Faculty member drives Centre Film Festival as educator, filmmaker and matchmaker

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Along with the high-quality films, dozens of them, and standout stories, hundreds of them, the Centre Film Festival annually finds success because of the many connections it makes in the community and far beyond.

Pearl Gluck, the Penn State faculty member who serves as the festival’s artistic director and cofounder, helps drive the seven-year-old festival’s impact largely as a matchmaker — combining an educational and informational foundation with a collaborative, entertaining and fun approach during the weeklong festival.

The festival runs from Nov. 10-16 (and starts before that with some special preview events) and it’s Gluck’s vision that comes up with things like a Pre-Fest Tailgate and themes that include Indigenous Peoples Heritage, Restorative Justice, Stories from the Middle East and Refugees, Migration and Immigration.

Along with Made in PA films there are themes for Disability on Screen, Pride on Screen and Sports on Screen.

A full schedule of screenings and events can be found on the festival website.

“The Centre Film Festival is, in every way, a joint effort across all levels of our institution — from our advisory board to our programming committee, from the students interning and learning hands-on to the local professionals who collaborate with us on art, design and video editing,” said Gluck, associate professor of film production in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. “We’re also deeply grateful to our sponsors, who connect us to their cohorts and students across Penn State Global, the Bellisario College, Arts and Architecture, and Student Disability Resources, as well as to our international network of alumni who have grown with us over the past seven years.

“Together, we’re building something that bridges education, art and community in ways that continue to evolve each year — always guided by the spirit of my late cofounder, Curt Chandler, whose belief in storytelling as a force for connection continues to inspire everything we do.”

The matchmaking does not begin or end in the theater. Gluck embraces partnerships with campus and community groups, and especially with venues. This year’s festival includes nightly after parties and venues in downtown State College and Philipsburg.

Festival screenings are scheduled at nine different locations on campus, in Philipsburg and across State College. Additionally, Gluck works as a matchmaker there, too. She strives to pairing nightly events, films and themes with the just-right location, whether that’s the historic Rowland Theater in Philipsburg or cozy Tempest Studios in State College.

Tickets for the festival are free for students, $10 for individual sessions and $60 for an all-access pass.

The festival lineup includes 90 films making Pennsylvania premieres, 26 of which were made in the state. Twenty-two films will be making their U.S. premieres and 18 others will be making world premieres at the festival. Three films in the festival have been submitted for Academy Award consideration.

The festival officially launches Nov. 10 with “Free Leonard Peltier” as the opening night feature. The film, directed by Jesse Short Bull and David France, focuses on Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, who has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction.

Throughout the festival there are morning screenings at UEC Theater 12 in State College and lunchtime screenings at Foster Auditorium of Paterno Library.

The Rowland Theatre and State Theatre will host evening screenings.

As Penn State Laureate for the 2025-26 academic year, Gluck has been using this year’s festival as a platform to reach across the commonwealth and engage students and faculty from multiple Penn State campuses.

“Dr. Friederike Baer from Penn State Abington will join us to discuss ‘The American Revolution,’ in which she’s featured, while our programming interns — Damien Reimold from Penn State York and Colin Wilkins from University Park — collaborate to curate and advise on high school and college screenings. It’s exactly the kind of connection that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and it reflects what this festival is all about: bringing people together through film, learning and shared purpose," Gluck said.

The festival also includes:

• A Sneak Peak with WPSU featuring “The American Revolution.”
• A first-ever virtual reality collaboration with the Palmer Museum of Art, featuring immersive experiences from France, Germany, South Africa and the United States. The event was curated by Diane Akpovwa, a senior in the College of Information Sciences and Technology.
• An awards ceremony culminates the festival Nov. 16 and honors films screened during the week, along with presenting to major awards to Penn State alumni — the Chandler Living Legacy Award to Jerrie Johnson, an award-winning actor, creator and writer who earned her bachelor’s degree from the University in 2016, and the Lifetime Achievement Award to Don Roy King, a 13-time Emmy Award-winning television production legend whose career spanned more than five decades. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Penn State in 1969.

 A full schedule along with information about all films and related events can be found on the festival website.

Along with the Bellisario College and the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, the festival gets support from State College borough and several Penn State entities — the College of Arts and Architecture, the School of Theatre, the Jewish Studies Program and the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity.