46 films will be shown and judged at the 3rd annual Poulsbo Film Festival Oct. 11-13 at various downtown locations.

The inaugural festival in 2022 had 32 films and increased last year to 48.

“I think we saw a big increase in overall quality from our first to second year, which made it difficult on film selections, which is ultimately a really good problem to have,” founder and festival director Kevin Sheen said. “Fitting in 48 films was a challenge in 2023, so we knew coming into this year, we wanted to potentially lower that number.”

Film genres range from drama, horror, comedy, documentaries and more. Submissions will be judged by local and national filmmakers, artists, organizers, and community members, per the PFF website. Parental discretion is advised for some films.

“I would say this is probably the year of the documentaries,” Sheen said. “These filmmakers are covering a lot of topics, including social justice, environmental law, aging, PTSD and pop culture. We also have four feature films, spanning different genres.”

There will also be Q&A sessions with filmmakers throughout the three-day event. Sheen said over 50 filmmakers will be coming from all over the United States, which far surpasses previous years.

And there will be plenty of filmmakers from Kitsap County as well, including four students from Olympic College’s film program. Other locals include Rachel Noll James of Bainbridge Island, who will be showing her film Inheritance to close the weekend.

Locations for festival events are Sons of Norway, Moes on Liberty Bay and Western Red Brewing, all within a short walking distance. The festival kicks off Oct. 11 at Sons of Norway with two films being shown at 7 p.m. A full slate of films will be shown Oct. 12 and 13 at both Moes and WRB.

151 tickets were sold as of Sept. 26, which includes all-access passes. Tickets are available at filmfreeway.com/PoulsboFilmFestival/tickets.

“We have seen significant growth from year to year, which is another good problem to have,” Sheen said “Opening night is now located at Sons of Norway to help maximize our capacity and create more opportunities for our community to take part.”

Sheen said he’s been very impressed with how the community has welcomed the filmmakers and how engaged they have been with the diverse set of films.

“We honestly love showing these amazing films to the community,” he said “We’re incredibly proud of each filmmaker and the collective efforts that go into telling a completely unique story. Screening films without a movie theater is a fun challenge, and we love that folks embrace the quirkiness and uniqueness that is the reality of our festival. We created a tagline of ‘Storytelling in all Spaces’ because when else are you going to get a chance to watch a film alongside the filmmakers among the tanks of a brewery, or in a speakeasy that was once the home of a town founder?”

For details go to poulsbofilmfestival.com.