Night Editor {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The Flatwater Film Festival, featuring 76 films with Nebraska ties, returns to the Rivoli Theater in Seward this weekend. This past summer, the Flatwater Film Festival challenged filmmakers to write, direct, shoot, edit and submit their own movies.

There were just two caveats: They had do it in less than 48 hours and incorporate, in some fashion, the randomly selected prop (a piece of toast) and the same snippet of dialogue ("Why is that wet?"). Ultimately, 10 teams completed the 48-Hour Film Challenge, a new event organizers introduced this year in the lead-up to the fourth annual festival. "Each year we try to add something new," said Heather Waite, one of the festival's organizers.

"Other places have (similar challenges), there are nationwide ones. We just didn't have one of our own." Then, in August, three judges from outside the festival, which is officially a non-competitive event, named director Eric Lang's "Immersed" the winner, earning the movie an invite to the lineup of 75 other films that will be screened at this year's festival, which will be held Friday through Sunday at Seward's Rivoli Theater.

People are also reading...

Weekend passes to attend the festival are $8 ($5 for students and seniors) if ordered beforehand or $10 ($7 for students and seniors) if purchased at the event. Daily passes are $5. The three-day event will feature screenings of .