Organizers of this year’s Pottsville Film Festival already see the event as a success and that was before one actual film was screened this weekend.
On Friday night, at the Red Carpet Gala at The Chopping Block to kick off the event, Majestic Theater Association President Al Miscannon told Coal Region Canary, “It’s just this great celebration of the arts.”
The gala event was attended by filmmakers eager to show off their work this weekend as well as
This is the first year The Majestic is organizing the festival. It’s taking over for Pottsville Area Development Corp., which launched the event in its inaugural year in 2025.
“We’re building. It started last year and we learned a bunch of things and we’re learning things this year, for sure. But it’s already a success, just the fact that it’s happening,” Miscannon said.
This year’s event is already bigger than the first. Miscannon says that 70 films were screened, compared to about 50 in 2025. Shorts are more in focus this year, which allows more to be seen than full-length features.
Miscannon credited Joe Whelski, an actor and Pottsville native now living in New York City, with helping to bring many of the filmmakers to the festival. He said it is important for him to bring his experience to the festival in Pottsville because so many here helped him get to where he is now.
Whelski says he hopes the filmmakers attending this year’s Pottsville Film Festival network with other festivalgoers.
“You never know who’s going to be the person that changes your life and your career,” he says.
POTTSVILLE FILM FESTIVAL: Click or tap here to see a full schedule of film screenings this weekend.
Richard Kline Receives Icon Award
At this year’s Pottsville Film Festival, famed actor and director Richard Kline – who famously played upstairs neighbor Larry Dallas on Three’s Company – was invited as the Honored Guest. At the gala, he was presented with the first-ever Icon Award by the festival.
“This is fantastic. I hope I can get this through Customs,” he joked upon receiving the award.
Prior to receiving the award, the crowd at The Chopping Block had a chance to see a compilation of some of Kline’s career highlights, including clips from his time of Three’s Company, as a guest celebrity on the $25,000 Pyramid game show, and this rare gem of a commercial for Max-Pax Coffee:
“I think it’s pretty obvious that my career took off after that coffee commercial,” Kline – whom Whelski described as “still the funniest guy in the room” – said.
The ceremony also featured a recorded message to Kline from Jenilee Harrison, who played Cindy Snow on Three’s Company.
Kline attended the gala and a Meet and Greet event at Black Rock Brewpub prior, both events where festivalgoers had plenty of opportunity to chat with him. He’ll be hosting a comedy workshop on Saturday morning and then make himself available for a Q&A in the afternoon. Kline is also planning to attend the awards ceremony on Sunday at The Majestic Theater.
On the red carpet Friday, Kline told The Canary that he rarely attends events like Pottsville Film Festival. In fact, the last time he was on a red carpet was last year when he attended a benefit for The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health.
Kline said he was asked to attend Pottsville Film Festival as its honored guest by Whelski, whose wife was a student of Kline’s in New York.
“I said yeah, in a heartbeat,” Kline said.
Today, Kline is living in Montreal and teaches classes via Zoom every Monday.
Plachko Honored with Distinguished Citizen Award
Retired Magisterial District Judge David Plachko was honored by the festival with the Distinguished Citizen award for his more than 30 years on the bench in Port Carbon.
Plachko said he was “elated” when he learned that he’d be recognized at the film festival. He remembered a letter he’d read on his last day in office from a woman who’d come before him in court, thanking him for having a part in turning her life around after that day.
The letter was handed to him by Assistant District Attorney Dave Noon. Noon, Plachko recalled, told him there was a thousand unwritten letters just like that.
“This award is a very visible and outward sign of a thousand unwritten letters,” Plachko said. “I really appreciate it so much.”
Plachko, a huge fan of Three’s Company, then told a story about having to write a letter recently when he was very unhappy. He started the letter, “Dear Sleaze Bucket, It is slime like you …”. He didn’t know it when he wrote his speech, he said, but during the montage of Kline’s career highlights, one of the Three’s Company clips shown was of Larry Dallas having Janet (Jack Tripper’s roommate) typing a letter he dictated that started the same way.
“Season 8, Episode 4, by the way,” Plachko said, pointing to Kline.
He then concluded his speech by asking others to help tell the story he’s been sharing lately of his native Saint Clair, which he feels is being threatened by polluters, namely from the BRADS Landfill.
“Kindness demands that we stand up when our communtities are threatened. At a time when powerful interests may see profits in our fields and hills, may we choose responsibility,” Plachko said.
FEATURED PHOTO: Plachko, Whelski, and Kline share a moment at a Meet & Greet event held at Blackrock Brewpub in Pottsville.
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