Creative team reflects on Columbus-filmed 'Down to the Felt' premiere

COLUMBUS, Ohio — With all the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood red carpet event, the 2025 Cinema Columbus Film Festival opened with the central Ohio premiere of the major independent motion picture "Down to the Felt."

The evening kicked off when Columbus City Councilmember Emmanuel Remy presented the film's creative team with a proclamation celebrating April 30 as "Down to the Felt" Day in Columbus.

Written by Columbus filmmakers Dino Tripodis, Ralph Scott and Jon Osbeck, the project went from filming to the festival circuit in less than a year.

Set in Columbus, the story centers around a down-on-his-luck gambler who makes a questionable arrangement with a hitman and a mysterious new woman who enters the gambler's life.

Proudly funded by, crewed by and starring primarily central Ohioans, "Down to the Felt" also featured a few more well-known actors from LA who spent nearly a month in Columbus during the shoot in the spring of 2024. Many of those actors were on hand for the Cinema Columbus premiere. 

10TV's Jay Plyburn also served as the moderator for the post-screening talkback and spoke with many of the filmmakers.

"It's a great little film; we're really proud of it and the best part is we made it all here in Columbus," said actor Michael Weston, best known for roles in the TV series "House" and "Law and Order: SVU" as well as the films "Garden State" and "State of Play."

Weston portrays the hitman in "Down to the Felt."

"For me, it was a discovery. I come from LA, New York... and it was great to come to this little community and have such talented actors and resources and support and love for this project," he said. "So, we're really proud of it and we're really excited to show it to the hometown."

"What's exciting about working in Columbus is there's a level of talent that's very high, but there's not a lot of features made here, so there's a lot of excitement," said actor Michael Stahl-David, who plays the gambler. 

Stahl-David added he enjoyed his time in Columbus and hopes to come back for even more projects in the future.

"Sometimes in a place like LA or New York where there's so much stuff (in production), people can get a little cynical and here, there was none of that. Everyone was so excited," he said.

"The locations we got access to, thanks to the community here, were incredible, and so there's a film community building here that I can't wait to see what happens," Stahl-David said.

Stahl-David's screen credits include TV shows "Narcos" and "The Black Donnellys" as well as the 2008 hit movie "Cloverfield." In his limited downtime from filming, Stahl-David even took the time to rent a car and drive to the Hocking Hills region for a day outdoors. And, knowing what a special night the Cinema Columbus event would be for the local film community, Stahl-David brought his parents from out of town to the premiere.

The third of the film's central characters is portrayed by Scottie Thompson, known for her work on the TV series "12 Monkeys," as well as her stint as Dr. Jeanne Benoit on CBS' juggernaut "NCIS." 

"Everyone here is so kind, and the support of the community was so apparent when we were here. We felt so welcomed and the community of filmmakers (were) so collaborative," said Thompson, who also enthusiastically confirmed she would love to return to central Ohio for potential future projects.

"Witnessing how everybody came together to support local independent film, I think that's a big part of the future of filmmaking as the studios are more Wall Street-oriented or whatever is going on on the higher rungs of filmmaking," she added.

"And then there's the democratization with TikTok and all of that, so I think independent film is going to be reliant on communities like the community here to keep it alive and provide opportunities for us to come and play," Thompson added. "It was really inspiring to see how everybody worked together for this."

"The future looks incredibly bright," said actor and creative producer Cullen Douglas, who discussed the potential for more film projects in central Ohio.

A filmmaker based in LA, Douglas said he had such a positive experience making "Down to the Felt" that he immediately helped to bring the production of another feature-length film called "My Mother the Madam" to Columbus, providing more work for many of the local filmmakers.

"Just the amount of support (and) the doors just opening up (show) people's desire to want to see Columbus as a viable destination for not only homegrown films, but for the Marvel films and for when people are deciding to go to Cleveland or go to Cincinnati."

"Now, I think people are starting to go, 'You know what, we could come to Columbus and do the same thing because the talent is there both in front of the camera as well as behind the camera,'" Douglas added. "So, the future looks bright."

"Having been here since I was 3 and wanting to stay here and do film, I couldn't be more happy and thrilled and proud of this city," said Jon Osbeck, producer, co-writer and director of "Down to the Felt."

Though he wasn't ready to share details yet, Osbeck confirmed he and his team are working to bring even more projects to central Ohio.

"One of the things that we wanted to do was plant that flag of independent film in Columbus. We're following in the footsteps of some great filmmakers who are here as well like Loose Films with their film 'Poser,'" he said.

"We feel like 'Down to the Felt' has planted the flag to say that film is here, it can be done, it can be done at a certain level that hasn't been done before and we're ready to take it to the next level and we've got a lot of things in the hopper that we're ready to do," Osbeck added.

Cinema Columbus is the third film festival that has screened "Down to the Felt" thus far, and the filmmakers are working with Hawk Hill Pictures to secure distribution.

The 2025 Cinema Columbus Film Festival will conclude on Sunday, May 4. For a schedule of the festival's remaining screenings, visit the Cinema Columbus website here.

For more information on "Down to the Felt," visit the film's website here, its Instagram page here or its Facebook page here.

Check out the full article here.