Now on in the third year, Asheboro North Carolina has been home to a festival powerhouse of programming, thanks to one of its natives, Ty Brueilly when he teamed up with Sunset Theatre & City Of Asheboro.
Mightier Than The Sword Awards at Sunset Film Festival became the first ever film festival for the city in late 2023, with it’s first event dates in January 2024, followed by the second year in January 2025. For each of those first years, over 100 film titles were included in the programming. Mostly short films, music videos and the like, however there were some heavy hitting features throughout the schedule like 50th anniversary screening of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ with ‘Cannibal Comedian’ and ‘45th anniversary screening of ‘Forbidden Zone’ with ‘Bloody Bridget’.
Now in 2026, the festival was moved to August 7-9 to avoid winter weather and Brueilly has consolidated the program to nearly half of the previous two years. “These extra months of planning that I had this year, I was able to get a better grasp on what this festival should be and what it should encapsulate. I am a firm believer in the idea that there can be a equal balance of quality and quantity. Meaning I think a strong schedule can include a whole lot of titles, as long as that quality is toe to toe with it, and I feel as if the first two years I didn’t realize that as much as I do in 2026.” Brueilly said.
The highlights of 2026 include on Friday, an opening night comedy hour featuring JC Allen, Leah Lynn, Jordan B. & Tony Rodriguez, presented by TFoxx, hosted by Major Keysss with sounds by DJ Soulful Desire. Immediately following is an opening night ceremony and concert with performances by Sean Haitz of Cosmic Jetties, Mr. Rozzi w/Hiromenbipp, Barry Yow, Donna Hughes, Kal Tek, J. The Artist and Chad Wayne, hosted by the festival guest of honor Cheryl ‘The Pear’ Cook.
On Saturday, Chuck Egerton Ph.D will host the special self-reflecting exercise, PhotoSophia. A one of a kind ‘Viral Content Creator Conversation’ will take place on stage with Robert Dunne, Major Keysss, Nappy Buffalo, BJ Owens and Ben Joneswho have all went viral in some of their content in the last year. Later in the night, year three’s ‘Deadly Double Feature’ will take over the theatre, with ‘The Mutilator’ [1984] and ‘Mutilator 2’ [2023] being shown back to back for the first time ever in a theatrical setting, with director Buddy Cooper and cast/crew having a pre-show meet and greet, and on stage Q&A open conversation following the showing.
On Sunday the formal award ceremony will be the climax, with the headlining films showing right after; the Bradley Pearce film ‘Boonerang: Returning To The High Country’ and Shawn Antoine II’s ‘The Sight Unseen’ before a ‘Mighty Grand Finale’ block that starts out with the festival’s Distinctive Director, Nachela Knox screening of her newest feature, ‘Bloodthirsty.’ For more information, tickets and schedule go to www.filmandfashionbybrueilly.com/mttsawards
Brueilly & MTTS Brings Asheboro A Third Year OfExtravagant Arts, Culture & Entertainment with Mightier Than The Sword Awards at Sunset Film Festival
Now on in the third year, Asheboro North Carolina has been home to a festival powerhouse of programming, thanks to one of its natives, Ty Brueilly when he teamed up with Sunset Theatre & City Of Asheboro.
Mightier Than The Sword Awards at Sunset Film Festival became the first ever film festival for the city in late 2023, with it’s first event dates in January 2024, followed by the second year in January 2025. For each of those first years, over 100 film titles were included in the programming. Mostly short films, music videos and the like, however there were some heavy hitting features throughout the schedule like 50th anniversary screening of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ with ‘Cannibal Comedian’ and ‘45th anniversary screening of ‘Forbidden Zone’ with ‘Bloody Bridget’.
Now in 2026, the festival was moved to August 7-9 to avoid winter weather and Brueilly has consolidated the program to nearly half of the previous two years. “These extra months of planning that I had this year, I was able to get a better grasp on what this festival should be and what it should encapsulate. I am a firm believer in the idea that there can be a equal balance of quality and quantity. Meaning I think a strong schedule can include a whole lot of titles, as long as that quality is toe to toe with it, and I feel as if the first two years I didn’t realize that as much as I do in 2026.” Brueilly said.
The highlights of 2026 include on Friday, an opening night comedy hour featuring JC Allen, Leah Lynn, Jordan B. & Tony Rodriguez, presented by TFoxx, hosted by Major Keysss with sounds by DJ Soulful Desire. Immediately following is an opening night ceremony and concert with performances by Sean Haitz of Cosmic Jetties, Mr. Rozzi w/Hiromenbipp, Barry Yow, Donna Hughes, Kal Tek, J. The Artist and Chad Wayne, hosted by the festival guest of honor Cheryl ‘The Pear’ Cook.
On Saturday, Chuck Egerton Ph.D will host the special self-reflecting exercise, PhotoSophia. A one of a kind ‘Viral Content Creator Conversation’ will take place on stage with Robert Dunne, Major Keysss, Nappy Buffalo, BJ Owens and Ben Joneswho have all went viral in some of their content in the last year. Later in the night, year three’s ‘Deadly Double Feature’ will take over the theatre, with ‘The Mutilator’ [1984] and ‘Mutilator 2’ [2023] being shown back to back for the first time ever in a theatrical setting, with director Buddy Cooper and cast/crew having a pre-show meet and greet, and on stage Q&A open conversation following the showing.
On Sunday the formal award ceremony will be the climax, with the headlining films showing right after; the Bradley Pearce film ‘Boonerang: Returning To The High Country’ and Shawn Antoine II’s ‘The Sight Unseen’ before a ‘Mighty Grand Finale’ block that starts out with the festival’s Distinctive Director, Nachela Knox screening of her newest feature, ‘Bloodthirsty.’ For more information, tickets and schedule go to www.filmandfashionbybrueilly.com/mttsawards
