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The RiverRun International Film Festival announced the full lineup of films for the 14th annual Festival, running April 13-22, 2012. This year RiverRun will screen 140 films, which includes 59 features and 81 shorts.

“We’ve put together a fantastic lineup of films for this year’s Festival, ranging from hysterically funny comedies and powerful issue documentaries to groundbreaking independent works and critically-acclaimed international movies,” said RiverRun Executive Director Andrew Rodgers. “Once again, we’ve selected some of the best cinema from around the world to share with our audiences – and I believe we’ve put together our best program yet!”

The Festival will open on April 13 with a screening of ONE NIGHT STAND, a brilliant documentary that peeks behind the curtain to show the amazing creative process of some of Broadway’s best, and will close on April 22 with Fred Schepisi’s THE EYE OF THE STORM, about an upper-crust matron (Charlotte Rampling) and her adult children (Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis). In between, the Festival will feature a wide variety of features, documentaries, shorts and animation in competition sections, as well as many films in non-competition sidebars. Additionally, UNCSA alum Paul Schneider (Lars and the Real Girl, All the Real Girls) will receive RiverRun’s 2012 Emerging Master Award, following a screening of BRIGHT STAR on April 20. Also, for this year’s Centerpiece Premiere on April 18 at the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, RiverRun will show THE HUNTER, about a man (Willem Dafoe) sent to the Tasmanian wilderness to hunt an endangered animal.

Included in the non-competition lineup this year is a Spotlight on Science Fiction Favorites from the 60’s and 70’s, featuring classics from Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky,Woody Allen and others. Additional sidebars include a new Focus section and the second year of Altered States: New Directions in American Cinema, which features new works by young American filmmakers.

2012 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

NARRATIVE COMPETITION: The 2012 Narrative Competition is incredibly diverse including films from around the world that range from fast paced thrillers to dream-like dramas. The films in the Narrative Competition are eligible for jury prizes and the Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.

ELENA  – Russia / Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
The ages-old adage that a mother will do anything to protect her children finds new meaning in the domestic stunner Elena. When her well-to-do husband takes ill and threatens to excise her parasitic son from the will, Elena must take desperate measures to ensure the security of her progeny.

THE FAIRY- France / Belgium / Directors: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy
From the filmmaking team that delighted RiverRun audiences in 2009 with Rumba comes this new lighter-than-air comedic fable, filled with inspired gags and choreographed wonders, about a woman who thinks she’s a fairy and the man who believes in her.

FOUND MEMORIES – Argentina / Brazil / France / Director: Júlia Murat
Life is simple and habits beat a warm, familiar cadence in an aging, off-the-map Brazilian village. The sudden appearance of Rita, a dynamic young photographer, disrupts the monotony however, and sets a series of changes in motion that transform daily life in unexpected ways.

KEEP THE LIGHTS ON – USA / Director: Ira Sachs
This intense film follows the relationship between a man and his closeted lover. What begins as a highly charged first sexual encounter soon becomes something much more. As the two start building a home and life together, each continues to privately battle their own compulsions and addictions.

LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE – Hong Kong / Director: Johnnie To
A low-level gangster, a bank officer and a cop find their fates entwined at the onset of the global economic crisis, when fear and panic seem to take hold. As a result of actions that each takes, their moral compass is tested on a day when clear thinking is already in short supply.

MONSIEUR LAZHAR – Canada / Director: Philippe Falardeau

An endearing and eager Algerian immigrant is hired to replace a teacher who died under mysterious circumstances at a French Canadian elementary school. His presence quickly becomes essential to the grieving and shell-shocked students in this affirming masterpiece, a 2012 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

OSLO, AUGUST 31st – Norway / Director: Joachim Trier
Anders is a fortunate but deeply troubled man battling addiction. As part of his rehab he is sent for a job interview in the city, but instead uses the opportunity to wander and visit old friends, reawakening personal demons in his search for love and a new life.

THE STUDENT – Argentina / Director: Santiago Mitre
A gritty, energetic university initiates a young man into the fast-paced, cutthroat system of student politics in Buenos Aires, where the students are refreshingly activated in constructing their campus experience. But the line between sexual and political power becomes far more blurred than their textbooks would confess.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS – UK / Director: Andrea Arnold
The fearless Andrea Arnold, director of 2009’s critically-acclaimed Fish Tank, reinvents Emily Bronte’s epic love story in a fresh, visually arresting way. A poor boy of unknown origins is taken in by the Earnshaw family, where he develops an intense relationship with his foster sister.

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION: The 2012 Documentary Competition includes plenty of commentary on the issues that have so far defined the 21st century. From global warming to American greed to the issue of gay rights to the collapse of US manufacturing, the topics of these works are sure to spark discussions. The films in the Documentary Competition are eligible for jury prizes and the Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

THE BOY WHO WAS A KING – Bulgaria / Germany / Director: Andrey Paounov
Paounov’s film tells the fascinating story of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who at the age of six became the Tsar of Bulgaria, only to then be overthrown by communist dissenters three years later. The film presents Gotha’s harrowing and complicated return to national politics after 50 years in exile.

CHASING ICE – USA / Director: Jeff Orlowski

One of the most visually stunning films made about global climate change, Orlowski’s work demonstrates how renowned photographer James Balog has captured incontrovertible proof of vanishing glaciers across the Arctic. With astounding time-lapse photography, this film offers a visual face to this dire problem.

DETROPIA – USA / Directors: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
The city of Detroit may have suffered from the collapse of US manufacturing more than any other American city, and its residents have borne more than their share of economic hardships. But as this arresting film shows, the city hasn’t given up and is desperately trying to reclaim its sense of home.

ETHEL – USA / Director: Rory Kennedy
Who better to tell the life story of Ethel Kennedy (widow of the late Bobby Kennedy) than her youngest daughter, Rory? Incorporating stories told by many of the Kennedys themselves, this film paints a truly intimate, personal and deeply moving portrait of one of the greatest American political families.

INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE – Canada / Directors: Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky
Video games are big business, raking in untold millions for corporations around the globe, who peddle in the latest new releases. Not unlike the music or film industries, however, there are many young video game developers trying to go it alone and make their fortunes by making independent games. This film tells their story.

THE ISLAND PRESIDENT – USA / Director: Jon Shenk

President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives is credited with bringing democracy to his country. His next challenge is combating a threat that is much harder to control, the possibility of the entire country slowly disappearing under the sea.

JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI – USA / Director: David Gelb
One wouldn’t expect to find the finest sushi restaurant in the world in the basement of a nondescript Tokyo office building, but that’s where Sukiyabaski Jiro has worked for a majority of his 85 years. Now, facing retirement, his son Yoshikazu must take over from this sushi master.

LOVE FREE OR DIE – USA / Director: Macky Alston
Gene Robinson has become well-known since becoming the first openly gay person to become a bishop in a major Christian denomination. Through this personal story that details Robinson’s life and work, we are given a front-row seat to the Episcopal Church’s struggle to come to terms with homosexuality.

THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES – USA / Netherlands / UK / Denmark / Director: Lauren Greenfield
Greefield’s impressive character-driven documentary chronicles a billionaire family and their financial challenges in the wake of the economic crisis. With epic proportions of Shakespearean tragedy, the film follows two unique characters, whose rags-to-riches success stories reveal the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream. {jathumbnail off}