It is expected that attendance of the 26th annual Port Townsend Film Festival (PTFF), which runs Sept. 18-21, will exceed last year’s event, according to organizers.

“Our sales numbers are on track to surpass 2024,” Keith Hitchcock, who serves as the festival’s marketing and development director, told The Leader. “Obviously, there’s still the possibility that those projections could change, in the wake of unexpected last-minute occurrences, but right now, we’re pretty confident.”

PTFF Executive Director Danni McClelland noted the 2024 film festival sold 7,501 per-film tickets to generate roughly $81,600 in gross sales, while the 2023 film festival sold 6,543 tickets to generate $60,706 in gross sales.

McClelland added that a total of 1,103 passes were sold to the 2019 film festival, while a total of 1,114 passes were sold to the 2024 film festival.

McClelland credited these gains to the work of everyone involved in PTFF, from its board and membership to its contractors and volunteers, to expand the festival’s public outreach, including what McClelland deemed its “more robust” online presence.

“The reviews and attention we’ve received from The Leader have had an impact as well,” McClelland said. “As The Leader’s readership has increased, we’ve gained more exposure.”

McClelland also touted PTFF’s emphasis on developing a year-round program of events, beyond its annual fall film festival.

Hitchcock cited evidence of these cumulative efforts’ effectiveness in a survey from last year’s film festival, with nearly a third of that survey’s respondents describing themselves as first-time attendees of the festival.

“When you get new people to attend the festival, you also get word-of-mouth to their social circles,” said McClelland, who also credited PTFF Program Director Christy Spencer’s contributions with further diversifying the festival’s voice.

McClelland sees it as a strength that PTFF has broadened the group that helps select the festival’s films, adding that it has yielded a wider variety of representation in the films’ performers, subjects and types of content.

McClelland also aims for the festival’s outdoor screenings on Taylor Street to dovetail with that mission of greater inclusivity, between family-friendly animated movies such as Pixar’s “Soul” from 2020, and popcorn crowd-pleasers such as the 1986 classic “Top Gun.”

“We offer certain films on the street, for free, so that the festival can entertain even folks who don’t buy passes,” McClelland said. “‘Soul,’ like ‘Inside Out,’ gives kids the tools to talk about their feelings and contemplate big questions, and we thought it didn’t get the play it deserved when it originally came out.”

McClelland looks forward to hosting Tom Skerritt as one of PTFF’s special guests, especially since he’d previously been slated to join them during the pandemic.

Skerritt starred in 2021’s “East of the Mountains,” but an assortment of circumstances prevented him from coming to Port Townsend that year.

McClelland is excited to finally make Skerritt’s acquaintance, just as the film festival has already developed relationships with Hollywood players such as screenwriter Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, who once lived in Port Ludlow, and whose credits include “Legally Blonde” and “Ella Enchanted.”

According to McClelland, it’s those sorts of connections that help PTFF connect with other filmmakers in turn.

McClelland expressed a particular enthusiasm for two documentaries screening on Thursday, Sept. 18; “Come See Me in the Good Light” and “A Look Through His Lens.”

“‘Lens’ is fascinating, even for a non-cinephile,” McClelland said. “You get to learn about how cinematography works, which is not often discussed. That film became one of my favorites.”

McClelland likewise considers PTFF “lucky” to be screening “Good Light” because it’s one of the few film festivals to be able to do so.

McClelland admitted to a personal connection to the documentary as well, since they’d introduced both its subject, poet and activist Andrea Gibson, and one of its producers, Tig Notaro, at McClelland’s former theater job in Indiana.

As for Hitchcock, one recently introduced aspect of the Film Festival’s annual activities that he’s appreciated are the related community discussions. This year that includes informal talks about housing, youth and comedy.

“We wanted to give people space to talk about the content of these films, and how they made them feel,” McClelland said.

Hitchcock also looks forward to seeing filmmakers welcome by the “Bull Kelp Brigade,” inspired by PTFF adopting bull kelp as its laurels.