Joedance Film Festival has donated $50,000 for 2020 to Atrium Health Foundation, which represents the largest annual check in the Festival’s 11-year history. Joedance’s annual donation is earmarked for Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital.
The 12th Annual Joedance Film Festival will be held August 5-7, 2021, once again with a virtual format. Film submissions for the 2021 Joedance Film Festival remain open until June 1, 2021. Joedance accepts films that have a connection to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
Last year, Joedance made a strategic – and successful – pivot in wake of COVID-19 to present a virtual festival, showing 24 films August 6-8, 2020. This year, Joedance will be a hybrid festival of virtual and an in person at the Charlotte Ballet.
Joedance, which includes the annual film festival during the first full weekend in August and related events year-round, honors the memory of Joe Restaino by raising funds and awareness for pediatric cancer research at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital. The family chose a film festival to honor Joe Restaino because of his love of movies. Joedance supports research and clinical trials for pediatric sarcomas, blastomas and brain tumors.
The organization rode a wave of expansion in 2020, in its 11th year, including adding Georgia and Tennessee to the list of the Festival’s film eligibility list, and adding a student film category, which was showcased Saturday afternoon on Festival weekend.
To date, Joedance has donated more than $255,000 to Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital in 11 years, including $50,000 in 2020.
The $255,000 for Levine Children’s Hospital has done much, including:
*funding a Lab Technician to operate a very specialized piece of equipment, a CyToF machine, which will speed up the process of studying effects of inflammation on cancer cells as it relates treatment outcomes.
*helping fund cancer research and clinical trials, including the Healios Project to prevent mouth sores in cancer patients.
*assisting in funding a clinical trial for recurrent osteosarcoma.
*funding multiple cancer research internships, which have provided critical support to the hospital, such as collecting data on integrative medicine, with Joedance Film Festival named as the underwriter for the project.
Joedance Film Festival Submissions
Submit films at https://filmfreeway.com/JoedanceFilmFestival
Joedance Film Festival annually showcases short and feature-length films. Eligible filmmakers have to:
*reside in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia or Tennessee;
*be originally from North, Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia or Tennessee;
or
*be connected to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia or Tennessee (films, cast or crew).
