VALDOSTA — A pale young woman with black eyes holds a finger over her lips as the title “Wake Up” is prominently shown beneath her face.

The poster of Joe Nowland’s third feature film was aired at the Third Annual South Georgia Film Festival, along with 113 total films screened during three days, March 1-3. 

“Wake Up” is a horror thriller about a young woman who suffers from insomnia and hallucinations before killing her entire family. A psychiatric doctor researches her diary to find out why, but soon begins to fall into the same state of insomnia and confusion that led her to lose her mind.

Before moving into feature films, Nowland started with short films.

His third was released on Amazon Prime. He then moved into feature films and expects “Wake Up” to get a distribution deal and make it into Walmart, he said.

“It’s definitely going to hit all of the major platforms,” Nowland said.

He said the film festival at Valdosta State University was professional and wonderfully done.

“I’ve been to a lot of festivals over the years, and the individuals running this festival have been friendly and willing to help the filmmakers,” he said. “I will highly recommend this film festival for the future. I’m very proud to be a part of this.”

Nowland is already beginning work on his next project, “Berserker.”

This year, the festival expanded with two screening locations on the VSU campus, as well as more feature films and more international films than before.

Jason Brown, SGFF director and VSU professor, said they received more than 450 submissions from feature films, short films, high school and college filmmakers.

Brown said the purpose of the festival is to engage VSU students with the broader film world. Valdosta isn’t Atlanta, Miami or Los Angeles, but they are capable of drawing notable players in the film world here to speak.

“The other part of that is that we are bringing them to Valdosta where they can see our community,” Brown said. “When those opportunities come, we can take advantage of it and that’s what we need to do as a community.”

The festival launched a collaboration this year with the Georgia Beer Company at the new brewery Friday.

Festival screenings took place at the VSU Student Union Theater at the corner of Baytree and North Oak Street. The festival added the use of the mass-media screening room on the corner of Patterson and Brookwood.

The 2019 festival continues connecting with partners in the Valdosta community, including VSU, Georgia Power, Wild Adventures Theme park, the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, WAITR, Valdosta Main Street, The Valdosta Daily Times, the City of Valdosta, Miss Kate’s Tours and Coca-Cola.

Promoting entrepreneurship through filmmaking, the festival continues to promote the regional film industry with panelists who spoke about the craft and industrial impact of film for local businesses. The festival included panelists Brandi Nicole Payne of Seed & Spark who discussed crowdfunding, producer Tara Ansley, actor Ian Anderson and more.

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256