Iowa’s longest running film festival opens today in a new location. The Hardacre Film Festival in Tipton is now in it’s 17th year and director Will Valet says this year’s event is moving up the street. “The Hardacre Theater closed at the end of last year’s festival, so we had to find an alternate location,” Valet said. “The Tipton High School Auditorium had just been renovated and just was opened last year, so we have a nice comfortable, local location for the 2014 festival, which is really fortunate.”

Valet is leading an effort to refurbish the historic movie house.  “We were able to purchase the theater in February, so it’s owned by the nonprofit, and we have a group of volunteers who have been helping us gut the theater,” Valet said. “We are currently in the process of fundraising and working with an architect to see exactly what the theater is going to look like after we complete the renovation.”

The festival is just a one-day event this year instead of stretching over a weekend. It will include three full-length documentaries and nine short films. All 12 selected movies are being screened in Iowa for the first time.

(reporting by Rob Dillard, Iowa Public Radio)