The cast and producers of Knives & Skin attend the screening of Knives & Skin at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival at Village East Cinema in New York, NY on April 26. Credit: Courtesy of TNS

Hollywood may be the capital of the film industry, but a meeting of Columbus filmmakers this weekend proves that movie magic can come from anywhere.

The 2019 Columbus Film Industry Summit will take place Friday at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Members of the Columbus filmmaking community will engage in a panel discussion about Columbus as a film city. The event will conclude with the Midwest premiere of panelist and Ohio State alumna Jennifer Reeder’s film, “Knives and Skin,” followed by a Q&A session with Reeder.

The keynote speech will be delivered by Oscar-nominated producer Michael Gottwald.

Jennifer Lange, moderator and film/video studio program curator for the Wexner Center, said she hopes the summit will create growth in the Columbus film industry by shedding light on the current activity of Columbus filmmakers.

Lange said the summit is an opportunity for film professionals to get together, network and talk about how to build a stronger and more active film community in Columbus as well as a more vibrant film industry.

Reeder earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio State and went on to receive her master’s from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her film, “A Million Miles Away,” which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, qualified for an Oscar nomination consideration, according to Reeder’s website.

Gottwald is an indie film producer who earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture for the 2012 fantasy film “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Gottwald more recently released “Patti Cake$” in 2017, for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature.

Matt Swift, Ohio State’s film studies program coordinator, said the summit is an important event for anyone studying film as well as individuals who are interested in getting involved with the film industry in Columbus. Swift said he believes the most important aspect of the summit is that it creates a network of students and film professionals in the local Columbus area.

“We’re trying to get [students] connected to places, and so an event like this is really important for anyone who wants to be involved in the film community in any way because they will get to see people who are actually in it,” Swift said.

Admission to the panel discussion is free; however, an online RSVP is required. Check-in begins at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Wexner Center for the Arts, followed by a presentation in the film/video theater at 4 p.m. Tickets are required for admission to the “Knives and Skin” screening following the reception at 6 p.m., and are available at the Wexner Center’s website.