One of the most popular festival offerings returns this year: the free daily film industry panels at the City Opera House. This is where you get to hear first hand the stories and opinions of our visiting filmmakers where they mix it up with each other and the audience. These sessions range from the hilarious to the moving. This year they begin at 9:30 am, so that you won’t miss lunch or your first movie at noon.

Free tickets will be handed out beginning at 8:30 a.m. to guarantee seating. TIcketed patrons may leave and return to line up following the numbers on the panel tickets. A maximum of two tickets per person will be distributed.

2010 Filmmaker Panel Schedule

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28
“Film Literacy: How to Be Smart by Going to the Movies in a Dumbed Down Society” 
Film Professors from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, visiting filmmakers and Michael Moore will talk about the state of movies in America — a country that has lost sight of the beautiful, engaging art that is the cinema after being bombarded with sequels, remakes and 3D gimmickry. This panel is for true movie lovers who will enjoy a lively discussion about what makes a great movie a great movie, and how we can get more of them made. Sponsored by: Ann Arbor Area Film Office

THURSDAY, JULY 29
“An Intimate Interview with America’s Premier Indie Film Moguls” 
It’s not every day we get movie studio heads in Traverse City, so you won’t want to miss this once-in-a-festival- lifetime one-on-one with the founders and current studio co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics, Michael Barker and Tom Bernard. For over 30 years, first at Orion Classics and then at Sony, these two men have been responsible for bringing some of the very best foreign and indie fare to American audiences, including eight of the last eighteen Foreign Language Oscar winners. Now, right here on our stage, they will discuss and reveal all the behind the scenes workings of directors like Pedro Almodovar and Errol Morris. And to show our appreciation to them, the TCFF will hand them our Lifetime Achievement Award. Don’t miss this event!
Sponsored by: Longview Winery 

FRIDAY, JULY 30
“We Live in Cuba and We Make Movies”
In an embargo-busting move, we have brought four Cuban filmmakers from Havana to the Caribbean-blue waters of northern Michigan. Can we do that? Is it legal? Are they bringing us all cigars? Cuba has been our sworn enemy for the past 50 years, yet they simply love our three biggest contributions to the planet: baseball, jazz and Hollywood. On this panel we will hear for the first time what it’s like to make a movie in a country that is poor and cut off from much of the world. This will no doubt be an explosive panel, one that will be talked about long after the festival is over.
Sponsored by: Clark Hill PLC

SATURDAY, JULY 31
“Here Comes Trouble: Eight Documentary Filmmakers Tell Us How They Did It and Lived to Tell”
It’s our annual documentary smack down, during which Michael Moore will get some of TCFF10′s great nonfiction filmmakers to tell stories that will make the local NPR station wish they hadn’t agreed to broadcast the panels! This year’s doc-makers will discuss how they make their films happen “by any means necessary,” bringing in stories from the field that will delight, amuse, shock and inspire. Panelists may include Jeff Deutchman (“11/4/08″), Neil Diamond (“Reel Injun”), Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (“Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage”), Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith (“The Most Dangerous Man in America”), Josh Fox (“GasLand”), Mark Lewis (“Cane Toads: The Conquest”), Nicolas Rossier (“American Radical”), Lee Storey (“Smile ‘Til It Hurts: The Up with People Story”), Michael Webber (“The Elephant in the Living Room”), and David Ridgen and Nic Rossier (“American Radical”).
Sponsored by: Bay Bread Company and Bob & Carol Goff

SUNDAY, AUGUST 1
“The Comedy Panel”
There’s never an empty seat for this panel, and once again you won’t want to miss the forbidden stories of TCFF regulars Jeff Garlin, Sabina Guzzanti and Michael Moore. A rollicking laugh-fest for those who can’t wait till our comedy festival in hilarious northern Michigan February!
Sponsored by: Nancy Stupsker and Helene Stupsker