CINCINNATI — Emilio Estevez wants to call the Queen City home.
“My plan is to eventually move there and live in Over-the-Rhine,” the actor and son of Dayton, Ohio, native Martin Sheen recently said during an interview at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Estevez is attending the 10-day film festival, which began Jan. 21, with a contingent of Cincinnatians to promote the Queen City as a filmmaking destination to movie executives and directors. Kristen Schlotman, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Film Commission, is leading the group, which also includes representatives from the Haile Foundation, the Johnson Foundation, Brave Berlin and Game Day Communications. Chef Jean-Robert de Cavel was also on hand to prepare a commission-hosted brunch on Saturday.
In Sundance @filmcincinnati with my Ohio peeps! Cincy has 4 films at fest! #filmcincinnati pic.twitter.com/JEcGXUOxbX
— Emilio Estevez (@EMILIOTHEWAY) January 24, 2016
In his interview, produced and shared by Brave Berlin owner Dan Reynolds, Estevez said the Queen City has an “excitement” about it. He said he constantly tells friends on the West Coast that Cincinnati is “a magical place,” where “the architecture is extraordinary.”
Thre films shot in Cincinnati screened at this year’s Sundance. Those movies are “Miles Ahead,” directed by and starring Don Cheadle; “Goat,” produced by James Franco; and “The Fits,” a short film that is receiving critical acclaim. A fourth film, the comedy “The 4th,” starring and directed by local actor Andre Hyland in Los Angeles was also shown there.
Estevez came to Cincinnati in 2013 with plans to direct a horse-racing film, “Johnny Longshot.” Since that time fans have spotted him at Cincinnati Reds games and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Lumenocity, among other places.
While in Park City, the film commission released a report by the University of Cincinnati's Economics Center stating local movie productions generated $54 million for the local economy over the past two years. The study also said that for every $1 in reimbursement given under the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Incentive program, which offers refunds to out-of-state companies who film here, the region receives a $1.74 in return on money actually spent in Ohio.
“The films being screened at Sundance are prime examples of why it’s good business to come to Cincinnati for television and film projects,” Schlotman said in a statement released with the report.
