Film Screening: The Best Years of Our Lives from Cindependent Film Festival

Event Timeline

12:00pm to 1:00pm - Social hour

1:00pm - Film

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

The final film in the 2025 Cindependent Spotlight series. The Best Years of Our Lives is a tale of post-war middle America, which chose Cincinnati as the location for its exterior photography. The film won 7 Oscars at the 1947 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Synopsis: Fred, Al and Homer are three World War II veterans facing difficulties as they re-enter civilian life. Fred (Dana Andrews) is a war hero who, unable to compete with more highly skilled workers, has to return to his low-wage soda jerk job. Bank executive Al (Fredric March) gets into trouble for offering favorable loans to veterans. After losing both hands in the war, Homer (Harold Russell) returns to his loving fiancée, but must struggle to adjust.

About CindeSpotlight

Each September, Cindependent is proud to shine a spotlight on undiscovered and rising talent from across the country and the globe. And as a festival, we're especially proud to celebrate the brilliant independent filmmakers who live and work in the greater Cincinnati area. The Cindependent Spotlight series will carry that celebratory spirit across the calendar year, with 9 handpicked repertory film screenings and 4 special programs running from March to December in the black box theater at the Contemporary Arts Center.

The repertory lineup features the debut films from auteur directors, Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love and Basketball), Tim Burton (Pee Wee's Big Adventure), Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides), Anna Rose Holmer (The Fits), and Brad Bird (The Iron Giant), alongside some true star making turns by the Queen City herself in films by John Huston (The Asphalt Jungle), John Sayles (Eight Men Out), Larry Yust (Homebodies), and William Wyler (The Best Years of Our Lives). The special programs include a first of its kind Dance Film program curated by local filmmaker and Cindependent alum, Cat Rider, in August, and a Cindependent 2025 Best of Fest program in October.

Cindependent Spotlight events will feature community partners, special guests, and unlimited opportunities to learn from and connect with industry professionals and film enthusiasts. Cindependent is set apart by our dedication to recognizing and elevating the freshest new voices in independent filmmaking and by our commitment to uplifting the Cincinnati film community in all of its many facets. We are excited to share this stirring program of breakthrough film as we continue to build together as a community.

Visit www.cindependentfilmfest.org to see more of our work.

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Host or Publisher Allyson West, Cindependent Film Festival