A Thousand Junkies[/caption]
The 9th annual DTLA Film Festival will kick off on Thursday, September 21st with the Los Angeles premiere of A Thousand Junkies, the feature film directorial debut from multi-hyphenate Tommy Swerdlow (Cool Runnings, Little Giants, and Snow Dogs), who directed and co-wrote the film and co-stars with Blake Heron and TJ Bowen, who shares a writing credit. In A Thousand Junkies features three junkies named for the actors playing them, crisscross Los Angeles in search of relief, considering increasingly reckless options in the pursuit of a score, and coming across all sorts of odd characters along the way. The film will be released theatrically by The Orchard later this year.
The Festival, taking place September 21 to 30 at L.A. LIVE, announced its feature films including all documentary and narrative feature-length films in competition. In keeping with this year’s theme – “Movies. Not walls” – the festival will host the first Enemy Nations Film Series. This series will present films from the countries labeled by immigration initiatives and Presidential tweets as homes to enemies of the state.
From The Orchard is The Work by directors Jairus Mcleary and Gethin Aldous, a powerful documentary set inside a single room in Folsom State Prison (California), which follows three level-four convicts as they participate in a four-day, innovative group therapy retreat. Rounding out the trio from The Orchard is Super Dark Times, Kevin Phillips’ harrowing, meticulously observed look at teenage age lives.
Continuing with the dark side, Most Beautiful Island explores the unforgettable and decidedly sinister day in the life of a young woman immigrant struggling to leave behind a mysterious past as she copies with life New York City. Ana Asensio directs and stars in this psychological thriller, which nabbed this year’s SXSW Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize and will be released later this year by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
In Kasra Farahani’s Tilt, Joe is a filmmaker making a definitive documentary about the dark side of America’s post WW2 “golden age.” However, he soon finds himself falling down the rabbit hole of self-doubt and paranoia. In a similar vein Erik Nelson with A Gray State has created a chilling portrait of real-life alt right personality David Crowley as he struggles to complete his opus film project.
Adults struggling with children in their lives is at the heart of several of this year’s narrative features. In Adam Cushman’s Restraint a young married woman’s mental health begins to deteriorate as she attempts to adapt to life in suburbia with her controlling husband and his 9-year-old daughter. In Zach Brown’s Hard Surfaces (formerly Moleskin Diary) life in the fast lane for an artist-photographer suddenly grinds to a halt when he unexpectedly is left in sole custory of his 9-year-old niece.
In Jorge Xolalpa, Jr.’s Blue Line Station a high school couple have a child of their own on its way as they struggle with the best solution for an unwanted pregnancy. In Christopher J. Hansen’s Blur Circle, to be released later this year by Indie Rights, a mother desperately wants to find her missing child, even it means accepting help from a man with a shrouded past.
On the lighter side of relationships, in Jade Jenise Dixon’s Dog Park, also an Indie Rights upcoming release, it’s a canine to the rescue as a group of twenty-somethings struggle with the dating game. In Michael Ferrell’s Laura Gets A Cat, an unemployed writer considers what to do with her unexciting boyfriend while jumping into an affair with a performance artist, all fuel for your vivid imaginary life.
Striking a similar tone but in the context of a documentary, The Dating Project by Jonathan Cipiti confronts the eye-opening statistics that today in America fully half of all adults are single – a far higher percentage than with past generations. Five college-age single Millennials confront their own lack of success in finding a mate in this eye-opening look at dating in the age of social media.
The havoc wreaked by social media is reflected in two of the festival’s rom coms. In director David Tyson Lam’s Viral Beauty our protagonist simply wanted a date. She got a million subscribers, instead. Sloan Copeland’s Life Hack is a humorous but cautionary about privacy and cyber threats in the digital age. The take away? Cover your webcam.
On the other hand Gigi Gorgeous is one girl who ain’t complainin’ about the power of the world wide web. In This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous the life and history of the eponymous Internet superstar is explored in a poignant and inspiring documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA).
Could video games be a contributing factor to Millennials’ singleness? Who cares! In Jeremy Snead’s multi-episodic documentary Unlocked: The World Of Games Revealed everybody involved in all levels of video gaming from creators to players certainly seems to be having a helluva good time. Ditto, all those involved in that other counter culture revolving around music audio cassette tapes. In Zachary Taylor, Georg Petzold and Seth Smoot’s Cassette: A Documentary Mix Tape rabid mix tapes fans, including the likes of Henry Rollins, share what makes this once forgotten and now beloved blast-from-the-past so very au courant.
Yes, nostalgia for the music of the Eighties is part of the appeal of mix tapes. This same nostalgia is captured in Ellen Goldfarb’s Dare To Be Different, a look back at WLIR, the pioneering Long Island, N.Y. radio station that helped to pave the way for new wave and punk, and launch the careers of everyone from Blondie to Joan Jett. (Oh, did we mention Prince, U2 and Madonna were also heard first in the U.S. on the WLIR airwaves?)
The past meets the future in the “lost” 1938 screwball comedy set in the future of 2018 in Jamie Greenberg’s Future ’38. Confused? All will be revealed in this highly original satire that wowed the crowds at Slamdance earlier this year. Gabriel Cruz Rivas and Rodrigo Guardiola’s gaze is firmly fixed in the present in his documentary Zoe: Panoramas, an introspective look inside one of Latin America’s biggest rock bands.
The festival’s signature curated film series this year is entitled Enemy Nations, which refers to how whole nations of people suddenly became identified by the highest levels of the U.S. government as anti-American. The series presents a selection from each of these seven countries in an opportunity for you, the audience, to decide for yourself if the enemy is from beyond the borders, or within.
The series includes Shiva Sanjari’s Here The Seats Are Vacant, a stunning portrayal of Iran’s first female director, who herself became an enemy of her nation with the rise of the Islamic Revolution. Also part of the series is Avo Kaprealian’s Houses Without Doors, a documentary shot surreptitiously by director with a small camera from the balcony of his home on the Syrian front line. The camera records the dramatic changes in his neighborhood and his own family. Five short films, which will be announced later, are part of the series as well.
Forbidden Cuba is the first American feature film shot after the thawing of diplomatic relations between the island nation and the U.S. Art Jones’ picture is a cautionary tale about an American businessman who travels to Cuba to retrieve an executive gone rogue, only to have his own eyes opened to the beauty and vibrant culture of the country.
In Sea Gypsies: The Far Side Of The World filmmaker Nico Edwards sets off for his own adventure as part of a motley crew of amateurs and seasoned sailors attempting the nearly impossible and certainly risky goal of traversing the ocean between New Zealand and Patagonia by way of Antarctica in a sailboat – in the dead of winter. Yes, in the Digital Age real-life adventure is yours for the taking IF you’re willing to pursue it.
Water is also the subject of two more documentary films screening at the festival. In John Hopkins’ Bluefin, fresh from its U.S. premiere at Santa Barbara Film Festival earlier this year, the plight of a magnificent oceanic creature, which unfortunately is best known as a mainstay of sushi, is explored from different perspectives. It’s fresh water and the plight of humans in developing countries who lack it that is explored in Brian Wood’s A World Without Water. This special screening and event will be co-hosted by Los Angeles-based PH8, a NGO with international outreach.
Rounding out the festival’s feature film line-up are two documentaries about the impact of encroaching civilization on precious forest land and its wildlife. Mónica Alvarez Franco’s Cloud Forest – which boasts stunning cinematography – documents the people of a small community in Mexico who are the guardians of one of the ecosystems most at risk in country. Tony Lee’s The Cat That Changed America is about a bona fide Hollywood star. P22 is the most famous lion in America, a cougar who lives in Griffith Park, and this is his amazing story.
A final note about a late entry to the festival. VAXXED: From Cover-up to Controversy was a feature-length documentary invited to make its world premiere at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival when the screening was abruptly cancelled — the only film ever pulled from the festival’s line-up. Soon after, Robert DeNiro in his guise as Tribeca’s co-founder went on national television to proclaim he regretted his festival’s decision and urged the viewing public to go see the film, which by then had entered theatrical release. The man at the center of that film, medical researcher and author Andrew Wakefield, is also the focus of The Pathological Optimist, a biopic about the former medical doctor whose discovery of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism profoundly changed his life and challenged medical orthodoxy that all vaccines were safe for all children. In her film, which is making its Los Angeles theatrical premiere during DTLA Film Festival, director Miranda Bailey weaves a delicate portrait of a man who is both revered and vilified by millions, a full-access look at the man at the center of one of the biggest medical and media controversies of our times.
“One of the missions of our nonprofit film festival is to reflect the rich ethnic-cultural diversity and creative free spirit of DTLA and its surrounding environs. We believe our audiences will agree that this year’s line-up wholeheartedly embraces that mandate,” said Greg Ptacek, festival director.
The complete list of announced feature film presentations at the 9th DTLA Film Festival follows
Film Festivals
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Tommy Swerdlow’s A THOUSAND JUNKIES To Open DTLA Film Festival + Feature Films Lineup
[caption id="attachment_24667" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] A Thousand Junkies[/caption]
The 9th annual DTLA Film Festival will kick off on Thursday, September 21st with the Los Angeles premiere of A Thousand Junkies, the feature film directorial debut from multi-hyphenate Tommy Swerdlow (Cool Runnings, Little Giants, and Snow Dogs), who directed and co-wrote the film and co-stars with Blake Heron and TJ Bowen, who shares a writing credit. In A Thousand Junkies features three junkies named for the actors playing them, crisscross Los Angeles in search of relief, considering increasingly reckless options in the pursuit of a score, and coming across all sorts of odd characters along the way. The film will be released theatrically by The Orchard later this year.
The Festival, taking place September 21 to 30 at L.A. LIVE, announced its feature films including all documentary and narrative feature-length films in competition. In keeping with this year’s theme – “Movies. Not walls” – the festival will host the first Enemy Nations Film Series. This series will present films from the countries labeled by immigration initiatives and Presidential tweets as homes to enemies of the state.
From The Orchard is The Work by directors Jairus Mcleary and Gethin Aldous, a powerful documentary set inside a single room in Folsom State Prison (California), which follows three level-four convicts as they participate in a four-day, innovative group therapy retreat. Rounding out the trio from The Orchard is Super Dark Times, Kevin Phillips’ harrowing, meticulously observed look at teenage age lives.
Continuing with the dark side, Most Beautiful Island explores the unforgettable and decidedly sinister day in the life of a young woman immigrant struggling to leave behind a mysterious past as she copies with life New York City. Ana Asensio directs and stars in this psychological thriller, which nabbed this year’s SXSW Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize and will be released later this year by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
In Kasra Farahani’s Tilt, Joe is a filmmaker making a definitive documentary about the dark side of America’s post WW2 “golden age.” However, he soon finds himself falling down the rabbit hole of self-doubt and paranoia. In a similar vein Erik Nelson with A Gray State has created a chilling portrait of real-life alt right personality David Crowley as he struggles to complete his opus film project.
Adults struggling with children in their lives is at the heart of several of this year’s narrative features. In Adam Cushman’s Restraint a young married woman’s mental health begins to deteriorate as she attempts to adapt to life in suburbia with her controlling husband and his 9-year-old daughter. In Zach Brown’s Hard Surfaces (formerly Moleskin Diary) life in the fast lane for an artist-photographer suddenly grinds to a halt when he unexpectedly is left in sole custory of his 9-year-old niece.
In Jorge Xolalpa, Jr.’s Blue Line Station a high school couple have a child of their own on its way as they struggle with the best solution for an unwanted pregnancy. In Christopher J. Hansen’s Blur Circle, to be released later this year by Indie Rights, a mother desperately wants to find her missing child, even it means accepting help from a man with a shrouded past.
On the lighter side of relationships, in Jade Jenise Dixon’s Dog Park, also an Indie Rights upcoming release, it’s a canine to the rescue as a group of twenty-somethings struggle with the dating game. In Michael Ferrell’s Laura Gets A Cat, an unemployed writer considers what to do with her unexciting boyfriend while jumping into an affair with a performance artist, all fuel for your vivid imaginary life.
Striking a similar tone but in the context of a documentary, The Dating Project by Jonathan Cipiti confronts the eye-opening statistics that today in America fully half of all adults are single – a far higher percentage than with past generations. Five college-age single Millennials confront their own lack of success in finding a mate in this eye-opening look at dating in the age of social media.
The havoc wreaked by social media is reflected in two of the festival’s rom coms. In director David Tyson Lam’s Viral Beauty our protagonist simply wanted a date. She got a million subscribers, instead. Sloan Copeland’s Life Hack is a humorous but cautionary about privacy and cyber threats in the digital age. The take away? Cover your webcam.
On the other hand Gigi Gorgeous is one girl who ain’t complainin’ about the power of the world wide web. In This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous the life and history of the eponymous Internet superstar is explored in a poignant and inspiring documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA).
Could video games be a contributing factor to Millennials’ singleness? Who cares! In Jeremy Snead’s multi-episodic documentary Unlocked: The World Of Games Revealed everybody involved in all levels of video gaming from creators to players certainly seems to be having a helluva good time. Ditto, all those involved in that other counter culture revolving around music audio cassette tapes. In Zachary Taylor, Georg Petzold and Seth Smoot’s Cassette: A Documentary Mix Tape rabid mix tapes fans, including the likes of Henry Rollins, share what makes this once forgotten and now beloved blast-from-the-past so very au courant.
Yes, nostalgia for the music of the Eighties is part of the appeal of mix tapes. This same nostalgia is captured in Ellen Goldfarb’s Dare To Be Different, a look back at WLIR, the pioneering Long Island, N.Y. radio station that helped to pave the way for new wave and punk, and launch the careers of everyone from Blondie to Joan Jett. (Oh, did we mention Prince, U2 and Madonna were also heard first in the U.S. on the WLIR airwaves?)
The past meets the future in the “lost” 1938 screwball comedy set in the future of 2018 in Jamie Greenberg’s Future ’38. Confused? All will be revealed in this highly original satire that wowed the crowds at Slamdance earlier this year. Gabriel Cruz Rivas and Rodrigo Guardiola’s gaze is firmly fixed in the present in his documentary Zoe: Panoramas, an introspective look inside one of Latin America’s biggest rock bands.
The festival’s signature curated film series this year is entitled Enemy Nations, which refers to how whole nations of people suddenly became identified by the highest levels of the U.S. government as anti-American. The series presents a selection from each of these seven countries in an opportunity for you, the audience, to decide for yourself if the enemy is from beyond the borders, or within.
The series includes Shiva Sanjari’s Here The Seats Are Vacant, a stunning portrayal of Iran’s first female director, who herself became an enemy of her nation with the rise of the Islamic Revolution. Also part of the series is Avo Kaprealian’s Houses Without Doors, a documentary shot surreptitiously by director with a small camera from the balcony of his home on the Syrian front line. The camera records the dramatic changes in his neighborhood and his own family. Five short films, which will be announced later, are part of the series as well.
Forbidden Cuba is the first American feature film shot after the thawing of diplomatic relations between the island nation and the U.S. Art Jones’ picture is a cautionary tale about an American businessman who travels to Cuba to retrieve an executive gone rogue, only to have his own eyes opened to the beauty and vibrant culture of the country.
In Sea Gypsies: The Far Side Of The World filmmaker Nico Edwards sets off for his own adventure as part of a motley crew of amateurs and seasoned sailors attempting the nearly impossible and certainly risky goal of traversing the ocean between New Zealand and Patagonia by way of Antarctica in a sailboat – in the dead of winter. Yes, in the Digital Age real-life adventure is yours for the taking IF you’re willing to pursue it.
Water is also the subject of two more documentary films screening at the festival. In John Hopkins’ Bluefin, fresh from its U.S. premiere at Santa Barbara Film Festival earlier this year, the plight of a magnificent oceanic creature, which unfortunately is best known as a mainstay of sushi, is explored from different perspectives. It’s fresh water and the plight of humans in developing countries who lack it that is explored in Brian Wood’s A World Without Water. This special screening and event will be co-hosted by Los Angeles-based PH8, a NGO with international outreach.
Rounding out the festival’s feature film line-up are two documentaries about the impact of encroaching civilization on precious forest land and its wildlife. Mónica Alvarez Franco’s Cloud Forest – which boasts stunning cinematography – documents the people of a small community in Mexico who are the guardians of one of the ecosystems most at risk in country. Tony Lee’s The Cat That Changed America is about a bona fide Hollywood star. P22 is the most famous lion in America, a cougar who lives in Griffith Park, and this is his amazing story.
A final note about a late entry to the festival. VAXXED: From Cover-up to Controversy was a feature-length documentary invited to make its world premiere at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival when the screening was abruptly cancelled — the only film ever pulled from the festival’s line-up. Soon after, Robert DeNiro in his guise as Tribeca’s co-founder went on national television to proclaim he regretted his festival’s decision and urged the viewing public to go see the film, which by then had entered theatrical release. The man at the center of that film, medical researcher and author Andrew Wakefield, is also the focus of The Pathological Optimist, a biopic about the former medical doctor whose discovery of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism profoundly changed his life and challenged medical orthodoxy that all vaccines were safe for all children. In her film, which is making its Los Angeles theatrical premiere during DTLA Film Festival, director Miranda Bailey weaves a delicate portrait of a man who is both revered and vilified by millions, a full-access look at the man at the center of one of the biggest medical and media controversies of our times.
“One of the missions of our nonprofit film festival is to reflect the rich ethnic-cultural diversity and creative free spirit of DTLA and its surrounding environs. We believe our audiences will agree that this year’s line-up wholeheartedly embraces that mandate,” said Greg Ptacek, festival director.
The complete list of announced feature film presentations at the 9th DTLA Film Festival follows
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Official Poster of 12th Rome Film Fest Features the Timeless Grace and Elegance of Audrey Hepburn
The timeless grace and elegance of one of the most beloved actresses of all time, Audrey Hepburn, are featured in the official poster of the 12th Rome Film Fest.
The picture taken by photographer David Seymour portrays the actress during the shooting of Funny Face (1957). The Rome Film Fest thus pays tribute to the film directed by Academy Honorary Award winner Stanley Donen, which in 2017 will celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of its release in theaters, and to the musical, a genre that will be a recurring motif throughout the festival. In fact, all the films selected for the program of the “Films of Our Lives” section will be musicals and before every screening of the upcoming Rome Film Fest, viewers will enjoy clips from the most famous and unforgettable musicals.
“Few actresses communicate the idea of grace and sophistication like Audrey Hepburn – explained Antonio Monda – I believe she perfectly embodies the identity of the fest we are trying to build, especially in this image filled with joy and elegance”.
Credits: Audrey Hepburn TM -Trademark, © 2012 and Likeness – Property of Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti, ALL RIGHT RESERVED” © David Seymour/Magnum/Contrasto
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2017 Toronto International Film Festival Awards: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Wins Top Award
The Toronto International Film Festival announced its award winners and the Grolsch People’s Choice Award went to Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The second runner-up is Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. The first runner-up is Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya.
The Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award goes to Joseph Kahn’s Bodied. The second runner-up is Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99. The first runner-up is James Franco’s The Disaster Artist.
The Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award goes to Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places. The second runner-up is Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! The first runner-up is Long Time Running directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas De Pencier.
IWC SHORT CUTS AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM
The IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film goes to Marc-Antoine Lemire’s Pre-Drink. The jury remarked the film “is a monumental yet intimate portrayal of a woman in transition. Lead by the towering performances of the film’s two actors, both of who are worthy of receiving their own awards. The jury were especially taken by the leading actress who gives one of the best performances we saw in the Short Cuts programs. The 2017 Short Cuts jury honors Pre-Drink for Best Canadian short film.”IWC SHORT CUTS AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM
The IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Short Film goes to Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s The Burden (Min Börda). The jury remarked, “Whimsical but tragic, imaginative and just plain weird, this is exactly what one can expect from a Scandinavian musical with fish in bath robes singing out their existentialist crisis. This is a film that stands out in this program and any film program it will ever be part of.” The award offers a $10,000 cash prize made possible by IWC Schaffhausen. The jury gave honourable mentions to Matthew Rankin’s The Tesla World Light (Tesla: Lumière Mondiale) and Qiu Yang’s Xiao Cheng Er Yue (A Gentle Night).CITY OF TORONTO AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM
The City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film goes to Wayne Wapeemukwa’s Luk’ Luk’l. The jury remarked, “The award goes to a striking debut film that disrupts borders – of form and content and suggests new cinematic territories.This beautifully realized film offers a unique Canadian perspective, made with real compassion, insight and remarkable characters from Vancouver’s East Side.” This award carries a cash prize of $15,000, made possible by the City of Toronto. The jury gave honourable mention to Sadaf Foroughi’s Ava.CANADA GOOSE AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM
The Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film goes to Robin Aubert’s Les Affamés. The jury remarked, “This year the Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film goes to a hybrid art-house film that proved to be something of a revelation. Wonderfully scripted and perfectly cast, this film managed the rare feat of featuring genuinely interesting and well-rounded characters; surprising dramatic and comedic moments with well thought-out multi-generational female roles (who were totally badass, I might add) while also dealing with poignant and contemporary issues, set against a striking rural backdrop and hundreds of ‘ravenous’ zombies.” The jury gave honorable mention to Simon Lavoie’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches (La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes).THE PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS (FIPRESCI PRIZES)
Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) for the Discovery program is awarded to Sadaf Foroughi for Ava. Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) for Special Presentations is awarded to Manuel Martín Cuenca for The Motive (El Autor).NETPAC AWARD
As selected by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema for the sixth consecutive year, the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere goes to Huang Hsin-Yao’s The Great Buddha+. The jury remarked, “The NETPAC Jury awards The Great Buddha+ for depicting the interface between the haves and have-nots, with black humor and style, innovating with noir in representing the social reality of Taiwan today.”TORONTO PLATFORM PRIZE PRESENTED BY AIR FRANCE
This is the third year for Platform, the Festival’s juried program that champions directors’ cinema from around the world. The Festival welcomed an international jury comprised of award-winning filmmakers Chen Kaige, Małgorzata Szumowska, and Wim Wenders who unanimously awarded the Toronto Platform Prize, presented by Air France, to Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country. “This is a spiritual epic taking place in 1929 in Australia’s Northern Territory,” said the jury in a statement. “It is a great saga of human fate, and its themes of race and struggle for survival are handled in such a simple, rich, unpretentious and touching way, that it became for us a deeply emotional metaphor for our common fight for dignity. Speaking about their deliberations, the jury added: “We saw 12 films from all over the world that took us into very different universes of the soul and to extremely different places on our planet. We were thankful to be able to see these films and we very much appreciated that actually exactly half of them were made by women. TIFF is leading the way, we feel.” “As we only had one award to give, we had to be quite radical. We also limited ourselves to only one special mention, even if other films might have imposed themselves for best acting, writing or directing.” Awarding a special mention to Clio Barnard’s Dark River, the jury said: “This film, deeply rooted in the Yorkshire countryside, convinced us, as its characters and actors, its photography, its story and its sense of place were all so much ONE, so utterly believable and controlled, that we were totally taken by it.”GROLSCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS
This year marked the 40th year that Toronto audiences were able to cast a ballot for their favorite Festival film for the Grolsch People’s Choice Award. This year’s award goes to Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by Grolsch. The second runner-up is Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. The first runner-up is Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya. The Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award goes to Joseph Kahn’s Bodied. The second runner-up is Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99. The first runner-up is James Franco’s The Disaster Artist. The Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award goes to Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places. The second runner-up is Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! The first runner-up is Long Time Running directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas De Pencier.
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Woodstock Film Festival Unveils 2017 Film Lineup, will Open with East Coast Premiere of STUCK
[caption id="attachment_24630" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Stuck[/caption]
The 18th Woodstock Film Festival, will open with the East Coast premiere of Stuck, a musical narrative about a group of six strangers trapped together on a stalled New York City subway car. The characters confront their assumptions of one another under the scrutinizing eye of a mysterious homeless man played by Giancarlo Esposito. This kickoff event will begin at 7PM October 11 at the Woodstock Playhouse.
The Festival will present an outstanding lineup of films to be shown in Woodstock, Rhinebeck, Rosendale, Saugerties, and Kingston.
“This year’s lineup is one that challenges our creative and intellectual boundaries and brings important social issues into focus, both locally and globally” said Woodstock Film Festival’s co-founder and executive director Meira Blaustein. “In today’s political climate it is particularly important to celebrate our differences and find our commonalities. This year’s participating filmmakers have gone above and beyond in capturing diverse moments of humanity that personify fierce independence.”
NARRATIVE FEATURES
The Bachelors, directed by Kurt Voelker The Ballad of Lefty Brown, directed by Jared Moshe Beauty Mark, directed by Harris Doran Becks, directed by Dan Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh Cold November, directed by Karl Jacob Crash Pad, directed by Kevin Tent Don’t Come Back From the Moon, directed by Bruce Thierry Cheung Girl in Flight, directed by Sandra Vannucchi Holden On, directed by Tamlin Hall Infinity Baby, directed by Bob Byington Last Flag Flying, directed by Richard Linklater The Light of the Moon, directed by Jessica M. Thompson A Real Vermeer, directed by Rudolf van den Berg Revengeance, directed by Bill Plympton and Jim Lujan The Song of Sway Lake, directed by Ari Gold The Sounding, directed by Catherine Eaton The Square, directed by Ruben Östlund The Strange Ones, directed by Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein Stuck, directed by Michael Berry Submission, directed by Richard Levine They, directed by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh Time Trap, directed by Mark Dennis and Ben Foster The Traveller, directed by Hadi Ghandour Us And Them, directed by Joe Martin Waterboys, directed by Robert Jan Westdijk What Children Do, directed by Dean PetersonDOCUMENTARY FEATURES
32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide, directed by Hope Litoff 40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie,directed by Lee Aronsohn Against All Odds – The Fight for a Black Middle Class with Bob Herbert, directed by Bob Herbert Arthur Miller: Writer, directed by Rebecca Miller Bean, directed by Emilie Bunnell Becoming Who I was, directed by Moon Chang-Yong and Jeon Jin Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, directed by Alexandra Dean The Chocolate Case, directed by Benthe Forrer The Cycle (America Divided), directed by Solly Granatstein, Lucian Read and Richard Rowley Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution, directed by Jamie Redford Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, directed by Griffin Dunne La Chana, directed by Lucija Stojevic The Last Pig, directed by Allison Argo Mary Janes: The Women of Weed, directed by Windy Borman My Name is Pedro, directed by Lillian LaSalle Nat Bates for Mayor, directed by Bradley Berman and Eric Weiss The Organizer, directed by Nick Taylor The Rape of Recy Taylor, directed by Nancy Buirski Roll With Me, directed by Lisa France Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me, directed by Sam Pollard Shingal, Where Are You?, directed by Angelos Rallis Supermensch, directed by Mike Myers, Beth Aala A Symphony of Hope, directed by Brian Weidling Thank You For Coming, directed by Sara Lamm This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous, directed by Barbara Kopple To A More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor, directed by Donna Zaccaro To the Edge of the Sky, directed by Jedd Wider and Todd Wider
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FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST to Open and AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL to Close Tokyo International Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_24623" align="aligncenter" width="1201"]
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST[/caption]
Fullmetal Alchemist, directed by Fumihiko Sori and starring Ryosuke Yamada, will open the 30th anniversary edition of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) on October 25. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, directed by Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen and featuring former US Vice President Al Gore, will close the festival on November 3.
In addition, as a Special Opening Presentation, the festival will screen highlights from the upcoming release Legend of the Demon Cat, the largest-ever Japan-China co-production, directed by Chen Kaige and starring Shota Sometani, during the Opening Ceremony.
The 30th TIFF will be held from October 25 to November 3, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan.
OPENING FILM
Fullmetal Alchemist (2017/Japan) – World Premiere Director: Fumihiko Sori
Cast: Ryosuke Yamada, Tsubasa Honda, Dean Fujioka
A fantasy/action spectacular that brings to live action the epic world of the hit comic series that has sold over 70 million copies around the world. Two brothers embark on a journey to regain all they have lost!
CLOSING FILM
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017/ USA) Director: Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk
Cast: Al Gore
A decade after AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH brought climate change into the heart of popular culture, comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution.
SPECIAL OPENING PRESENTATION
Legend of the Demon Cat (2017/China/Japan/Hong Kong) Director: Chen Kaige
Cast: Shota Sometani, Huang Xuan, Hiroshi Abe
The acclaimed director Chen Kaige presents a spectacular epic film about the greatest mystery in history, based on the best-selling Japanese novel by Baku Yumemakura, featuring Chinese and Japanese stars.
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LADY BIRD to Open and THE CURRENT WAR is Centerpiece Film of 2017 Austin Film Festival
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Lady Bird[/caption]
Lady Bird will play as Opening Night film and The Current War will serve as the Centerpiece Film of this year’s 2017 Austin Film Festival (AFF) taking place October 26 to November 2.
The directorial debut by actress Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha, Mistress America), Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn, The Grand Budapest Hotel) as Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, a young woman who fights against but is exactly like her wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mom (Laurie Metcalf), a nurse working tirelessly to keep her family afloat after Lady Bird’s father (Tracy Letts) loses his job.
The Current War, the latest film by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), chronicles the race for marketable electricity in the United States between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. The film also stars Tom Holland, Nicholas Hoult, and Katherine Waterston. Gomez-Rejon will present the film during the Festival.
Lady Bird and The Current War will join already announced titles An Ordinary Man, starring Ben Kingsley, 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke, Please Stand By, starring Dakota Fanning and Toni Collette, and the premiere of the season finale of HBO’s new dramatic series The Deuce, with creators David Simon and George Pelecanos in attendance.
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Heartland International Film Festival Announces 2017 Lineup, Opens with Rob Reiner’s LBJ
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LBJ[/caption]
The 26th annual Heartland International Film Festival will take place October 12 to 22, 2017. Director Rob Reiner will return to Heartland for the opening night screening of his new film “LBJ” and will receive Heartland Film’s Pioneering Spirit: Lifetime Achievement Award. “LBJ” stars Woody Harrelson and is about Lyndon B. Johnson’s ascent to the presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Reiner will also be in attendance for special screenings of classic titles “Stand By Me” and “The Princess Bride” the next morning.
“Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies” will close the festival on Sunday, October 22. “Laddie” is one daughter’s journey to discover her father, Alan Ladd, Jr, the quiet studio head and producer behind such iconic films as “Star Wars,” “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” “Chariots of Fire,” and “Young Frankenstein.” Amanda Ladd-Jones’ quest leads her to understand her father as the man that he is and the impact he’s had on American Cinema. Director Amanda Ladd-Jones will be in attendance to accept Heartland Film’s Pioneering Spirit: Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her father.
“We are kicking off the next 25 years of Heartland Film with a bang,” said Craig Prater, President of Heartland Film. “Our international lineup of films has expanded by 75 movies over last year, including 10 titles just announced as official entries for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2018 Academy Awards. We will welcome an unprecedented number of film groups, distributors, and filmmakers this year, and our board, staff, and volunteers are ready to elevate the Heartland International Film Festival from the industry’s best kept secret to a Midwest destination and marketplace. ”
Heartland will host 16 premiere titles and more than 150 filmmakers and members of the international film industry, including Chaz Ebert, who will be in attendance for a special screening of the Roger Ebert documentary “Life Itself” and to moderate a film critics panel to include Klaus Eder, the general secretary of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI). Additional panel topics include Indiana filmmaking, women in film, and entertainment law.
Special presentation sneak previews of major motion pictures and documentaries will include; Heartland Film Truly Moving Picture Award winners “Breathe” , “The Florida Project”, and “Thank You for Your Service”; in addition to “Bill Nye: Science Guy”, “The Ballad of Lefty Brown”, and “Columbus”. For the first time ever, Heartland will feature 10 international titles recently announced as official entries for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Academy Awards.
KEY EVENTS AND DATES
Opening Night Screening and After Party – “LBJ” Thursday, Oct. 12 – Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, 7 p.m. Narrative feature directed by Rob Reiner. Scheduled appearance by Director Rob Reiner. After party to feature live music from Josh Kaufman (“The Voice”). Sponsored by the David and Betty Klapper Family Foundation. GLOW: Awards Party Saturday, Oct. 21 – The Hi-Fi/Pure Eatery in Fountain Square, 7 p.m. GLOW: Awards Party is not your typical awards show. The night will shine a light on our top Festival award winners with a neon glow party featuring DJ Michael Graves, Pork and Beans Brass Band, Pinvault Pinball, food trucks, and more. Sponsored by the David and Betty Klapper Family Foundation. Filmmakers’ Brunch Sunday, Oct. 22 – The Montage, 11 a.m. Discover the inspiration behind some of your favorite Heartland Film Festival movies by joining the filmmakers for an informal brunch. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to speak one-on-one with storytellers and to hear different perspectives on all aspects of the filmmaking process. Closing Night Screening and After Party – “Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies” Sunday, Oct. 22 – AMC Castleton Square 14, 7 p.m. Documentary feature directed by Amanda Ladd-Jones. Scheduled appearance by Director Amanda Ladd-Jones. After-party to feature live music by Joshua Powell. Sponsored by the David and Betty Klapper Family Foundation.PANEL DISCUSSIONS
Heartland Film Festival is excited to present four panel discussions exploring various aspects of the filmmaking industry including film criticism, Indiana filmmaking, women in film, and entertainment law. Most panel discussions are free and open to the public, but they do require a ticket for admittance. All panel discussions will take place at AMC Castleton Square 14 in the Woodbridge Pavilion. Film Critics Panel – Friday, Oct. 13, 7 p.m. What does it take to be a film critic? Join moderator Chaz Ebert as she discusses the intricacies of film criticism with renowned local and international industry professionals. Panelists include Klaus Eder (General Secretary of the International Federation of Film Critics), Christopher Lloyd, and Richard Propes. Free, but ticketed. Indiana Filmmakers Panel – Tuesday, Oct. 17, 6 p.m. What are the challenges and advantages of local filmmakers in Indianapolis? Join moderator Nathan Bechtold (Indiana Filmmakers Network) as he discusses the Indy film scene with local industry professionals. Panelists Amy Pauszek, Glenn Pratt, and Jack Lugar. Free, but ticketed. Women In Film Panel – Wednesday, Oct. 18, 5:30 p.m. What’s it like being a female filmmaker in a male dominated industry? Join moderator Barbara Ann O’Leary (Directed by Women) as she discusses tricks of the trade and industry insights with three industry professionals. Panelists Naghmeh Farzaneh, Laura Goodenow, and Andie Redwine. Free, but ticketed. Entertainment Law Panel: What’s Next for My Film? – Thursday, Oct. 19, 3 p.m. Completing a film requires hard work, creativity, and never-ending money-raising efforts. But what happens next? This panel of experts will help filmmakers understand their options. Should they secure a distributor and what does that mean? What are the advantages and disadvantages of filmmakers working the film festival circuit and what legal rights do filmmakers maintain? This and more will be addressed during this program of particular interest to filmmakers and fans of filmmaking. Moderated by Cate Sabatine (Co-chair, Indianapolis Bar Association’s Sports & Entertainment Law Executive Committee) with panelists Ron Elberger (Bose McKinney & Evans), Neil Friedman (Founder/President, Menemsha Films), Angelo Pizzo (“Hoosiers,” “Rudy,” “My All-American”).SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
“Stand By Me” (1986) Narrative Feature, Columbia Pictures, Truly Moving Picture Award Winner – Directed by Rob Reiner After the death of a friend, a writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy. Director Rob Reiner scheduled to attend. “The Princess Bride” (1987) Narrative Feature, 20th Century Fox, Truly Moving Picture Award Winner – Directed by Rob Reiner While home sick in bed, a young boy’s grandfather reads him a story called “The Princess Bride.” Director Rob Reiner scheduled to attend. “Life Itself” (2014) Documentary Feature, Magnolia Pictures – Directed by Steve James The life and career of the renowned film critic and social commentator, Roger Ebert. Featured subject Chaz Ebert scheduled to attend. “The Florida Project” Narrative Feature, A24, Truly Moving Picture Award Winner – Directed by Sean Baker Warm, winning and gloriously alive, Sean Baker’s The Florida Project is a deeply moving and unforgettably poignant look at childhood. Starring Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Valeria Cotto, and Bria Vinaite. “Bill Nye: Science Guy” Documentary Feature, PBS Films – Directed by David Alvarado, Jason Sussberg A famous television personality struggles to restore science to its rightful place in a world hostile to evidence and reason. “Thank You For Your Service” Narrative Feature, DreamWorks Pictures, Truly Moving Picture Award Winner – Directed by Jason Hall DreamWorks Pictures’ “Thank You for Your Service” follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield. Starring an ensemble cast led by Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Joe Cole, Amy Schumer, Beulah Koale, Scott Haze, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Brad Beyer, Omar J. Dorsey, and Jayson Warner Smith, the drama is based on the bestselling book by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author David Finkel. “Columbus” Narrative Feature, Front Row Filmed Entertainment – Directed by Kogonada When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son Jin (John Cho) finds himself stranded in Columbus, Ind. – a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library. As their intimacy develops, Jin and Casey explore both the town and their conflicted emotions: Jin’s estranged relationship with his father, and Casey’s reluctance to leave Columbus and her mother. “Breathe” Narrative Feature, Bleecker Street Media, Truly Moving Picture Award Winner – Directed by Andy Serkis For his directorial debut, Andy Serkis brings to life the inspiring true love story between Robin and Diana Cavendish (Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy), an adventurous couple who refuse to give up in the face of a devastating disease. Written by two-time Academy Award® nominated writer William Nicholson, and shot by three-time Academy Award® winner Robert Richardson. “The Ballad of Lefty Brown” Narrative Feature, A24 – Directed by Jared Moshé When famed Frontier Lawman Eddie Johnson (Peter Fonda) is unexpectedly killed, his longtime sidekick and friend Lefty Brown (Bill Pullman) will stop at nothing to avenge Johnson’s death.U.S. AND WORLD PREMIERE TITLES
“Voyage of the Southern Sun” U.S. Premiere, Documentary Feature, Australia – Directed by Robert Murphy Australian Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year, Michael Smith, discovered the delights and perils of true adventure in a solo circumnavigation in his tiny amphibious flying boat, Southern Sun, that retraced historical Qantas, Imperial and Pan Am airmail routes, in search of the glory days of 1930s aviation. “Marvin Booker Was Murdered” U.S. Premiere, Documentary Feature, U.S. – Directed by Wade Gardner Marvin Booker was murdered. The jail guards lied. The city of Denver covered it up. The Booker family lived it. Their attorneys exposed it. We reveal it. Director Wade Gardner and members of the Booker family are scheduled to attend. “blank 13” U.S. Premiere, Narrative Feature, Japan – Directed by Takumi Saitoh Following the death of his deadbeat father, a son discovers that there was more to him than anyone in the family suspected. Director/Actor Takumi Saitoh scheduled to attend. “Tatterdemalion” World Premiere, Narrative Feature, U.S. – Directed by Ramaa Mosley A dramatic thriller about an army veteran suffering from PTSD who returns home to the Ozarks to look for her brother, but finds an abandoned boy in the woods. As she searches for answers about who the child is, she discovers a mysterious world of folk lore, clan rules and lies. Director Ramaa Mosley and Actor Leven Rambin scheduled to attend. “No Postage Necessary” World Premiere, Narrative Feature, U.S. – Directed by Jeremy Culver When a brilliant computer hacker tries to win the heart of a war widow, he must become the man he’s always envisioned or risk going back to prison. Director Jeremy Culver, cast and crew scheduled to attend. “The New Fire” World Premiere, Documentary Feature, U.S. – Directed by David Schumacher The good news—there’s a new solution to climate change. The bad news—we may not like it. From MIT to Silicon Valley, young engineers are rebooting a controversial and all but abandoned technology—nuclear power. Director David Schumacher scheduled to attend. “Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace” World Premiere, Documentary Feature, U.S. – Directed by Richard Gentile Narrated by Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker, “Triumph” is a unique window on America’s civil rights movement that chronicles Perry Wallace’s evolution from a reluctant “pioneer” in the final throes of the “Jim Crow” era to a determined “game-changer.” Director Richard Gentile scheduled to attend. “Mum’s List” U.S. Premiere, Narrative Feature, UK – Directed by Niall Johnson A heart-warming true life story of Singe and Kate Greene, whose lives were turned upside down when Kate was diagnosed with an incurable breast cancer. Over her last few months she creates her list: writing her thoughts and memories down to help the man she loved create the best life possible for their two sons after she is gone. Producer Nick Hamson or Producer Gareth Jones scheduled to attend. “Little Kyota Neon Hood” U.S. Premiere, Narrative Feature, Japan – Directed by Satsuki Okawa Kyota, a 12-year-old Japanese boy who’s never seen without his bright protective hood, learns that his beloved Scottish teacher is leaving town. The news causes a stir in the community, rekindling recent memories of their struggles in post-disaster Japan. Director/Writer Satsuki Okawa scheduled to attend. “Maestras – The Long Journey of Women to the Podium” U.S. Premiere, Documentary Feature, Germany – Directed by Günter Atteln, Maria Stodtmeier Being a female conductor means being an exception, even today. But why is it that there have been so few female conductors in the international music scene? Director/Producer Günter Atteln scheduled to attend. “The Maestro” U.S. Premiere, Narrative Feature, U.S. – Directed by Zach Richter, Sam Smith and Corey Petrick After the Second World War, budding film composer Jerry Herst moves to Hollywood to study with infamous master teacher Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Producer David J. Phillips scheduled to attend. “Defining Hope” World Premiere, Documentary Feature, U.S. – Directed by Carolyn Jones “Defining Hope” follows eight patients with life-threatening illnesses—and the nurses who guide them to make critical choices along the way—as they face death, embrace hope, and ultimately redefine what makes life worth living. Director Carolyn Jones scheduled to attend. “The Drawer Boy” U.S. Premiere, Narrative Feature, Canada/Mexico – Directed by Arturo Pérez Torres An actor arrives to rural Ontario to gather stories about farm life and make a play about it. When art attempts to imitate life, the line between truth and fiction is crossed. Director Arturo Pérez Torres scheduled to attend. “Instrument of War” World Premiere, Narrative Feature, U.S. – Directed by Adam Thomas Anderegg “Hello American. For you, the war is over.” When US B-24 bomber pilot Clair Cline is shot down and captured in northern Germany, one battle ends and another begins – to keep hope alive. Now behind Nazi barbed wire and oppression, Cline and his fellow POW’s must find a way to bond together to not just survive but transcend their captivity. Inspired by true events. Director Adam Thomas Anderegg and Producer Russ Kendall scheduled to attend. “A Normal Life” U.S. Premiere, Narrative Feature, U.S. – Directed by Alex Herz A week away from leaving for his first year of college, Michael becomes concerned about his parents’ overprotective tendencies toward his little brother, who has Down syndrome. Director Alex Herz scheduled to attend. “The Best of All Worlds” U.S. Premiere, Narrative Feature, Austria – Directed by Adrian Goiginger The true story of a kid’s life in the unusual world of his heroin-addict mother and their love for each other. World premiere at Berlinale 2017. Director Adrian Goiginger scheduled to attend.AWARD CATEGORIES AND FINALISTS
Set to award $100,000 in cash prizes, the 2017 Heartland Film Festival will announce all of its winners at the Oct. 21 GLOW: Awards Party at the Hi-Fi in Fountain Square. Categories and Finalists include:Narrative Feature Finalists
($25,000 Grand Prize, $1,000 per non-winning Finalist) “American Folk” – Directed by David Heinz “The Drawer Boy” – Directed by Arturo Pérez Torres “Instrument of War” – Directed by Adam Thomas Anderegg “La Soledad” – Directed by Jorge Thielen Armand “Red Dog: True Blue” – Directed by Kriv StendersDocumentary Feature Finalists
($25,000 Grand Prize, $1,000 per non-winning Finalist) “Dealt” – Directed by Luke Korem “Liyana” – Directed by Amanda Kopp and Aaron Kopp “Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry” – Directed by Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell “Purple Dreams” – Directed by Joanne Hock “True Conviction” – Directed by Jamie MeltzerNarrative Short Finalists
($5,000 Grand Prize, $500 per non-winning Finalist) “Across the Line” – Directed by Nadav Shlomo Giladi “The Cage” – Directed by Ricky Staub “The Devil is in the Details” – Directed by Fabien Gorgeart “If Everything Was Real” – Directed by Stephane Mounkassa and Stefan Sundin “Me and My Father” – Directed by Alek PietrzakDocumentary Short Finalists
($5,000 Grand Prize, $500 per non-winning Finalist) “Abstraction” – Directed by Jonathan Cipiti “Edges” – Directed by Katie Stjernholm and Jonathan Hiller “The Good Fight” – Directed by Ben Holman “Kachach, Above Zaatari” – Directed by Bruno Pieretti “Refugee” – Directed by Emily Moore and Joyce ChenAnimated Short Finalists
($5,000 Grand Prize, $500 per non-winning Finalist) “After All” – Directed by Michael Cusack “And the Moon Stands Still” – Directed by Yulia Ruditskaya “The Full Story” – Directed by Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Wilder “In a Heartbeat” – Directed by Beth David and Esteban Bravo “The Wishing Jar” – Directed by Denver JacksonThe Jimmy Stewart Legacy Award ($5,000 total award)
The Jimmy Stewart Legacy Award will honor a single winner, selected from the Festival’s feature-length narrative and documentary titles. The winning film will best embody the ongoing legacy of actor and national hero Jimmy Stewart and will demonstrate the triumph of the human spirit through determination and the defiance of odds, humble vulnerability, and courage in the face of adversity. Made possible by a partnership with The Stewart Family. Summer White Lynch Memorial Award – High School Film Competition Grand Prize ($2,000 total award, underwritten by Gary D. & Marlene Cohen) Finalists include winners of the Narrative, Documentary, Indiana Narrative, and IndianaDocumentary categories of the High School Film Competition:
“Gifted [Thanksgiving Post Mortem]” Narrative Winner – Directed by Freddy Macdonald, Switzerland “Two of Five Million” Documentary Winner – Directed by Socs and DZ Zavitsanos, U.S. “Family Tradition” Indiana Narrative Winner – Directed by Khyler Runnels and Matt Jacobs of Fort Wayne, Ind. “Kara Deady: The Pole Vaulter” Indiana Documentary Winner – Directed by Justin Park of Carmel, Ind. Indiana Spotlight Award ($5,000 total award) U.S. or World Premiere titles in the Indiana Spotlight category qualify for the Indiana Spotlight award.Best Premiere Awards ($3,500 awards)
One Narrative Feature and one Documentary Feature holding its U.S. or World Premiere will be eligible for Best Premiere Award consideration.Audience Choice Awards
There will be one Audience Choice Award winner for the Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, Narrative Short, Documentary Short, and Animated Short categories.
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Hamptons International Film Festival Adds More Films to 2017 Lineup + GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN is Centerpiece Film
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Goodbye Christopher Robin[/caption]
The 2017 Hamptons International Film Festival has added more films including the North American premiere of Simon Curtis’ GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, a look into the life of author A.A. Milne and his relationship with his son, leading to the creation of the renowned character “Winnie the Pooh,” as the Friday Centerpiece film in Southampton. The film stars Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie, and HIFF Honorary Board member Carter Burwell is the film’s composer.
The East Coast Premiere of Martin McDonagh’s THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, telling the story of a woman in conflict with her local police department in an attempt to solve her daughter’s murder case, will screen as the Saturday Centerpiece in East Hampton. The film stars Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand and recently received the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay by Martin McDonagh.
The festival also announced three additional films in the Spotlight Films section, including Guillermo del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER, about a janitor working at a hidden high-security government laboratory when her life is changed forever upon discovery of a secret classified experiment, starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon and Richard Jenkins, and winner of the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival; Luca Guadagnino’s CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, a story of a young boy’s summer romance when a charming gentleman arrives in Italy to work with his family for the season, starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet, one of this year’s 10 Actors to Watch; and Fatih Akin’s IN THE FADE, about a woman struggling to overcome the loss of her family following a Neo-Nazi terrorist attack, starring Diane Kruger.
The festival also announced the winner of HIFF’s adored 18-year-long signature program Conflict and Resolution: Greg Campbell’s HONDROS, which shares a glimpse of the life of Chris Hondros, one of the world’s most acclaimed war photographers, killed in action at the age of 41, and the legacy he left behind.
The third year of HIFF’s successful Compassion, Justice, and Animal Rights section awards Allison Argo’s THE LAST PIG, which looks at a man in the crossroads of life during his final summer as a pig farmer, with the Zelda Panel “Giving Voice to the Voiceless” Award.
Films in this year’s Documentary Competition include Gustavo Salmerón’s LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE, a portrait of a family’s various experiences over the course of 15 years while living in present-day Spain; Jennifer Peedom’s MOUNTAIN, a look at some of the most breathtaking summits around the world from the perspectives of ice climbers, snowboarders, and more, narrated by Willem Dafoe; Jason Kohn’s LOVE MEANS ZERO, about Nick Bollettieri, a controversial but passionate coach in the world of tennis; Jed Rothstein’s THE CHINA HUSTLE, about China’s role in the recovery of the United States following the 2008 stock market crash, as well as the previously announced 11/8/16, curated and produced by Jeff Deutchman.
The Narrative Competition will include director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson’s Icelandic narrative UNDER THE TREE, about a gentleman currently residing with his parents, who are embroiled in a passive aggressive argument with their neighbors over a tree in the lawn; Carla Simón’s SUMMER 1993, about a six-year-old from Barcelona struggling with the death of her parents and sent to live in the countryside with her uncle; Ali Asgari’s DISAPPEARANCE, about a couple in present-day conservative Iranian society and their determination to solve an impossible problem over the course of the night, starring Sadaf Asgari and Amir Reza Ranjbaran; Cory Finley’s THOROUGHBREDS, about the unlikely friendship of two teenage girls in Connecticut and the mischief they find along the way, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Olivia Cooke and the late Anton Yelchin in one of his final films; as well as the previously announced OH, LUCY! directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi.
The festival recently announced eight world premieres for the festival this year, including ITZHAK as the Opening Night film, as well as 11/8/16, THE FIRST TO DO IT, KILLER BEES, LARGER THAN LIFE: THE KEVYN AUCOIN STORY, THE MISOGYNISTS, THE TRIBES OF PALOS VERDES, and WANDERLAND. The festival also programmed Andy Serkis’ BREATHE as the Sunday Centerpiece in East Hampton, as well as Rob Reiner’s LBJ, Vincent Gagliostro’s AFTER LOUIE, Alexandre Moors’ THE YELLOW BIRDS, Ai Weiwei’s HUMAN FLOW, Ruben Östlund’s THE SQUARE. Emmy® Award-winning actor and Oscar®-nominated director Rob Reiner will also participate in the “A Conversation With…” series.
This year the festival will honor Academy Award®-winning actress Julie Andrews with a Lifetime Achievement Award, including a special presentation of VICTOR/VICTORIA co-presented with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Saturday, October 7, in East Hampton. The event will feature a post-screening conversation with Julie Andrews and Alec Baldwin.
The festival will continue to co-present the annual 10 Actors to Watch List with Variety. The 2017 10 Actors to Watch are Timothée Chalamet, Hong Chau, Kiersey Clemons, Daveed Diggs, Ali Fazal, Daniel Kaluuya, Barry Keoghan, Danielle Macdonald, Kumail Nanjiani, and Grace Van Patten.
The 25th annual Hamptons International Film Festival will take place over Columbus Day Weekend, October 5th to 9th, 2017.
FILMS ADDED TO THE 2017 HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP:
CALL ME BE YOUR NAME Director: Luca Guadagnino As another summer in his family’s Italian villa lazily drifts by for 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet, Variety’s 10 Actors To Watch), 24-year-old Oliver (Armie Hammer) seems at first to be little more than the latest in a long line of his father’s (Michael Stuhlbarg) research assistants. However, as the weeks wind on, a tender connection develops between the two in Luca Guadagnino’s sun-soaked masterpiece. Refining the stylistic splendor of his previous work into a lush exploration of desire and intimacy, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME is an intoxicating reminder of the tentative gestures and fleeting moments that mark our first steps into the unknown, and their lasting ability to soften the sting of changing seasons. THE CHINA HUSTLE U.S. Premiere Director: Jed Rothstein In the midst of the 2008 market crash, investors on the fringes of the financial world feverishly sought new alternatives for high-return investments in the global markets. With Chinese indexes demonstrating explosive growth, the country suddenly emerged as a gold rush opportunity with one caveat: US investors were prohibited from investing directly into the country’s market. Makeshift solutions led to a market frenzy, until one investor discovered the massive web of fraud left in its wake. Jed Rothstein’s documentary rings the the alarm on the need for transparency in an increasingly deregulated financial world by following those working to uncover the biggest heist you’ve never heard of. DISAPPEARANCE U.S. Premiere Director: Ali Asgari Rising Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari, whose short film THE SILENCE took home the Best Narrative Short Competition prize at HIFF 2016, returns to the festival with his mesmerizing feature debut. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Iranian society, where conservative traditions often conflict with modern desires, DISAPPEARANCE is the tale of one couple’s race against time to solve an unsolvable problem over the course of one endlessly long night. Featuring outstanding performances from newcomers Sadaf Asgari and Reza Ranjbaran, and an impressively assured stylistic touch, DISAPPEARANCE establishes Asgari as one of the bold new voices in world cinema. GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN North American Premiere Director: Simon Curtis Simon Curtis, director of MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (HIFF 2011), presents a heartfelt look into the complicated relationship between beloved children’s author A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin (newcomer Will Tilston), whose collection of toys and unbridled imagination inspired the enchanting world of Winnie The Pooh. As the whimsical adventures of this honey-loving bear quickly capture the attention of a traumatized, post-war England, the family suddenly finds themselves swept up in the international success—though not without paying the price that often accompanies such fame. While his mother (Margot Robbie) revels in the spotlight, her son struggles with the abrupt loss of his childhood. With great empathy, GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN explores the complexities of family, war, and celebrity. HONDROS Director: Greg Campbell Known for his probing and humane coverage of countries ravaged by conflict, Chris Hondros was one of the world’s most acclaimed war photographers when killed in action at the age of 41. Director Greg Campbell thoughtfully retraces Hondros’s numerous assignments to war-torn nations, with a visceral understanding of the invaluable power of photojournalism. Featuring interviews with Chris’s colleagues and subjects, Campbell creates a stirring portrait of the life of a pioneering photographer who committed himself to bearing witness to the human condition, to ennobling the suffering of others, and to telling their stories with compassion. IN THE FADE U.S. Premiere Director: Fatih Akin Selected as Germany’s official submission for the Academy Awards® Best Foreign Language Film, Fatih Akin’s tightly-wound revenge thriller stars Diane Kruger as a woman struggling to overcome her profound grief in the wake of a neo-Nazi terrorist attack that leaves her husband and son dead. Awarded the Best Actress prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Kruger provides a stunningly fearless and grounded lead performance as the victim of an increasingly prevalent form of violence, pushed to the edge and forced to find her own justice in the wake of a failed judicial system. THE LAST PIG New York Premiere Director: Allison Argo A moving meditation on a man’s crisis of faith, THE LAST PIG follows Bob Comis as he concludes his last season as a pig farmer. Peppered with reflections on his decade with the pigs, farmer Bob’s introspective voiceover guides us through the changing seasons on the farm, and the images, often filmed at ground-level, merge us with the drove. Director Allison Argo masterfully gives weight to what at first appear to be mundane daily rituals, and as an ethical question swells for farmer Bob, it does for us as well. In this intimate portrayal of a man at a crossroads, we are welcomed into the sacred moment of choice. LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE New York Premiere Director: Gustavo Salmerón Julita Salmerón’s biggest wishes in life were to have lots of children and a pet monkey, and to live in a castle. Gustavo Salmerón’s humorously candid film follows his mother, and the rest of their family, as they rummage through the vast family archive over a period of fifteen years. She reflects on the dreams she managed to fulfill, along with the lingering effects of the economic crisis that forced her to almost lose it all. Filled with moments of warmth and sincerity, LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY, AND A CASTLE is a touching documentary about an eccentric, otherworldly family facing up to the harsh economic realities of living in contemporary Spain. LOVE MEANS ZERO New York Premiere Director: Jason Kohn With his notorious no-nonsense approach to coaching, Nick Bollettieri is regarded as controversial figure in the world of tennis—but also, crucially, as a mentor with the know-how to push players to greatness. Director Jason Kohn balances the pointed questions to his subject, who remains intransigent throughout, with interviews with many of Bollettieri’s students—Boris Becker and Jim Courier among them—to shed light on the enigmatic figure. What emerges is a story of a coach fiercely determined to win at all costs, and a compelling look at what it takes to compete at the highest level. MOUNTAIN U.S. Premiere Director: Jennifer Peedom Narrated by Willem Dafoe, MOUNTAIN takes the viewer on a sweeping journey to the most awe-inspiring summits on earth. A collaboration between BAFTA-nominated director Jennifer Peedom and Richard Tognetti’s Australian Chamber Orchestra, the film glorifies our species’ pursuit of peril: from ice climbers, snowboarders, and wingsuiters, the thrill-seekers’ daredevil antics will leave audiences gasping for breath. Filmed in 15 countries and assembled from 2,000 hours of hypnotizing footage, MOUNTAIN is a beautifully scored and visually stunning work that vividly captures the fear and reverence inspired by the world’s highest peaks. THE SHAPE OF WATER East Coast Premiere Director: Guillermo del Toro As the Cold War reaches its peak in the early 1960s, Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute janitor working at a US government facility, finds a strange creature held deep within the laboratory. Guillermo del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER is a mesmerizing continuation of his fascination with on-screen monsters and their real-world counterparts, wonderfully realized through a brilliant cast (including Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, and Richard Jenkins), and jaw-dropping production design and cinematography. In creating perhaps the most realized synthesis of his many preoccupations to date, del Toro has created a wondrous take on the classic monster movie that seems to exist at once out of time and inseparable from our own. SUMMER 1993 New York Premiere Director: Carla Simón Following the death of her parents in Barcelona, six-year-old Frida (the haunting Laia Artigas) is sent to her uncle’s (David Verdaguer) picturesque countryside home, in Carla Simon’s autobiographical feature debut SUMMER 1993. Frida battles with a sense of loneliness and displacement while also yearning to fit into the picture with her new family. Punctuated by moments of youthful exuberance and mature ruminations, this coming-of-age drama, set amongst summery hues, is an extraordinarily moving snapshot of being a child in an adult world, anchored by a flawless performance by its young star. THOROUGHBREDS East Coast Premiere Director: Cory Finley Two wealthy teenage girls with violent impulses seek to inject excitement into their boring suburban lives in THOROUGHBREDS, Cory Finley’s deliciously twisted filmmaking debut. When Lily’s (Anya Taylor Joy, THE WITCH) stepfather threatens to send the troubled teen off to reform school, she recruits her equally unstable childhood friend, Amanda (Olivia Cooke, ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL), in a dangerous plot that serves both of their interests. Featuring electrifying performances from its young leads—including the late Anton Yelchin, in his final appearance—this stylish neo-noir establishes newcomer Finley as a filmmaker to watch. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI East Coast Premiere Director: Martin McDonagh With the local police force no closer to finding a culprit in the months following her daughter’s murder, Mildred (Academy Award® winner Frances McDormand) decides to make a statement of her own when she posts three signs leading into the town with a blatant message for the town’s chief of police (Woody Harrelson) and his rough-hewn second-in-command (Sam Rockwell). With the same bitingly dark and comedic tone of his previous two films, IN BRUGES and SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS (HIFF 2012), Academy Award® winning writer-director Martin McDonagh returns to feature filmmaking with this wildly entertaining and unpredictable story of a divided community simmering with tension and ready to blow. UNDER THE TREE East Coast Premiere Director: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson “Love thy neighbor” does not apply in the Iceland suburbs of UNDER THE TREE. After his wife kicks him out of the house, Atli (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson) stays with his parents—just as the passive aggressive hostility with their neighbors is ramping up over a large tree in the yard. Director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson establishes character dynamics with jabs to the gut and enough dark humor to quell the uneasiness in your stomach. With a moody score and sound design that sways between the tension and release of the scenes, you may find yourself nervously laughing the next time you want to talk to your neighbors about the noise.
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Rob Reiner to Receive Award + World Premiere SHOCK AND AWE at Zurich Film Festival
Director, actor and writer Rob Reiner will receive the A Tribute to…Award at this year’s 2017 Zurich Film Festival which takes place from September 28 to October 8, 2017.
Reiner will be in Zurich to receive the prestigious award in person on Saturday September 30. ZFF will host the World Premiere of his latest film SHOCK AND AWE.
Reiner will also take part in a special ZFF Masters session on the same day, and as part of the A Tribute to… award, ZFF will present a retrospective featuring several of Reiner’s most iconic films including THIS IS SPINAL TAP, STAND BY ME, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, MISERY, A FEW GOOD MEN and THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT (the latter two both written by fellow ZFF honoree Aaron Sorkin).
SHOCK AND AWE
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the government of the United States, led by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, began maneuvering and mobilizing for an invasion of Iraq. In the absence of concrete evidence, the White House and its allies concocted a platform for invasion justified almost entirely on questionable intelligence and misleading information. The media bought their tale. Every media organ in America became a megaphone for the hawks in Washington, amplifying the Administration’s hysteria and pushing its propaganda; every major news organization became complicit in the path to war – except one. Knight Ridder was a consortium of 31 newspapers across the country. Based in Washington, D.C., its newsroom counted among its millions of readers a sizable number of soldiers and their families at dozens of military bases nationwide. This is the untold true story of an intrepid team of four reporters who dared to ask the questions their colleagues did not. They tapped sources which others ignored. They remained sceptical when others were easily convinced. They wrote stories disputing the Administration’s claims that Iraq was complicit in the attacks of 9/11 and that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. They were called anti-American. They were labelled traitors. They were told time and again that they were wrong – by the government, by pundits, and by colleagues. Reporters Jonathan Landay (Woody Harrelson) and Warren Strobel (James Marsden), working with the support of their editor John Walcott (Rob Reiner) and famous war correspondent Joe Galloway (Tommy Lee Jones), set forth to sift through the chaos and official lies, uncover the truth, and report it to the public. In the face of intense scrutiny and pressure, during a time of pro-invasion cheerleading by the majority of their media colleagues, they dared to uphold the best tenets of their profession. Theirs is a story of speaking truth to power – and the public – in a time when America needed it the most. The government got its war, but these reporters got it right.
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SUSANNE BARTSCH: ON TOP to Open, BECKS to Close NewFest – LGBTQ Film Fest in NYC
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Susanne Bartsch: On Top[/caption]
The New York premiere of Anthony&Alex’s highly anticipated and acclaimed film SUSANNE BARTSCH: ON TOP will kick off this year’s 2017 NewFest.The documentary is an inside look at the legendary New York City party promoter and LGBTQ advocate Susanne Bartsch and features a who’s who of NYC nightlife heroes, including RuPaul, Amanda Lepore, Michael Musto and Bill Cunningham. Following the screening, Michael Musto will moderate a special talkback with Susanne Bartsch and Anthony&Alex.
Continuing in the cross-generational vein is the New York premiere of Vincent Gagliostro’s AFTER LOUIE, which will screen as the festival’s New York Centerpiece film. Starring Alan Cumming and Zachary Booth (KEEP THE LIGHTS ON), AFTER LOUIE is a touching and lyrical cross-generational look at the effect the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic had on individuals and their art as well as at how that history informs and influences the most recent generation of creative LGBTQ New Yorkers.
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY is the award-winning feature-length debut from writer/director/actor Francis Lee and serves as the fest’s International Centerpiece film. This New York premiere introduces audiences to a bold new voice in LGBTQ filmmaking with this masterful story of longing, loneliness and love. GOD’S OWN COUNTRY continues to rack up awards, including the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Directing Award and the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, among many others.
Daniel Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh’s BECKS, starring Tony Award winner Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Oscar winner Christine Lahti (Best Live Action short film Lieberman in Love) and Mena Suvari, will bring NewFest to a close with the New York premiere of this award-winning romantic drama. Inspired by the life of singer and songwriter Alyssa Robbins, BECKS brings the festival themes of uncovering unity and compassion through artistic self-expression full circle and features an extraordinary lead performance from Hall. A special live acoustic performance by Lena Hall will follow the screening of the film, which won the US Fiction Award at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival .
NewFest will run run from October 19 – 24, 2017 at New York’s SVA Theatre, Cinépolis Chelsea, and The LGBT Community Center.
OPENING NIGHT FILM
SUSANNE BARTSCH: ON TOP
New York Premiere
Thursday, October 19
A mesmerizingly expressive portrait of a fiercely individual New York counterculture icon, SUSANNE BARTSCH: ON TOP candidly captures the titular “Queen of the Night” and patron saint of LGBTQ inclusion and advocacy with a commanding voice and sharp wit, much like its subject. More than just a tribute to the “Queen of the Night” and staunch LGBTQ advocate, this dynamic debut from directing duo Anthony&Alex captures the essence of Bartsch’s everyday balance between compassion and control. As Bartsch prepares for an FIT exhibit of her nightlife fashions, she faces the challenges of a changing New York City landscape (as well as the construction within her homestead of many decades, the iconic Chelsea Hotel) while reconciling how her legacy lives on today.
Her ability to bring communities together while promoting LGBT rights and self-expression reached its apex with the star-studded Love Ball in 1989, which she hosted to raise money to fight AIDS and celebrated the Harlem Vogue scene before “Paris is Burning” was released. And she continues to gather and inspire multi-generational crowds at her parties to this day. Featuring superstars and LGBTQ nightlife luminaries RuPaul, Simon Doonan, Michael Musto, and Amanda Lepore, this dazzling documentary homecoming for a living icon who has unapologetically been a champion for all things New York and queer.
The screening will be followed by a talkback with Anthony&Alex and Susanne Bartsch, and moderated by Michael Musto.
INTERNATIONAL CENTERPIECE
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY
New York Premiere
Saturday, October 21
Gritty yet tender, austere yet beautiful, carnal yet romantic–GOD’S OWN COUNTRY is masterfully directed with powerful focus and authenticity by first-time feature filmmaker Francis Lee. Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Connor) is an overworked 25-year-old sheep farmer who feels as though life has already passed him by. He whiles away the time with drunken hookups in his small community in Northern England. When his ailing father takes a turn for the worse, handsome Romanian migrant Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu) is brought in to assist Johnny. Although Johnny resents Gheorghe at first, the two are quickly drawn to each other, and during an excursion to the highlands, they forge an even deeper connection. Winner of Sundance’s World Cinema Directing Award for its beautiful depiction of the English countryside—this assured new milestone marks a bold new epoch in textured, LGBTQ storytelling.
NEW YORK CENTERPIECE
AFTER LOUIE
New York City Premiere
Sunday, October 22
Sam (Alan Cumming) is an artist and activist from ACT UP who lived through the early years of HIV/AIDS, struggling with survivor’s guilt. He’s bewildered by the younger generation of gay men, until he meets the seductive Braeden (Zachary Booth, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON) at a bar late one night. Their pants quickly come down and, eventually, so does Sam’s guard. An intergenerational relationship blossoms between them—reawakening Sam’s artistic soul and reviving his wilted heart.
Beyond the beautifully evocative performances and setting, Vincent Gagliostro’s AFTER LOUIE is a love letter to New York City: engaging its rich backdrop while honoring the history of the gay rights movement and the progress that’s been made–reconciling the past so we as a community can look forward to the future.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
BECKS
New York City Premiere
Tuesday, October 24
Following a NYC to LA cross country move that ends in a breakup, singer-songwriter Becks (Lena Hall, a Tony Winner for Hedwig and the Angry Inch) returns to her Midwestern hometown, reluctantly moving back in with her mom. The time-warp sensation of being back in her childhood home is interrupted by an unexpected whirlwind affair with self-proclaimed “lonely housewife” Elyse (tenderly played with exceeding warmth by Mena Suvari) who finds inspired new life through the guitar lessons and generous spirit Becks provides.
This electrifyingly effusive film from co-directors Daniel Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh features strong supporting turns by Dan Fogler as her old classmate-turned-drinking- buddy and Christine Lahti as Becks’ former nun mother who is still coming to terms with her daughter’s homosexuality. But it’s Lena Hall, who contributed original songs to the film and delivers a beautifully assured, live-in performance that makes BECKS really sing.
Special live acoustic performance by Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee Lena Hall, the star of BECKS.
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World Premiere of “In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America” to Open Boston Film Festival
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In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America[/caption]
The 33rd Boston Film Festival, taking place September 21 to 24, will open with the world premiere of “In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America,” a documentary narrated by Liam Neeson that weaves the dramatic efforts of Nobel-Prize winning John Hume to secure peace in Northern Ireland.
Hume, who was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., rose from the riot-torn streets of Northern Ireland to enlist vital aid from American Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The film includes interviews with both presidents and various U.S. senators and congressmen who assisted in securing the accord. Interviews also include Irish leaders and former British prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major. This is a timely film that reveals the steady leadership and international cooperation that are needed to win the peace. Also interviewed are U2 singer Bono and Tom O’Neill, former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Maurice Fitzpatrick directs and Bill Whelan (Riverdance) wrote the score.
The festival’s diverse lineup includes five documentaries: the poignant “Augie,” “In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America,” “What Haunts Us,” “Heal,” and “The Bullish Farmer.”
The world premiere of “Damascus Cover” stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“Mission: Impossible III,” “The Tudors”), Olivia Thirlby (“Juno”), John Hurt (in his final performance) and Navid Negahban (“American Sniper”), as written and directed by Daniel Berk (a Brandeis University graduate). After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a veteran spy is sent undercover into Syria to smuggle a chemical weapons scientist and his family out of Damascus. However, the spy soon realizes that he’s being followed, his partner doesn’t show up, his local contact disappears – and a group of men are trying to kill him.
Another world premiere is “What Haunts Us” produced by Kennedy Marshall, Frank Marshall and Matt Tolmach (“Spiderman”). Within 35 years after their graduation from the 1979 class of Porter Gaud High School in Charleston, S.C., six of the 49 boys have committed suicide. When Paige Goldberg Tolmach gets word that another former student from her beloved high school has killed himself, she delves into her past to uncover the surprising truth and release the ghosts that still haunt her hometown. Goldberg Tolmach directs from Mark Monroe’s script.
The documentary, “Augie” is from James Keach, the director of the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated “Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me.” Buoyed by an irreverent humor and a boundless love of life, paralysis has done little to slow down Augie Nieto twelve years post diagnosis – a genius visionary and founder of LifeFitness, who has channeled his entrepreneurial spirit into finding a cure for ALS.
“American Satan” centers on a young Anglo-American rock band whose members drop out of college and move to the Sunset Strip to chase their dreams. Living in a van, their passion and talent exceed their means of survival, and they find themselves caught up in a Faustian web when they meet an enigmatic stranger who manipulates them during a time of weakness. Can the lads re-claim their own destiny before it’s too late? Malcolm McDowell (“A Clockwork Orange”), John Bradley (“Game of Thrones”), Booboo Stewart (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) and Rhode Island native Olivia Culpo (2012 Miss America), Andy Biersack (“Black Veiled Brides”).
The scripted film “Dabka” is directed and written by Massachusetts native Bryan Buckley and produced by Matt Lefebvre (a New Hampshire native). The true story concerns a rookie reporter (Jay Bahadur) who forms a half-baked plan in 2008 to embed himself among the pirates of the Somalia coast. He ultimately succeeds in providing the first close-up of who the men are, how they live and the forces that drive them. Bahadur wrote the book “Pirates of Somalia.” Oscar winner Al Pacino, Melanie Griffith and Barkhad Abdi (“Captain Phillips”) also star.
In the documentary “Heal” , director Kelly Noonan embarks on a scientific and spiritual journey where discoveries indicate that our thoughts, beliefs and emotions greatly impact our health and ability to heal. Citing the latest science, the film argues that people have more power over their health and life itself than we believe. Among the many featured speakers are Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Marianne Williamson, Dr. Michael Beckwith and Rob Wergin
”The Bullish Farmer” tells the story of John Umbaldo (as himself), a successful Wall Street investment banker who quits his job after the loss of a friend in the September 11 terrorist attacks – and trades his former life for one as a farmer on 185 acres in upstate New York. Umbaldo soon transforms into a passionate activist who lobbies for GMO labeling, animal rights and the reduction of chemical fertilizers to help preserve small farms and rural America. Ken Marsolais is the director and co-producer and Nancy Vick is the writer and co-producer
Written by New Hampshire native Jeremy Catalino and produced by William Horberg (“Milk”) and Alexander Payne (“The Descendants”), Crash Pad” is a smart, laugh-out-loud battle of the sexes that finds a sentimental slacker and a misfit. Stensland (Domhnall Gleeson) is caught up in a love triangle between Morgan (Christina Applegate, “Anchorman”) and her alpha-male husband (Thomas Haden Church, “Sideways”). What begins as a one-night stand leads to blackmail, revenge and drunken debauchery as Grady moves into Stensland’s apartment and takes over his life. But Stensland knows that his survival depends on reuniting the married couple. Kevin Trent directs and Nina Dobrev (“The Vampire Diaries”) also stars.
In addition, the Boston Film Festival (BFF) will welcome NBC’s “The Brave,” an all-new drama brought to the festival in conjunction with NBC Boston, starring Anne Heche and Mike Vogel who will be on hand for the screening. The BFF also will showcase the riveting “Tales of Suspense,” a one-man live show presented by bestselling author and master storyteller Casey Sherman. Sherman, who is the author of “Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy” (which became the film “Patriot’s Day”) and “The Finest Hours,” and will share gripping behind-the-scenes stories about those New England-based projects.
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8 Films Competing for ‘Cooperación Española Award’ at San Sebastian Film Festival
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ALANIS[/caption]
Eight films at the 2017 San Sebastian Film Festival will compete for the Cooperación Española Award, an award created to acknowledge the producer of the Ibero-American film that best contributes to human development, the eradication of poverty and the full exercise of human rights. The Award comes with a prize of 10,000 euros.
Films competing for the Cooperación Española Award
OFFICIAL SELECTION
ALANIS ANAHÍ BERNERI (ARGENTINA) Alanis works as a prostitute. She has a baby and, with her friend Gisela, shares the flat in which she lives and attends to her clients, until two municipal inspectors close down her home and arrest Gisela, accused of procurement. Let down by everybody, Alanis heads for her aunt’s place, across from the Plaza Miserere. From this mixed race and violent neighbourhood, Alanis struggles to recover her dignity, help her friend and take care of her son. She offers her services in the street, but even that has its own rules and Alanis must fight for her place. UNA ESPECIE DE FAMILIA (A SORT OF FAMILY) DIEGO LERMAN (ARGENTINA – BRAZIL – POLAND – FRANCE) Malena is a middle-class doctor in Buenos Aires. One afternoon she receives a call from Dr Costas, telling her she must leave immediately for the north of the country: the baby she was expecting is about to be born. Suddenly and almost without a thought, Malena decides to set out on an uncertain voyage, packed with crossroads at which she has to deal with all sorts of legal and moral obstacles to the extent that she constantly asks herself to what limits she is prepared to go to get the thing she wants most.NEW DIRECTORS
MATAR A JESÚS (KILLING JESUS ) LAURA MORA (COLOMBIA – ARGENTINA) Paula, a 22 year-old student, witnesses the murder of her beloved father, a popular political sciences professor at a public university in Medellin. From the distance, she catches a glimpse of the murderer as he beats a hasty retreat on a motorcycle. Devastated by the pain of their loss, Paula and her family will have to deal with official lethargy. The authorities will make no effort to clarify the events and the case is soon archived and abandoned. When Christmas comes round, a couple of months after the murder, Paula accidentally bumps into Jesús, the young man who killed her father. So what happens when revenge becomes a real possibility? Paula decides to approach the man, initially motivated by an almost primitive instinct to get answers and eventually to find the courage to cross the moral and ethical line of killing a man, thereby avenging her father’s death. PRINCESITA (PRINCESS) MARIALY RIVAS (CHILE – SPAIN – ARGENTINA) Films in Progress 28 In a far-off country at the end of the world Tamara, aged 12, lives under the wing of charismatic cult leader Miguel, a man she adores. That summer the girl will be given a mission: to have a holy child with him immediately she has her first period. Tamara realises that the life she wants for herself is not the same as the fate imposed on her. Her disobedience will lead to her violent development from child to woman, forcing her to gain her freedom in a way she had never imagined.HORIZONTES LATINOS
UNA MUJER FANTÁSTICA (A FANTASTIC WOMAN) SEBASTIÁN LELIO (CHILE- GERMANY – SPAIN – USA) OPENING FILM (IN COMPETITION) Marina is a young waitress and wannabe singer; Orlando owns a printing company. Together they plan their future. When Orlando dies suddenly, Marina has to stand up to his family and society to show them what she truly is: a complex, strong, forthright and… fantastic woman. LA EDUCACIÓN DEL REY (REY’S EDUCATION) SANTIAGO ESTEVES (ARGENTINA – SPAIN) Films in Progress 30 Bolting from his first ever heist, Reynaldo Galíndez, alias ‘Rey’, lands in the patio of the house inhabited by Carlos Vargas, a retired security guard. Vargas offers a deal: the young boy will repair the damage to his home in return for not being handed over to the police. The lessons given to the teenager by the former guard develop into a relationship not unlike the old legends of educating a king (for the “Rey” of his name, meaning “king”). But the agreement will start to fall apart when the loose ends of the robbery Reynaldo had been involved in start closing in around them. Films in Progress Industry Award and CAACI / Ibermedia TV Films in Progress Award in 2016. LA FAMILIA GUSTAVO RONDÓN CÓRDOVA (VENEZUELA – CHILE – NORWAY) Films in Progress 30 Twelve year-old Pedro roams the streets with his friends in the violent urban atmosphere of a working-class district of Caracas. When Pedro seriously injures another boy in a fight, his single father, Andrés, decides that they must make a run for it and hide. Although Andrés will realise that as a father he is incapable of controlling his son, the situation will bring them closer than they have ever been. LOS PERROS MARCELA SAID (CHILE – FRANCE) Films in Progress 31 Mariana (42) belongs to the Chilean upper class; she spends her days managing an art gallery and learning how to ride a horse. Her riding instructor, Juan, 20 years her senior, is an ex-cavalry officer known as El Coronel, under investigation for human rights abuses committed during the Chilean dictatorship. When Mariana embarks on a romance with her mysterious teacher, she finds herself caught up in a complex situation from which she is loathe to escape on discovering her father’s close relationship with the man being investigated.