WATERVILLE — Nancy Sanford is a great fan of the Maine International Film Festival.

She has attended the festival every summer since it started 14 years ago, and was one of the first patrons to pick up her partial festival pass Friday at Railroad Square Cinema.

Additional Photos

Lynn Sawlivich, left, and Nancy Sanford, who have attended all 14 years of the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville, discuss movies at Railroad Square Cinema. Staff photo by David Leaming

Sanford, 51, of Waterville, said she would not miss the annual event. She loves film, for many reasons.

“It takes you away and, depending on the film, you can learn something,” she said. “I think it’s the feeling that it brings up in you, and you can remember it for years and years and years and years. I still remember ‘The Sound of Music.’ I saw it six times when it came out at the Bijou Theater in Bangor, which is no longer there.”

Sanford is one of thousands who will flock to Waterville from all over the U.S. and beyond for the 10-day festival. They will watch films, talk with directors and actors, and socialize at receptions.

They also will stay in area hotels, eat in local restaurants and shop downtown. Sanford is no exception, even though she lives here. She says she takes advantage of all the city has to offer.

“I like George’s Restaurant, particularly,” she said. “That’s my favorite restaurant in Waterville.”

A social worker at MaineGeneral Medical Center’s dialysis unit, Sanford has watched films at Railroad Square for 23 years. She is proud that the film festival has survived and blossomed over its 14 years, right in her hometown.

“I like to support local businesses,” she said. “The films are really interesting and I like to be at the Mid-Life Achievement Award ceremony.”

Actor Malcolm McDowell will receive this year’s award at 6 tonight in Given Auditorium at Colby College. The presentation will be accompanied by a showing of “O Lucky Man!” a film from 1973 in which McDowell stars.

Sanford says she is very protective of the Waterville festival.

“I was incensed when Camden had a film fest last fall,” she said. “It was like, well, what do they think they’re doing? But anything that brings money to Maine, I suppose, is a good thing.”

Sanford bought her 10-admission pass and festival T-shirt Friday from Wanda Noonan, a festival intern from New York City who attends high school in upstate New York. Noonan is the daughter of actress Karen Young, who was to arrive Friday to spend several days at the festival and introduce her films, including “Warrior Woman” and “Heading South.”

Noonan said festival patrons on Friday were buying both partial and full festival passes, which sell for $85 and $200, respectively.

“It’s been pretty even,” she said. “The partial passes are popular, but we’ve sold plenty of full passes as well.”

Another devoted festival-goer, Lynn Sawlivich, of Newark, Del., picked up his full pass and chatted outside Railroad Square Cinema about his love of film.

Sawlivich, who teaches at the University of Delaware, also has attended every festival since its inception. He typically sees between 30 and 35 films during the 10-day run.

This year, he especially wants to see an archive print of “The Quiet Man,” a 1952 film directed by Portland native John Ford and starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.

“I’ve never seen ‘The Quiet Man,'” Sawlivich said. “It’s a big, famous movie that I’ve never had a chance to see. And, of course, the Malcolm McDowell stuff is very exciting.”

Like Sanford, Sawlivich remembers the festival’s first year, and thinking at the time that it was a big-time festival that would continue.

“They had good films and important celebrity guests,” he said.

Sanford said she enjoyed that first festival and imagined it would continue.

“I was hopeful,” she said. “But it certainly was hard to visualize back when it started that so many people would flock to Waterville for the festival, because Maine’s a long way from a lot of places. If somebody comes to Waterville, they’re really serious about it.”

Sanford said she was looking forward to seeing what is being billed as a newly rediscovered original Technicolor print of “Madame Butterfly,” a Italian film from 1956.

She also wants to see “The American Folk Festival,” a documentary about the annual music festival in Bangor, which she attends with her mother.

“I particularly like documentaries and the ones that are about Maine,” she said.

Sanford attends films by herself sometimes; other times, she goes with friends, she said.

“I have two very close friends whose names also are ‘Nancy,’ and we go to the movies quite a lot.”

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

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