Lone Pine: Where the Real West Becomes the Reel West

This Years Theme: When Cowboys Were King

Melody Holland Ogburn to be 2023 Film Festival Director.
Yes, for many, you know the name “Holland.” Melody is the daughter of Dave Holland, one of the founders of the Lone Pine Film Festival. Melody has long been involved with the annual Film Festival taking on varied roles in “wrangling” celebrities and for many years, developed and guided a few of our great Lone Pine Location tours, made famous by her dad. I know you will all join me in welcoming Melody in her new role with the Film Festival. 

A new Film Festival website is being readied for the year and its launch will be announced soon.

In 1989, Lone Pine Business and Community leaders formulated a plan to pay tribute to the extensive Hollywood heritage of the Eastern Sierra and the actors, directors, and producers who had been coming for years to make films in Lone Pine and the surrounding area. Hollywood’s long standing love affair with the unique landscape brought an extensive list of talent including actors Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Gene Autry, Spencer Tracy, Robert Downey, Jr. and Jeff Bridges, as well as directors, Budd Boetticher, John Ford, Quentin Tarantino, William Wellman, and William Witney.

The result was the first Sierra Film Festival Festival, held in 1990. The festival was co-sponsored by a number of individuals and businesses.

The first Film Festival program featured a proclamation acknowledging a debt of gratitude to Roy Rogers who dedicated the historical marker that was placed at Whitney Portal and Movie Road during the festival. 

Since 1920, hundreds of films; including Gunga Din, How the West Was Won, King of the Khyber Rifles, High Sierra; and TV Episodes as The Lone Ranger and Bonanza; with such stars as Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, Gene Autry, Glenn Ford, Humphrey Bogart, and John Wayne, have filmed in these rugged Alabama Hills with the majestic Sierra Nevada background. 

We have had hundreds of guests over the 32 years since the Film festival began. We hope you will join us in 2023 for a unique weekend experience that includes celebrity guests, topical presentations, movie screenings and panels, on-location movie site tours, book signings, and one of America’s best Sunday Main Street parades.

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