Oxford Film Festival

The Oxford MS film festival concluded today, Sunday February 19 after another successful festival that started on February 15. This was the 14:th year of the festival and it will be back in February next year. We can highly recommend attending this festival as it is a true example of Southern Hospitality and there are some excellent films being showcased every year. For you filmmakers among us, Mississippi has some wonderful and very helpful citizens and if you couple this with an excellent state program for film production rebate – it is very clear that Missisippi is a great place not only to watch movies, but to make them as well!

British telecom model K6 phone booth dating to the 1930's in the town square Oxford MS
British telecom model K6 phone booth dating to the 1930’s in the town square Oxford MS

Oxford Missisippi is a university town, home to University of Missisippi or “Ole Miss” as it is generally referred to. When the city was incorporated in 1837, the name was chosen after Oxford UK with the hope that this might help persuade the state to located the state university there – this worked and the university was established in 1844.

Oxford town square with the Lafayette County corthouse
Oxford town square with the Lafayette County courthouse

The film festival is a true Indie film festival and you can watch a full range of movies, from shorts to features with a Missisippi connection. Since Oxford is in close proximity to the Mississippi delta, music plays a big part in many of the films in the festival – the delta is after all the home of the blues.

Oxford was also the home of author William Faulkner and being a university town it does have bookstores, one of them being Square Books which actually has three different stores on the square and hosts as many as 150 author events every year. They have a large selection of signed and collectible books as well. There is also a nice balcony up on the second story overlooking the square where you can enjoy a cup of coffee and read your book.

Square books Oxford MS
Square books Oxford MS
Square books café
Square books café