About The Festival

The Ag & Art Film Festival celebrates agriculture and art through storytelling & cinema.

The Ag & Art Film Festival was started in 2019 by filmmaker and small farm advocate, Lisa Murray. As one of the founders of the Pleasants Valley Agriculture Association, Lisa helped the farmers in Vacaville by creating a marketing presence and by holding a few  local events for the community like PVAA's Open Farm Days.

During the formation of "VACA Arts Week", lead by Visit Vacaville, Lisa realized film wasn’t represented in the arts week and so the Ag & Art Film Festival was born. The first year the festival was held at DeVille Theatre (now "Journey Downtown") located on Main Street in Downtown Vacaville. The second year was the year of Covid and the horrific LNU Fire. Lisa pivoted the festival to be all outdoors at farms, ranches and wineries and when 80% of her outdoor locations were directly affected by the LNU fire, she pivoted again to new outdoor locations and the festival marched onward. Not only did the festival make it through that year, the festival raised money for some of the local farmers who were affected by the fire. The third year, the festival remained outdoors as Covid variants loomed in the air. 

But for the festival’s 4th year, the festival is moving back indoors at what is now Journey Downtown (formerly “DeVille Theatre”).  The festival will be held September 14-18, 2022. The kick-off party will be held at Hyatt Place in Vacaville. Special events are planned for Festival Pass holders the evenings in Solano/Yolo Counties. Sign up for our email list to be notified of all of the exciting events. Festival Passes are on sale now. Individual movie block tickets will go on sale August 10th.

Lisa IS "ag & art". She has over 15 years experience in the film & music industries working at Paramount Pictures - working the Dreamworks distribution team and with Dreamworks Animation, Amblin Entertainment, MTV Films, LucasFilm, Bad Robot Productions, Red Hour Films, Cruise/Wagner Productions - and in International Publicity at Warner Bros. Pictures. She is an independent filmmaker and co-owns a music-production company with her long-time business & life partner, multi-platinum songwriter/producer, Dapo Torimiro.  

In 2017, Lisa moved from Los Angeles to Northern California to heal from personal loss. While there, Lisa got involved with helping local farmers with their marketing and getting organized. From the regular interaction with the farmers, Lisa was drawn into wanting to help them even further. She was one of the founding members of the Pleasants Valley Agriculture Association (PVAA) - a collection of local farms in Vacaville, CA.

Her interest in helping save small farms grew out of that time and shortly after the beginning of PVAA, Lisa started the Ag & Art Film Festival in 2019. Her tenacity and drive pushed the festival through its second and third years during the pandemic as she pivoted the festival in 2020 & 2021 to be an outdoor festival, screening films at farms, ranches & wineries. 

In 2022, Lisa expanded the "ag & art" brand when she launched the Ag & Art Magazine in May. The magazine supports and celebrates local farmers and local artists by listing their events for free.

The 4th Annual Ag & Art Film Festival will be back inside of a theater at Journey Downtown in Downtown Vacaville, September 14-18, 2022.