THE IMITATION GAME
The Lone Star Film Festival (LSFF) in Sundance Square announced eight titles from its 2014 lineup, including THE IMITATION GAME, MR. TURNER and WINTER SLEEP. The festival will take place Nov. 6-9 at the AMC Palace Theater with additional screenings at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. THE IMITATION GAME, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and recently picked up the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), will screen at the 2014 LSFF.
Other titles announced include Mike Leigh’s MR. TURNER, a biopic of master painter J.M.W. Turner. For his portrayal of Turner in the film, Timothy Spall won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
WINTER SLEEP by Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, winner of the Cannes’ highest honor, the Palme d’Or as well as the FIPRESCI critic’s award, will also screen at the LSFF. Ceylan’s previous film, ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and also screened at the LSFF. Previous to that, Ceylan’s THREE MONKEYS, CLIMATES and DISTANT received their first Fort Worth screenings during Christopher Kelly’s Modern Cinema.
Additional screenings at the 2014 LSFF include the SXSW Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner THE GREAT INVISIBLE about the Deepwater Horizon spill, the premiere of the locally shot documentary THE ROUGHNECKS by Fort Worth native producer Marty Bowen, and Texas native Ryan Piers William’s sophomore feature X/Y, starring America Ferrera and LSFF alumnusMelonie Diaz.
The LSFS will also honor Julian Schnabel with its Achievement in Film Directing Award, Ray Benson with the Stephen Bruton Award and Bob ‘Daddy-O’ Wade with the Visionary Award at the 5th Annual Lone Star Film Festival Ball on Friday, November 7.
List of films and synopses:
THE IMITATION GAME
Directed by Morten Tyldum
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the genius British mathematician, logician, cryptologist and computer scientist who led the charge to crack the German Enigma Code that helped the Allies win WWII. Turing went on to assist with the development of computers at the University of Manchester after the war, but was persecuted by the UK government in 1952 for homosexual acts, which the country deemed illegal. THE IMITATION GAME recently won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The award has become to be known as an indicator of the Academy Award for Best Picture. Also stars, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode and Mark Strong.
MR. TURNER
Directed by Mike Leigh
MR. TURNER explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner. Profoundly affected by the death of his father and loved housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays in the country with aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of the Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty. Directed by Mike Leigh whose film ANOTHER YEAR screened at the LSFF in 2010, MR. TURNER premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival where lead actor Timothy Spall won Best Actor honors.
WINTER SLEEP
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Aydin, a former actor, runs a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal with whom he has a stormy relationship and his sister Necla who is suffering from her recent divorce. In winter as the snow begins to fall, the hotel turns into a shelter but also an inescapable place that fuels their animosities. (Cannes Film Festival). Ceylan’s seventh feature won the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival where it premiered earlier this year.
X/Y
Directed by Ryan Piers Williams
In this sophomore feature, Ryan Piers Williams stars alongside America Ferrera, Melonie Diaz, Common and Jon Paul Phillips in the character-driven drama centered around four friends living in New York and their interactions with one another as they search for a true sense of balance. With raw energy, Williams puts a microscope on the wanton desire we all have to connect with someone, the desperate lengths we’ll go to keep that connection, and what happens to us when that connection no longer holds meaning. (Tribeca Film Festival)
THE GREAT INVISIBLE
Directed by Margaret Brown
On April 20, 2010, communities throughout the Gulf Coast were devastated by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil rig operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Peabody Award winning documentarian Margaret Brown (BE HERE TO LOVE ME, ORDER OF MYTHS) traveled to small towns and major cities across Alabama, Louisiana and Texas to explore the fallout of the environmental disaster. Brown treats her subjects with respect and sensitivity as they provide first-hand accounts of the tragedy from the moment of the explosion to its still unfolding repercussions on the region and its residents.
THE ROUGHNECKS
Directed by Richard Cameron White (produced by Marty Bowen)
The story of the Fort Worth Ridglea Roughnecks, one of the oldest and most intense Pee-Wee football teams in Texas, as they set out to win the Youth football ‘Super Bowl’, their last chance at a title they narrowly lost last year. Producer Marty Bowen (THE TWILIGHT SAGA, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS) presents a film about the team for which he used to play as a young boy growing up in Fort Worth. White directs a character-based documentary with all of the drama of an epic sports story.
Julian Schnabel presents BEFORE NIGHT FALLS
Directed by Julian Schnabel (2000)
Schnabel’s second feature follows the life of poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas, who was harassed by the authorities in his native Cuba for his controversial work and his refusal to hide his homosexuality. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Venice Film Festival BEFORE NIGHT FALLS features a Javier Bardem unknown to American audiences at the time who would go on to receive an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Arenas. For many who missed Schnabel’s first feature about Jean-Michel Basquiat, it would be their first exposure to a brave new voice in filmmaking that brought a much-needed freshness to the biopic genre.
Candy Clark presents AMERICAN GRAFFITI
Directed by George Lucas (1973, produced by Francis Ford Coppola)
Set in Modesto, California, in 1962, AMERICAN GRAFFITI follows four friends over the course of one summer night as they navigate relationships, their futures, and the post-high school decisions that will impact both. Innovative in structure and at times both hilarious and poignant, this coming of age tale remains a classic today and resonated with critics and audiences alike when it was released in 1973. The film was nominated for 5 Academy Awards and 4 Golden Globes, winning Best Picture. Costing a mere $1.27 million to make and market, the film yielded gross worldwide box office revenues of more than $55 million. Candy Clark stars among a cast that includes Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Howard. For her role as Debbie, Clark was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting role at the 1974 Academy Awards. This screening marks the 30th anniversary of her nomination.