment partnered with The Public Cinema to expand the film program at Big Ears.

A complete list of films and events we programmed at Big Ears.

2022 Installation

In 2022, we again curated a program of films for a month-long installation at the UT Downtown Gallery. “Memory Leave a Mark” screened four dance films by and about legendary women artists, including Martha Graham, Chantal Akerman, Nina Pina Bausch, Meredith Monk (a musical guest at the fest), Claire Denis, and Mathilde Monnier.

2020 Installation

The 2020 Big Ears Festival was cancelled due to COVID just weeks after we announced our full film program. Instead, we installed “The Society at Black Pond” by Jessica Sarah Rinland, who was to have been one of our visiting artists.

2019 Installation

The 2019 program was an installation of new work by Jodie Mack, Johann Lurf, Beatrice Gibson, and Wang Bing.

2018 Film Highlights

2017 Film Highlights

2016 Film Highlights

Film Press Roundup

“Taking over cozy nightclubs, state-of-the-art concert halls, a centuries-old cathedral, the city’s modern art museum and a recently renovated 90-year-old movie palace, Big Ears casts Knoxville as a world-class entertainment town — accommodating to any and every scale of performance or projection, as well as our demands that art be challenging and immersive. In only its second year, the film line-up already feels like a vital complement to the tenor of the festival as a whole.” — Filmmaker Magazine (Summer 2017, print only)

Festival Reports

Interviews with Visiting Filmmakers

Big Ears Programming
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