Lyrical Lemonade Founder To Headline City Of Lights Film Festival

AURORA, IL — The founder of Lyrical Lemonade was tapped to headline the City of Lights Film Festival Nov. 8-9 in Aurora, officials announced Thursday.

Cole Bennett, a Plano native who spent time in Aurora during his youth, will participate in a panel discussion Nov. 9 to talk about his beginnings in filmmaking and his rise in the music industry with Lyrical Lemonade, a multimedia company that specializes in music videos and content.

"The fact that it's in Aurora, Illinois, is very special because I spent a lot of my formative years in Aurora, Illinois, shot a lot of music videos when I was in high school ... and it's all around a very special city to me," he said in a video announcing his participation.

To coincide with the 28-year-old's appearance, the city decided to add music video as a new submission category. Artists and filmmakers have until Sept. 2 to submit music videos.

Here's a look at the rest of this year's submission categories:

• Documentary Short Film
• Narrative Short Film
• Narrative Feature
• Documentary Feature
• Student Film

Bennett will also present the best music video submission with an award to mark the festival's closing ceremony.

Tickets to the film festival are set to go on sale soon, officials said.