hine your shoes, straighten your bow tie and get your most glamorous dress ready for a stroll down the red carpet during the first ever Jim Thorpe Film Festival kicking off the weekend of June 8 at the Mauch Chunk Opera House.

The three-day festival will be filled with works from 16 countries, feature six world premieres, four North American premieres and 26 Pennsylvania premieres, ranging from horror to comedy, love and musicals."We have micro-budget, low budget and up," said co-film fest founder and fellow filmmaker Todd Morris. "We just have a lot of good films. It's an international festival.""Our standards are pretty high," said co-founder and actress Jocelyn O'Neil.According to the pair, hundreds of films were submitted from around the world for the maiden film festival."It's so hard to make any film, and it was a hard process to whittle down from 600 to 87. It was heart-wrenching," Morris said."We fought over films to put into slots. We did this over four weekends from morning to evening," O'Neil said.The pair contacted the owners of a local print shop, Somersault Print and Creative, to design the logos and program for the weekend event along with tapping residents to serve as judges for the awards panel."We tried to involve as many local businesses as we could," said Morris.Thursday night will open with a walk down the carpet where photographers will snap pictures of festivalgoers making their way inside the historic building. The first film to be shown will begin at 7 p.m. and close with the feature of the evening, "The Pine Barrens." As the film plays, a live band, Ruins of Friendship, will perform the musical score throughout the two-hour piece."It's quite a show with the live musical performance," said Morris."It's a documentary about the Pine Barrens in New Jersey and all the folklore around them. It's been getting a lot of attention," he said.After the film wraps, director David Kesler will be on-hand for a question and answer panel.An after-party will be hosted at the Flow Art Gallery on Broadway, giving attendees a chance to sip cocktails in their party attire and discuss the films.On Friday the festival picks up at 2 p.m., with a "Love and Death," themed block followed by "My Art, My Obsession," block at 4:30 p.m., "Young Love," starting at 7 p.m., when "The Fastest, Most Romantic Comedy Yet," will have its Pennsylvania premiere. Director Shane Butler will attend the screening.The "Identity" block follows with films "Bride of Frankie" and the controversial standout, "Whiteface.""Whiteface" has received a best actor nomination for the film festival."This festival is all about pushing boundaries and this film does that," Morris said.Friday night will end with a midnight section titled "Grindhouse," an adults-only block that will feature works that are "cutting edge from trashy to exploitative to gory and bizarre to violent," Morris said.Saturday's showing starts at noon with a bang."It's like serving coffee with action," Morris said.The stand out in the block is an action-musical titled "Hard Way.""The actors are playing it completely straight but they break into song," said O'Neil."It's a really fun block," she said.Themes throughout Saturday include "Hard Life, Love Hurts and Love Survives.""'Quaker Oats,' is having its Pennsylvania premiere. It's a very sweet, feel-good movie," said O'Neil.Following the warm and fuzzies, the festival makes its descent into heavier subjects with the "The Dark Side" block, starting at 9:30 p.m."There's some horror and psychological things there," said Morris."There are some things I still can't get out of my head," O'Neil said."Don't Feed the Troll" is a story centering around an internet troll who, "Gets taken care of the way we want them to be taken care of," said O'Neil.The second "Grindhouse" block closes out the night before guests attend the after-party at the soon-to-be opened Marion Hose Company.This adults-only block includes films titled "Rites of Vengeance" and "PMS: Pre-Teen Monster Syndrome.""It's all beautifully produced and disturbing," O'Neil said."We are ending it with a bang," said Morris of the closing film "Chateau Sauvignon: terroir."Sunday the festival opens at 11:30 a.m. with locally made films including "Fools Chair," created, shot and produced by Jim Thorpe's own Eric Szollosy, staring local artist Dan Becker. The haunting images are narrated of sorts by voice-overs and close-ups of Becker as an original music score plays on, making it a multilevel experience."Centralia" will have it's world premiere Sunday."'Alone,' is an experimental reality movie. One of the first male supermodels made this film," said Morris. "He's a world traveling filmmaker and model. He's a real character.""See You Yesterday," produced by Spike Lee, is a 15-minute, "beautiful heartbreaking piece," said O'Neil."Palacios," will have its world premiere as the festival's closing work. The film's director, Robert Herrera, will be in attendance. The film centers on a widowed woman and an inner-city teen spending the Fourth of July together on a Midwest city rooftop, where they create an unlikely bond."It's so heartbreaking," said O'Neil. "I sobbed at the end."An awards ceremony will take place at 7 p.m., where a three-judge panel will decide winners from several categories."I'm excited to share these films because they really are great," said O'Neil. "It should be a lot of fun."Doors for the long weekend open at 7 p.m. June 8.Passes and tickets are on sale at the Mauch Chunk Opera House website:

www.mcohjt.com.For trailers, film schedule and more information, visit

http://www.jimthorpeindiefilmfest.com or

www.mcohjt.com.The 2017 festival received grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Lehigh Valley Arts Council.