With its deep appreciation for the arts, Orcas Island is the perfect place to celebrate cinema.

“I am a big film fan,” said Jared Lovejoy, who is spearheading the first annual Orcas film festival. “I love art house theaters and we have two viable locations here: the Sea View Theatre and Orcas Center. So it got me thinking.”

After receiving a lodging tax grant through the chamber, Lovejoy’s vision is now becoming a reality.

From October 10 to 13, “Orcas Island Film Festival – Off the Edge” will screen 25 independent, international, award-winning narrative and documentary features.

Participants can meet directors and actors and participate in Q&As with filmmakers. Tickets for weekend or day passes go on sale the week of Sept. 15. A full calendar of events will be online mid-month at www.orcasfilmfest.com. Watch for a two-page special in the Oct. 1 edition of the Sounder.

“It’s a great time of year to see films and share that experience,” Lovejoy said. “Festivals often turn into a big party. It’s usually a fun crowd.”

He is partnering with Carl Spence, artistic director of the Seattle International Film Festival, to produce the Orcas event. SIFF is one of the top film festivals in North America.

“Jared is a good friend, and I knew that anything he would be involved with would be something beneficial for the community,” Spence said. “He also knows how to produce great events. My husband and I own a house on Orcas Island and spend as much time as we can here despite the fact that we have more than full-time jobs back in Seattle. The festival gives me another reason to find time to come back in October.”

Lovejoy and Spence hope the festival will grow into a destination event. SIFF is using its existing mailing list and media contacts to promote the festivities, so a fair number of off-islanders are expected to show up.

“There are already film industry professionals who live and visit this magical island, and more are sure to discover it after visiting with their films,” Spence said.

The festival is also made possible by volunteers and business sponsors who are giving funds and in-kind donations. Lovejoy says that it has been “gathering community momentum.”

“Everybody is chipping in to make it work,” he said. “We hope it will be a yearly event that we all benefit from.”

Lovejoy offered something a little special this year: a film grant program. After raising three $1500 grants, filmmakers were invited to submit scripts for a short film that would be shot 75 percent in the San Juans.

There were 23 submissions and the winners were chosen by a panel of industry professionals both on the island and in Seattle. Once filming is complete, the shorts will be uploaded online for community voting.

The winner will be featured in the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival. The three films are outlined below.

“Drift” follows the journey of a broken branch as it travels between the San Juan Islands. Severed abruptly from its tree and cast aside, the branch finds its way to the beach and is drawn out by the tide. The branch’s journey includes both frighting and graceful experiences, and it ultimately finds itself welcomed back home at its origin after years of “drifting.”

Its creators are Travis Alley, Aaron Wheetman and Dallas Artz, all of Seattle.

“A Reverence For Excellence” is an intimate and honest portrait of Maple Rock Farm and Hogstone’s Wood Oven. Filmed over the course of one day, we see the patience, commitment and toil required of the necessarily idealistic and romantic occupations of the farmer and chef.

Its director is Andrew Plotsky, who lives near the Columbia River Gorge.

“All These Waters Lie Within” is an experimental observational documentary that tracks daylight around the San Juan Islands from sunrise to sunset by filmmaker Nell Carden Grey.

A wide range of images from around the archipelago are set together in split screens to create moving diptychs and triptychs, heightening relationships between the color, form, motion, and pattern of disparate scenes.

Grey is a Cuban-American filmmaker who grew up in the South but now calls the Northwest home. She co-produced the feature documentary “The Chances of the World Changing,” was videographer and editor on “The Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal” project, and is currently editing the documentary “Coal Ash Chronicles.”

“Perhaps islanders on Orcas connect so deeply to cinema because it is a place that stimulates the senses whether it be sight, sound, taste, smell or touch,” Spence said. “The beauty of Orcas is in all of them. Orcas is also lucky to have communal places where we can watch films together on a regular basis.”