AFI FEST 2014 revealed the remaining films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, and Cinema’s Legacy programs. AFI FEST will take place November 6 through 13 in Hollywood, CA, at the Dolby Theatre®, the TCL Chinese Theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
WORLD CINEMA SELECTIONS (29 titles)
The World Cinema selections showcase some of the most acclaimed international films of the year.
’71 – A rookie British soldier (rising star Jack O’Connell) must survive one night in war-torn Belfast at the height of the Troubles in this taut thriller. DIR Yann Demange. SCR Gregory Burke. CAST Jack O’Connell, Paul Anderson, Richard Dormer, Sean Harris, Barry Keoghan, Martin McCann, Charlie Murphy, Sam Reid. UK.
THE ABSENT (LOS AUSENTES) – When an elderly man loses his isolated cabin deep in the Mexican woods, he also loses his grip on reality. DIR Nicolás Pereda. SCR Alejandro Mendoza. CAST Guadalupe Cárdenas, Eduard Fernández, Gabino Rodríguez. Mexico. U.S. Premiere.
AUGUST WINDS (VENTOS DE AGOSTO) – When a young Brazilian couple makes a discovery in the ocean waters off their small village, they must confront the realities of life and death. DIR Gabriel Mascaro. SCR Gabriel Mascaro & Rachel Ellis. CAST Dandara de Morais, Geová Manoel dos Santos, Maria Salvino dos Santos, Gabriel Mascaro. Brazil.
BLACK COAL, THIN ICE (BAI RI YAN HUO) – In this Berlin Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner, a down-and-out former detective is lured back to an old murder case when the brutal killer re-emerges. DIR Diao Yinan. SCR Diao Yinan. CAST Liao Fan, Gwei Lun Mei, Wang Xuebing, Wang Jingchun, Yu Ailei, Ni Jingyang. China, Hong Kong. This screening is co-presented by the China Onscreen Biennial 2014 and is the closing night screening of their Los Angeles series.
BREATHE (RESPIRE) – High school student Charlie is sent reeling after her intense friendship with Sarah falls apart in Mélanie Laurent’s sophomore feature. DIR Mélanie Laurent. SCR Mélanie Laurent & Julien Lambroschini. CAST Joséphine Japy, Lou de Laâge, Isabelle Carré, Claire Keim. France.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY – An amateur butterfly collector and her housekeeper can’t get enough of their sadomasochistic games in this phantasmic tale. DIR Peter Strickland. SCR Peter Strickland. CAST Sidse Babett Knudsen, Chiara D’anna. UK.
EDEN – Mia Hansen-Løve’s 20-year journey through the electronic dance music scene follows DJ Paul, whose love for the turntables stays strong even after the craze has ended. DIR Mia Hansen-Løve. SCR Mia Hansen-Løve & Sven Hansen-Løve. CAST Felix De Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne, Greta Gerwig, Golshifteh Farahani, Laura Smet, Vincent Lacoste. France.
THE FOOL (DURAK) – A small-town plumber must evacuate a building before its occupants are put in a deadly situation, but citywide corruption makes it nearly impossible to find help. DIR Yury Bykov. SCR Yury Bykov. CAST Artem Bystrov, Natalia Surkova, Dmitry Kulichkov, Ilya Isaev, Maxim Pinsker, Lyubov Rudenko. Russia.
FROM WHAT IS BEFORE (MULA SA KUNG ANO ANG NOON) – Filipino arthouse sensation Lav Diaz’s latest epic centers on a coastal village haunted by strange and supernatural occurrences. DIR Lav Diaz. SCR Lav Diaz. CAST Perry Dizon, Roeder Camañag, Hazel Orencio, Karenina Haniel, Joel Saracho, Reynan Abcede, Ching Valdes-Aran, Mailes Kanapi, Ian Lomongo, Noel Sto. Domingo, Evelyn Vargas, Bambi Beltran, Teng Mangansakan. Philippines. U.S. Premiere.
GETT, THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM – Unfolding entirely in a small courtroom, this edge-of-your-seat film follows Viviane Amsalem’s tense battle for a divorce in Israel’s strict rabbinical court. DIR Ronit Elkabetz & Shlomi Elkabetz. SCR Ronit Elkabetz & Shlomi Elkabetz. CAST Ronit Elkabetz, Menashe Noy, Simon Abkarian, Sasson Gabay , Eli Gorstein, Rami Danon, Roberto Pollack. Israel.
GIRLHOOD (BANDE DE FILLES) – Teenager Marieme drops out of school and finds acceptance with a gang of free-spirited girls, while taking on a new feminine identity. DIR Céline Sciamma. SCR Céline Sciamma. CAST Karidja Touré, Assa Sylla, Lindsay Karamoh, Mariétou Touré. France.
GOODNIGHT MOMMY (ICH SEH, ICH SEH) – Twin boys fear that their mother, whose face is masked with bandages after plastic surgery, has been subsumed by an evil being. DIR Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala. SCR Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala. CAST Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz. Austria.
HAEMOO – Amid a shroud of sea fog, the voyage of a South Korean boat smuggling a group of illegal immigrants turns into a catastrophe. DIR Shim Sung-bo. SCR Shim Sung-bo & Bong Joon-ho. CAST Kim Yoon-seok, Park Yu-chun, Han Ye-ri. South Korea.
HUMAN CAPITAL (IL CAPITALE UMANO) – The fates of two seemingly unrelated families become increasingly intertwined in this stylish Italian murder mystery. DIR Paolo Virzì. SCR Paolo Virzì, Francesco Bruni and Francesco Piccolo. CAST Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valeria Golino, Fabrizio Gifuni, Luigi Lo Cascio. Italy.
THE IRON MINISTRY – Three years spent on China’s vast train system are distilled into a one-of-a-kind sensory experience in this immersive, formally daring documentary. DIR J.P. Sniadecki. China, USA.
JAUJA – Viggo Mortensen stars as a 19th-century Danish general who must search the unforgiving Patagonian wilderness for his runaway daughter. DIR Lisandro Alonso. SCR Lisandro Alonso & Fabián Casas. CAST Viggo Mortensen, Viilbjork Malling Agger, Ghita Nørby. Argentina, USA, Netherlands, France, Mexico.
LEVIATHAN – In the latest work from Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev, a small-town auto mechanic becomes embroiled in a property dispute with devastating consequences. DIR Andrey Zvyagintsev. SCR Oleg Negin & Andrey Zvyagintsev. CAST Alexey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovitchenkov, Roman Madyanov, Anna Ukolova, Alexey Rozin, Sergey Pokhodaev. Russia.
MANOS SUCIAS – Brothers Jacobo and Delio agree to transport millions of dollars of cocaine into Panama in this suspenseful portrait of lives forever altered by the drug trade. DIR Josef Kubota Wladyka. SCR Alan Blanco & Josef Kubota Wladyka. CAST Cristian Advincula, Jarlin Martinez, Manuel David Riascos, Hadder Blandon. Colombia, USA.
OVER YOUR DEAD BODY (KUIME) – Actors rehearsing a classic play find their violent, double-crossing stage roles seeping into real life in a ghost story from Takashi Miike. DIR Takashi Miike. SCR Kikumi Yamagishi. CAST Ebizo Ichikawa, Ko Shibasaki, Hideaki Ito, Miho Nakanishi, Maiko, Toshie Negishi, Hiroshi Katsuno, Ikko Furuya. Japan.
REALITY (RÉALITÉ) – A cameraman for a TV show is offered a chance to direct in this tapestry of dream logic that slides from one brilliantly bizarre situation to the next. DIR Quentin Dupieux. SCR Quentin Dupieux. CAST Alain Chabat, Jonathan Lambert, Elodie Bouchez, Kyla Kenedy, John Glover, Eric Wareheim, Jon Heder. Belgium, France. North American Premiere.
RED ARMY – The Cold War plays out with vivid intensity – on the ice – in this vibrant documentary on the history of the Soviet Union’s Red Army hockey team. DIR Gabe Polsky. FEATURING Slava Fetisov, Vladislav Tretiak, Scotty Bowman, Vladimir Pozner. USA, Russia.
THE SALT OF THE EARTH – This documentary on Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, often referred to as the master of black-and-white photojournalism, is co-directed by filmmaker Wim Wenders and Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. DIR Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. SCR Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders and David Rosier. France.
SONG OF THE SEA – In this Irish animated film, a brother and sister embark on a magical journey to discover their connection to the mythical selkies. DIR Tomm Moore. SCR Will Collins. CAST Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, Pat Shortt, Jon Kenny, Liam Hourican, Colm Ó’Snodaigh, Lucy O’Connell, Kevin Swierszcz, David Rawle, Lisa Hannigan. Ireland. U.S. Premiere.
STATIONS OF THE CROSS (KREUZWEG) – Fourteen masterfully composed single-shot scenes tell the story of adolescent Maria, a girl caught between a secular world and the strict religious teachings of her church. DIR Dietrich Brüggemann. SCR Anna Brüggemann & Dietrich Brüggemann. CAST Lea van Acken, Franziska Weisz, Florian Stetter. Germany.
TIMBUKTU – Mauritania’s official entry for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar® centers on the 2012 Islamic jihadist takeover of northern Mali, and its toll on the region’s civilians. DIR Abderrahmane Sissako. SCR Abderrahmane Sissako & Kessen Tall. CAST Ibrahim Ahmed, Toulou Kiki, Abel Jafri, Fatoumata Diawara. France, Mauritania.
TITLI – Young Titli must risk everything to escape his life of abject poverty and intergenerational crime in this assured debut feature. DIR Kanu Behl. SCR Sharat Katariya & Kanu Behl. CAST Ranvir Shorey, Amit Sial, Lalit Behl, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Shashank Arora. India.
TU DORS NICOLE – Nicole trips aimlessly through her post-college summer in this delightfully light and sublime film. DIR Stéphane Lafleur. SCR Stéphane Lafleur. CAST Julianne Côté, Catherine St-Laurent, Francis La Haye, Simon Larouche, Godefroy Reding, Marc-André Grondin. Canada.
VILLA TOUMA – A teenage Palestinian orphan’s life is turned upside down when she goes to live in the secluded home of her three aristocrat aunts. DIR Suha Arraf. SCR Suha Arraf. CAST Nisreen Faour, Ula Tabri , Cherien Dabis , Maria Zriek.
WILD TALES (RELATOS SALVAJES) – Characters are pushed to delightfully deranged savagery in this anthology of six sublimely absurd short films. DIR Damián Szifrón. SCR Damián Szifrón. CAST Ricardo Darin, Oscar Martinez, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Érica Rivas, Rita Cortese, Julieta Zylberberg, Dario Grandinetti. Argentina, Spain.
MIDNIGHT SELECTIONS (4 titles)
These dark and macabre films from around the world will grip audiences with terror and laughter.
ALLELUIA – A hustler has the tables turned on him when a besotted con victim becomes his partner in crime in this genre-bending tale of sex and obsession. DIR Fabrice Du Welz. SCR Fabrice Du Welz & Vincent Tavier. CAST Laurent Lucas, Lola Dueñas, Stéphane Bissot, Edith Le Merdy, Anne-Marie Loop, Helena Noguerra, Pili Groyne, David Murgia. France, Belgium.
A HARD DAY (KKEUT-KKA-JI GAN-DA) – When corrupt Detective Ko is involved in a hit-and-run, a chain of events is unleashed that pits him against a diabolical nemesis. DIR Kim Seong-hun. SCR Kim Seong-hun. CAST Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Jin-woong. South Korea.
IT FOLLOWS – A group of friends is plagued by a nightmarish supernatural threat in this coming-of-age horror film from AFI FEST alum David Robert Mitchell. DIR David Robert Mitchell. SCR David Robert Mitchell. CAST Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe. USA.
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS – In this hilarious mockumentary, the undead lives of five flat-mates are thrown into pandemonium when a recently turned hipster tries to join the party. DIR Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement. SCR Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement. CAST Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stu Rutherford, Jackie Van Beek, Ben Fransham. New Zealand.
BREAKTHROUGH SELECTIONS (4 titles)
The Breakthrough section is dedicated to the true discoveries of the programming process. It exists as a platform for artists at a crucial stage in their career to share their innovative work with enthusiastic audiences.
THE BLUE WAVE (MAVI DALGA) – Deniz and her friends are restless Turkish teenagers, distracted by love interests and ever-changing friendship dynamics, as they await the end of high school. DIR Zeynep Dadak & Merve Kayan. SCR Zeynep Dadak & Merve Kayan. CAST Ayris Alptekin, Onur Saylak, Baris Hacihan. Turkey, Germany, Netherlands, Greece.
FISH & CAT – Achieved in one stunning long take, this Iranian arthouse slasher follows a group of students in the woods and the sinister crooks they encounter there. DIR Shahram Mokri. SCR Shahram Mokri. CAST Babak Karimi, Saeed Ebrahimifar, Abed Abest, Ainaz Azarhoush, Mona Ahmadi, Neda Jebraieli, Parinaz Tayeb, Samaneh Vafaiee. Iran.
MAY ALLAH BLESS FRANCE! (QU’ALLAH BENISSE LA FRANCE!) – French rapper Abd Al Malik adapts his raw memoir chronicling the way religion and hip-hop saved him from the streets. DIR Abd Al Malik. SCR Abd Al Malik. CAST Marc Zinga, Sabrina Ouazani, Larouci Didi, Mickaël Nagenraft, Matteo Falkone, Stéphane Fayette-Mikano. France. U.S. Premiere.
THE MIDNIGHT SWIM – Three half-sisters try to unlock the mystery of their mother’s deep-water disappearance in this unsettling tale, part ghost story and part family drama. DIR Sarah Adina Smith. SCR Sarah Adina Smith. CAST Lindsay Burdge, Aleksa Palladino, Jennifer Lafleur, Ross Partridge, Beth Grant, Michelle Hutchison, Shirley Venard. USA. U.S. Premiere.
CINEMA’S LEGACY SELECTIONS (4 titles)
Now in its second year, Cinema’s Legacy is AFI FEST’s celebration of motion picture history, and a special opportunity to screen recent restorations of film classics and films about the history of cinema.
CINEMA PARADISO (1989) – A famous Italian film director reflects on his childhood friendship with a local theater projectionist in this must-see classic. DIR Giuseppe Tornatore. SCR Giuseppe Tornatore. CAST Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Antonella Attili, Enzo Cannavale, Isa Danieli, Leo Gullotta, Marco Leonardi, Pupella Maggio, Agnese Nano, Leopoldo Trieste, Salvatore Cascio. Italy.
LOVE STREAMS (1984) – Centering on a boozy, hedonistic writer and his beleaguered sister, this latter-era film by the great John Cassavetes celebrates its 30th anniversary. DIR John Cassavetes. SCR John Cassavetes. CAST Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Diahnne Abbott, Seymour Cassel, Eddy Donno, Tom Badal, Joan Foley, Jakob Shaw, Al Ruban, Margaret Abbott. USA.
MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE AND WORK OF ORSON WELLES (2014)– Combining extensive filmmaker interviews and rare archival footage, Chuck Workman’s documentary takes us through the life of one of cinema’s greatest masters: Orson Welles. DIR Chuck Workman. USA.
YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW (IERI, OGGI, DOMANI) (1963) – Vittorio De Sica’s unique, three-part omnibus film features the mega-watt star coupling of international icons Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. DIR Vittorio De Sica. SCR Eduardo De Filippo, Isabella Quarantotti, Cesare Zavattini, Bella Billa and Lorenza Zanuso. CAST Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Giuffrè, Agostino Salvietti, Lino Mattera, Tecla Scarano, Silvia Monelli, Carlo Croccolo, Pasquale Cennamo, Armando Trovajoli. Italy, France.
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