The St. Louis International Film Festival is participating in the first Film Festival Day on Saturday, April 11, with 29 other film festivals across the U.S. Film-festival audiences from across North America will join together for a virtual screening of the independent film "Phoenix, Oregon" and a filmmaker Q&A. The watch party is an initiative of the Film Festival Alliance, a collaborative community of mission-driven film festivals.

In the film, two friends, a graphic novelist and a chef, seize an unlikely opportunity to reinvent their lives, quitting their jobs to restore an old bowling alley and serve the “world's greatest pizza." "Phoenix, Oregon" stars indie stalwart James Le Gros ("Drugstore Cowboy," "Living in Oblivion"), Lisa Edelstein ("Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce," "House"), Jesse Borrego ("Fame," "Blood In Blood Out"), Reynaldo Gallegos ("Triple Frontier," "American Sniper"), Diedrich Bader ("Napoleon Dynamite," "Office Space," "Veep"), and Kevin Corrigan ("The Departed," "Pineapple Express," "True Romance").

More than 175 film festivals across North America have been cancelled or postponed as a result of covid-19. Movies unite us in a way that no other art form can, and film festivals play an essential role in connecting our community to support the works of independent storytellers. Please join us in a celebration of our communities, our audiences, independent filmmakers, and what makes the film festival experience so unique.