POLSON — Local movie buffs, rejoice! A grass-roots committee of dedicated celluloid fans is working feverishly to organize a film festival that will take place right here in Polson later this winter. Known as the Flathead Lake Internation Cinemafest (FLIC), the festival planned for early February aims to “provide makers of all film genres a venue through which they enrich themselves and their audiences,” says FLIC co-coordinator Daniel Smith, echoing the festival’s mission statement.

According to the FLIC website, the idea for launching the festival arose from the findings of Envision Polson!, a subcommittee of the Greater Polson Community Foundation tasked with offering “events and activities to the Greater Polson community and visitors alike on a year-round basis.”

By last January, the idea to organize a film festival had spun off into its own, fully-fledged, separate initiative, says Smith, and thus FLIC came into being. The non-profit- which has grown to include a planning committee of over twenty volunteers- is also arranging a competition for young filmmakers 18 and under, named FLIC Jr.

While the festival is still enthusiastically welcoming submissions of all genres and backgrounds, Smith reports that FLIC has already received entries from coast to coast – “Washington state to Washington, D.C.” as he puts it.

About the only thing off limits is R-rated content, as FLIC representatives will only consider “G, PG, or PG-13 type films.”

If the revenue generated by the festival exceeds operating costs, Smith said that FLIC intends to team up with Dollars for Scholars to offer a scholarship to a Montana student enrolling in a Media Arts program.