A scene from “An Extraordinary Place” about Portland community radio station WMPG. Photo courtesy of Wicked Creative Film Company

Camden International Film Festival begins its milestone 20th season on Thursday, with the Camden and Rockland-based nonfiction movie festival packing some 50-plus movies into its Sept. 12-15 runtime.

That’s a historic accomplishment for any film festival, never mind one born in rural Maine, but CIFF quickly established itself as one of the premiere destinations for documentary film, with this year’s fest culling the best of the nonfiction best from all over the world and right here in Maine.

Twenty years of dedication to the documentary arts makes things easier for CIFF – and much, much harder.

“It’s hard to believe,” marveled first-year Camden International Film Festival programmer Sean Flynn. “We’re growing up.” Flynn, who has been with CIFF parent organization Points North Institute since 2010, says that the festival’s growing success and notoriety within the nonfiction industry means that he and his dedicated team evaluated over 2,000 feature and short film submissions to select the 50-plus films included in this year’s roster.

Shouting out to his three programming associates, Milton Guillén, Zaina Bseiso and Cam Howard, and an equally dedicated team of filmmakers, students and local community members who aided in the daunting task, Flynn said that CIFF’s stellar reputation means that more great movies come to them, looking for a place in what’s become one of the most respected and productive documentary festivals in the world.

“We’ve gotten submissions from about 100 countries at this point,” Flynn said of this year’s aspirants, “with many of them coming to us wanting to have their American, North American or even world premiere.” Indeed, Glynn is especially excited for the surprise world premiere (the secret having been spilled by the trades before this article went to print) of “The Shepherd and the Bear,” a documentary about the reintroduction of bears into French Pyrenees that Flynn calls, “the most visually stunning film in a long time.” Tracing the inevitable conflict between conservation, tradition and commerce (and, you know, very big bears), the film, according to Flynn, carries on the CIFF tradition of pushing the boundaries of the documentary genre. “It shows how much documentary filmmaking aesthetically has elevated since we began 20 years ago,” said Flynn. “It truly feels like you’re watching a narrative film.”

Expanding what a nonfiction film can be.

Flynn points festival-goers toward “Eno,” the outwardly standard artist biopic – as the title suggests, about legendary art-rock pioneer Brian Eno – that promises a literal once-in-a-lifetime movie experience. Noting that director Gary Hustwit employs a groundbreaking self-designed algorithm to reorder the 90-minute film from the hundreds of hours of interviews with Eno with each screening, Flynn explains that there are a near infinite number of versions of the documentary. “The CIFF version of ‘Eno’ will never have been seen before,” Flynn said, pointing to the festival’s long-running Storyforms category of boundary-pushing docs.

But even the more straightforward-looking CIFF films take unexpected looks at timely topics.

Adam Kinzinger in “The Last Republican.” Photo courtesy of Submarine Entertainment

“You’ll see a political thread running through this year’s program, perhaps inevitably,” said Flynn. Singling out documentaries on subjects as diverse as the rise of the evangelical movement in Brazil (Oscar nominee Petra Costa’s “Apocalypse in the Tropics”), the ostracization of anti-Trump republican Adam Kinzinger by his own party (Steve Pink’s “The Last Republican”), Michael Premo’s portrait of three people swept into the “stop the steal” MAGA movement (“Homegrown”) and others, Flynn notes how current events appear through the documentary lens in surprising ways.

“People around the world are grappling with a shifting and polarized political landscape. There’s uncertainty as forces are challenging/threatening democratic institutions. And while the issues in these films might be right from the headlines, there’s so much more space for complexity and nuance.”

Maine filmmakers, as ever, have a real home at CIFF.

“An Extraordinary Place,” Tom Bell’s short doc about Portland community radio station WMPG, is just one of the Maine-made and -centered documentaries making up this year’s Dirigo Docs category at CIFF.

“This is one of the most joyous films I’ve seen all year,” said Flynn. “Such a beautiful portrait of community and creativity at an institution that created this opportunity for people from so many different backgrounds to connect across cultures. For me, it’s a metaphor for what we’re trying to do as a festival. In a world divided, to be a place to understand each other and see the beauty of so many different cultures and modes of artistic expression.”

Of Dirigo Docs, Flynn said proudly, “It’s one of the most popular programs in our state. This year, we’ve got six films made by Maine filmmakers in a wide range of topics and styles.” Look for Jason Gerritson’s tale of a transforming Madison paper mill (“The Comeback Mill”), Eli Kao’s fanciful take on race and belonging in Maine (“Heritable”), Elena Mozzhelina’s portrait of the healing power of Maine’s coast (“Take Me to the Ocean”) and more.

Even the guaranteed crowd-pleasers are ambitious.

The synopsis, “Former movie star Will Ferrell takes a road trip with his ‘Saturday Night Live’ writer best friend after she comes out as transgender” is a solid hook to grab viewer’s attention. But, as Flynn says of this year’s festival inclusion of Josh Greenbaum’s “Will & Harper,” the documentary about the changing friendship of Ferrell and Harper Steele digs a lot deeper.

Longtime friends Will Ferrell and Harper Steele in “Will & Harper.” Courtesy of Netflix

“We grapple a lot with prevailing trends in the documentary business right now,” explained Flynn. “Streaming and distribution companies have a lot of interest in celebrities, true crime, sports – things that are guaranteed a certain size audience. Meanwhile, more challenging things are left by the wayside. This film, though, is a unique way of deploying the celebrity of Will Ferrell, about him using his celebrity to give the stage to his friend. It’s a beautiful portrait of a friendship and a journey, both literal and spiritual, through a country where trans identity has increasingly become used as a political wedge.”

As ever, CIFF contains multitudes.

With my word count, there’s no way to express just how much nonfiction movie greatness awaits at Camden International Film Festival. Heck, I haven’t even mentioned the array of guest filmmakers, speakers and compelling industry events that make up each year’s Camden International experience. Sean Flynn gave special shout-outs to “Flamingo” (an affectionate portrait of a 60-something woman finding love and acceptance in the BDSM community), “Patrice: The Movie” (a “doc-rom-com” about two people with disabilities navigating the ridiculous bureaucracy surrounding disability benefits with grace and humor) and the genre-defying “Eastern Anthems,” which finds unlikely common ground between the pandemic and 2020’s historic cicada double-emergence.

A scene from “Patrice: The Movie.” Photo courtesy of ABC News Studios

As Camden International Film Festival continues to prove in its 20th year, there are as many ways of looking at the world as there are people in it. There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere.

For tickets (always spring for the festival pass), showtimes, locations and information about this year’s CIFF roster of films, check out pointsnorthinstitute.org/ciff.