Meet Katy Lea Todd
"This film festival gave first awards to Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and the Coen brothers - They all won their first award at WorldFest Houston!"
The Houston International Film Festival is a family business - started by my dad in '68. I thought, "one day, I'll get a chance to hopefully take over the family business and just continue to continue that legacy and that's a really cool thing," so that's how I got involved. I've just always been volunteering with it, or voluntold by my family.
I had just come over in September of 2019 - it was like a dream to come on board and slowly transition into the leadership role there and have him be able to retire. And then COVID hit - and we weren't able to hold the festival, sponsorships were put 'on hold', etc...
I think I'm realizing that I, I have no idea what the future holds and I have to kind of surrender to that uncertainty So, it's losing the certainty of what I thought my career would be like and then also that kind of … well, in some ways, status and identity within the film festival itself.
"I grew up in a popcorn bucket"
My dad was in the army and stationed at NASA, making films about the space race. Since they were rocket movies he would enter them into film festivals across the globe. Back then they were mostly in Europe and they would go over - all of the wine, the women, the song he just fell in love with the whole scene.
In '68, he started his own back in Atlanta, it moved to the Virgin Islands in the mid-70's, a year in Miami, and then in the 80's - Houston, Texas - where it's been ever since.
This film festival gave first awards to Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and the Coen brothers - They all won their first award at WorldFest Houston!
I was raised in that environment I grew up in a bucket of popcorn, and my mother was a flight attendant, so she was traveling all around the world and that kept going and my family was able to do even more work with international festivals around the world so they just throw me in the, in the luggage and say okay Katie you're coming along.
I got to do a lot of traveling because of that and watching all these amazing movies meeting all these fabulous folks, and the festival was always like a big brother to me.
