The festival is back in person July 27-August 3 as well as online, August 4-11. Festivalgoers at the 33rd WHFF have the opportunity to see as many feature length and short films as time allows during the eight-day festival! Besides film screenings, there are Q&As with filmmakers, panel discussions, workshops, parties featuring some of the best musical acts from Cape Cod, and master classes, including one with Filmmaker-In-Residence Doug Blush, award-winning director, producer, editor, writer and cinematographer and Oscar winner for such documentaries as 20 FEET FROM STARDOM, THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS, and PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE (he also executive produced three of this year’s festival entries, CHAMPIONS OF THE GOLDEN VALLEY, FIRST WE BOMBED NEW MEXICO, and COUNTED OUT). Many films will also be available for streaming on the festival’s virtual platform immediately following the in-person screenings from Sunday, August 4 through Sunday, August 11. Be among the first in the world to see THE COMPATRIOTS, on Friday, August 2, writer/director (and Wayland, MA resident) Spencer Cohen’s debut narrative feature, filmed in Brighton, Natick, Milton, Wayland and Worcester. It’s a DACA and Dreamers-themed film about an undocumented immigrant facing imminent deportation, who reunites with his long-lost best friend. They hatch a plan to marry to help keep the Dreamer’s status. The film is based loosely on the relationship between Cohen and his best friend Alberto Sayan, a Dreamer from Peru. Several films star recognizable actors. Josh Radnor (“How I Met Your Mother”) stars in a pair of films: Haroula Rose’s ALL HAPPY FAMILIES, a charming comedy about a dysfunctional family gathering in Chicago (August 3), and Jane Weinstock’s THREE BIRTHDAYS, about a family wrestling with revolutionary ideas around sex, race, and class in the 1970s (August 1). In Tyrrell Shaffner’s narrative film KATIE’S MOM, the character played by Aaron Dominguez (Selena Gomez’s love interest in season 2 of “Only Murders in the Building”) gets seduced by his girlfriend’s mother, who tells the story from her point of view in a twist on the Mrs. Robinson character in The Graduate. Portland, Maine couple Matt Cascella and Jennifer Cordery’s HANGDOG, about a couple who move to Portland from New York, stars Catherine Chilton (Wanda Bell in “Orange is the New Black,” “Stranger Things,” “Insecure”) and Desmin Bourges (“You’re the Worst”) and screens on July 29. The festival also attracts films shot on Cape Cod, so area residents will find several films of interest. In the mystery/thriller CROOKEDFINGER by Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund a woman returns to her Cape Cod childhood home after her parents’ sudden death and is forced to work with her estranged brother as they settle their parents’ affairs. Frequent festival participant and Boston filmmaker Mark Kiefer’s latest short comedy, THE DAY KEEPER, about a Cape Cod lighthouse keeper who struggles to keep his own inner light shining, was shot in Woods Hole at the iconic Nobska Lighthouse. Charlie Norton’s short drama THE LOST WEEKEND, which portrays a teenage boy grappling with his own definition of masculinity, was shot in Sandwich. For those who want to get into festival mode early, there’s a pre-festival screening on Friday, July 26 of IN THE WHALE filmmaker and Boston Globe environmental reporter David Abel and Andy Laub’s documentary about Michael Packard, one of the area’s last remaining lobster divers who was engulfed by a humpback whale during a routine dive off the tip of Cape Cod–and lived to tell about it! As part of the Film and Science Initiative, created to accelerate collaboration and conversation between filmmakers and scientists, the festival includes a substantial number of science-focused films that encompass its Bringing Science to the Screen program. On the features side is Canadian filmmaker Niobe Thompson’s documentary HUNT FOR THE OLDEST DNA, in which scientists discovered the oldest DNA ever found while examining dirt (as opposed to fossils), revealing the genes of long-extinct creatures in the Arctic (August 1). David Baker’s THE WONDER AND THE WORRY follows the careers of former National Geographic Magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Johns and his young, freelance photographer daughter, who together examine the soul of journalism and its role in preserving the planet (July 31). Actor Ted Danson narrates FOLLOW THE JOURNEY directed by Martha’s Vineyard residents Liz Witham and Ken Wentworth. The work-in-progress screening chronicles the couple as they followed a group of endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, including seven mothers and their newborn calves, on an epic journey from Florida to the Canadian Maritimes (July 28). There are also several shorts playing throughout the festival. This year’s venues include Redfield Auditorium, Cornelia Clapp Auditorium and Meigs Room, Swope Center at the MBL, and the Woods Hole Community Hall in Woods Hole, the Simon Center for the Arts and Morse Hall at Falmouth Academy. The festival’s five evening parties take place at The Captain Kidd and Quahog Republic’s Leeside Pub in Woods Hole and Grumpy’s Pub in Falmouth. All access passes are $300. In-person ticket packages are $150 for 10 tickets and $110 for 6 tickets. Individual film, workshop, and panel discussion tickets range from $16-20. Become a member to receive discounts on all items Pass and tickets are available at www.woodsholefilmfestival.org, Call (508) 495-3456 or email info@woodsholefilmfestival.org for more info.