[caption id="attachment_2123" align="alignnone"]Charlize Theron in Young Adult[/caption]

Variety will present actress Charlize Theron with the Indie Impact Award, at the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF). The Indie Impact Award celebrates a performer and filmmaker for her outstanding contributions to the art and business of cinema.

“Charlize Theron continues to make an impact by committing herself to films that exemplify the best in independent cinema,” stated Variety Executive Editor Steven Gaydos.  “She notably won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, SAG Award and Independent Spirit Award for the independent film ‘Monster,’ and contributed unforgettable performances to films such as ‘The Burning Plain,’ ‘In the Valley of Elah’ and ‘North Country.’  Her recent acclaimed work in ‘Young Adult,’ for which she was recently nominated for a Golden Globe® Award, demonstrates Theron’s characteristic edge and verve.”

Previous recipients of the Indie Impact Award include Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mark Wahlberg.

“Young Adult” will also be honored the evening before at the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Awards Gala with the prestigious Vanguard Award, recognizing its outstanding creative ensemble.

Variety will also honor its “10 Directors to Watch” spotlighting the most exciting new talents in the fields of directing, writing, producing, acting, cinematography and comedy.   This year’s “10 Directors to Watch” include: Zal Batmanglij (“Sound of My Voice”); Valerie Donzelli (“Declaration of War”); Gareth Evans (“The Raid”); Philippe Falardeau (“Monsieur Lazhar”); Mike “Mouse” McCoy & Scott Waugh (“Act of Valor”); Gerardo Naranjo (“Miss Bala”); Matt Piedmont (“Casa de mi Padre”); Michael Roskam (“Bullhead”); Lynn Shelton (“Your Sister’s Sister”); and Benh Zeitlin (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”).  “Sound of My Voice,” “Declaration of War,” “Monsieur Lazhar,” “Miss Bala” and “Bullhead” will be shown at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Past “10 Directors to Watch” honorees have included Ben Affleck (“Gone Baby Gone”), Wes Anderson (“Bottle Rocket”), Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart”), Marc Webb (“500 Days of Summer”), Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen”) and Christopher Nolan (“Memento”), among others.

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[caption id="attachment_2121" align="alignnone"]Jessica Chastain in Tree of Life [/caption]

The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will honor Jessica Chastain with the Spotlight Award and composer Howard Shore with the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing.

Jessica Chastain will receive the Spotlight Award.  The Spotlight Award honors an actor or actress for their extraordinary performances in the current cinematic year.  Chastain will receive the award for her roles in The Help, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Debt and Coriolanus.

Her work in Take Shelter earned a Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female.  Her other honors this year include a New York Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Tree of Life, The Help and Take Shelter and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s award as Best Supporting Actress for all of her movies this year.  Additionally, Chastain’s role in The Help led her to several acclamations including a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Howard Shore will receive the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing.  He previously received the same honor at the Festival’s Awards Gala in 2005 for composing the score in The Aviator.  His collaboration with director Martin Scorsese also includes composing the scores for “Gangs of New York” and “The Departed.”  This year he will be receiving the award for his ‘exceptional’ work in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo.

PSIFF recipients of the Frederick Loewe Music Award include T Bone Burnett, Alexandre Desplat, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, Randy Newman and Diane Warren.

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[caption id="attachment_2118" align="alignnone" width="550"]Amr Waked as Sheikh and Ewan McGregor as Fred Jones in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen[/caption]

The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will launch on Thursday, January 5 with CBS Films’ Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and wraps on Sunday, January 15 with Almanya, Welcome to Germany.  The festival,  running from January 5-16 in Palm Springs, California announced its Galas, Premieres, Modern Masters and a Special Presentation.

OPENING AND CLOSING GALAS
The Festival will open with the screening of CBS Films’ Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (UK.  Directed by Oscar©-nominee Lasse Hallström, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is an extraordinary, beguiling tale of fly-fishing and political spinning, of unexpected heroism and late-blooming love and of an attempt to prove the impossible, possible. Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt star in the feature film alongside Oscar©-nominee Kristen Scott  Based on Paul Torday’s acclaimed novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is written by Oscar-winner Simon Beaufoy and produced by Paul Webster and executive produced by Jamie Laurenson, Stephen Garrett, Paula Jalfon, Zygi Kamasa and Guy Avshalom.  CBS Films will open the film in US theaters on March 9, 2012.

[caption id="attachment_2119" align="alignnone" width="550"]Almanya, Welcome to Germany[/caption]

Closing the Festival is Almanya, Welcome to Germany (Germany), neatly structured into two interwoven time frames, this charming, colorfully styled comedy centers on multiple generations of a German-Turkish clan, and derives its touching, laugh-out-loud humor from cultural misunderstandings and the question of what constitutes national identity.  The film has received many accolades including two 2011 German Film Awards including Best Film (Silver) and Best Screenplay and winner of the Audience Award at the Chicago Film Festival.  The film is directed by Yasemin Samdereli and stars Vedat Erincin, Fahri Yardim, Lilay Huser, Demet Gul, Aylin Tezel, Denis Moschitto.

PREMIERES
The Festival will offer a selection of 60 premieres of highly anticipated films, showcasing the diversity of international cinema

World premieres include: Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden and Aidan Quinn in If I Were You (Canada/UK) and Michael O’Keefe in A Thousand Cuts (USA).

North American premieres include: Asma’a (Egypt), Baikonur (Kazakhstan/Germany, Russia), Beast (Denmark), By the Fire (Chile/Germany, Spain), Cold Steel (China), Happy New Year, Grandma! (Spain), Hotel Lux (Germany), How Big is Your Love (Algeria/Morocco), Love in the Medina (Morocco), Lovely Man (Indonesia), Off White Lies (Israel), The Perfect Stranger (Spain), Real Truths. The Life of Estela (Argentina); The Rif Lover (Morocco/France, Belgium), Run for Life (Serbia/Japan), Sea Shadow (United Arab Emirates), Three Quarter Moon (Germany), Time to Spare (Netherlands), Transit Cities (Jordan), Women with Cows (Sweden), Wreckers (UK)and Wrinkles (Spain).

U.S. premieres include:Alois Nebel (Czech Republic/Germany), Arranged Happiness (Germany/India), Back to your Arms (Lithuania/Germany, Poland), Blood of My Blood (Portugal), The British Guide to Showing Off (UK),Academy Award winners Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker in Cloudburst (Canada/USA), Come As You Are (Belgium), Die Standing Up (Mexico), Edwin Boyd (Canada), Elena (Russia), Expiration Date (Mexico), Juliette Lewis in Foreverland (Canada), Generation P (Russia/USA), The Girls in the Band (USA), The Graveyard Keeper’s Daughter (Estonia), Guilty (France), Habibi (Palestinian, Territories/USA, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates), Las Acacias (Argentina/Spain), Last Winter (Belgium/France), Lena (Netherlands/Belgium), Let My People Go! (France), Lucky (South Africa/India), Michel Petrucciani (France/Germany, Italy), North Sea Texas (Belgium), Nuit #1 (Canada), Omar Killed Me (Morocco/France), The Orator (New Zealand/Samoa), P-047 (Thailand), Rumble of the Stones (Venezuela), Simon and the Oaks (Sweden/Norway, Denmark, Germany), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (France), Sons of Norway (Norway/France/Denmark/Sweden), Summer Games (Switzerland/Italy), SuperClásico (Denmark), The Tall Man (Australia) and Watch Indian Circus (India).

SPECIAL PRESENATION

•Haywire (USA) – Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world.  After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency.  Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.  Director: Steven Soderbergh.  Cast: Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas.

MODERN MASTERS
The Modern Masters section features films from some of the true auteurs of contemporary cinema including Christoffer Boe, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Robert Guédiguian, Masato Harada, Chen Kaige, Nanni Moretti, Pawel Pawlikowski, Michael Radford, Lynne Ramsay, and Andrey Zvyaginstev.

•Beast (Denmark) – An obsessive, destructive love transforms a caring husband into a bloodthirsty beast in this perversely fascinating psychodrama.  Director: Christoffer Boe.  Cast: Nicolas Bro, Marijana Jankovic, Nikolaj Lie Kaas.

•Chronicle of My Mother (Japan) – Masato’s moving, impeccably acted period drama about the relationship between a self-centered writer and his aging mother draws from an autobiographical novel by Inoue Yasushi.  Director: Masato Harada.  Cast: Koji Yakushiko, Kirin Kiki, Aoi Miyazaki, Rentaro Mikuni.

•Elena (Russia) – An engrossing yarn about a coveted inheritance, cruel class differences and quietly monstrous misdeeds, Elena paints a chilling portrait of Russia’s post-Communist consumer society as culture entirely lacking in morality.  The film won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.  Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev.  Cast: Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smirnov, Elena Lyadova, Alexey Rozin.

•Habemus Papam (Italy/France) – Habemus papam! is the phrase that announces the election of the new pontiff – but what happens if the chosen man does not want the job?  Nanni Moretti imagines with comedy and pathos a crisis in the Vatican when Cardinal Melville refuses to address the Catholic faithful as their new spiritual leader.  Director: Nanni Moretti.  Cast: Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Jerzy Stuhr, Renato Scarpa, Franco Graziosi, Margherita Buy, Dario Cantarelli

•The Kid with a Bike (Belgium/France, Italy) – Fate drops an angry 11-year-old in the path of a kind-hearted hairdresser.  The boy’s intensity drives the Dardennes’ Cannes prize-winning film, but the woman’s tenderness and compassion create rare moments of grace in this heartbreaking tale of abandonment.  Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne.  Cast: Cecile de France, Thomas Doret, Jeremie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione, Egon di Mateo.

•Michel Petrucciani (France/Germany, Italy) – Petrucciani was born with a crippling genetic disorder that prevented him from growing more than three feet tall.  Yet he become one the greatest jazz pianists. A wonderful documentary portrait of a larger-than-life personality by director Michael Radford (Il Postino).

•Sacrifice (China) – Fifth Generation master Chen is back on top with this sumptuous Yuan Dynasty tale of mistaken identity, court intrigue, murder, and revenge. Baby Zhao is saved by his family doctor and raised by him to exact revenge on the General who murdered the Zhao clan.  Director: Chen Kaige.  Cast: Ge You, Wang Xueqi, Huang Xiaoming, Fan Bingbing, Hai Qing, Ahang Fengyi.

•The Snows of Kilimanjaro (France) – Veteran Robert Guédiguian, Marseilles’s answer to Mike Leigh, delivers a potent, moving slice of life as an aging trade unionist and his wife try to come to terms with a traumatic home invasion – and the knowledge that they know the perpetrator.  Director: Robert Guédiguian.  Cast: Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gerard Meylan, Gregoire LePrince-Ringuet, Maryline Canto, Anais Demoustier

•We Need to Talk About Kevin (UK) – Two years after her teenage son commits a horrific crime, Eva (Tilda Swinton) tries to come to terms with her marriage, career, and parenthood.  A grippingly cinematic, searingly honest film from the director of Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar.  Director: Lynne Ramsay.  Cast: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Siobhan Fallon, Ursula Parker, Ashley Gerasimovich.

•The Woman in the Fifth (UK/France, Poland) – Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas star in this mind-bending psychological thriller about an American writer in Paris trying to reconnect with his daughter, whose grip on reality loosens in part due to the influence of Scott Thomas’s mysterious femme fatale.  Director: Pawel Pawlikowski.  Cast: Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Samir Guesmi, Joanna Kulig.

Other Festival films with notable talent and directors include: Glenn Close and Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs (Ireland); Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Ewen Bremner and Connie Nielsen in Perfect Sense (UK/Germany, Sweden, Denmark); Linda Cardellini, Michael Shannon, John Slattery in Return (USA); Sal (USA) directed by James Franco; and Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Billy Crudup, David Harbour, Bob Balaban, Lea Thompson in Thin Ice (USA);

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The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present three time Academy Award nominee Stephen Daldry with the Director of the Year Award for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

Daldry is an award-winning director of both stage and screen.  His first feature film, Billy Elliot, won more than 40 awards worldwide and received three Oscar® nominations, including Best Director.  His second feature The Hours received nine Oscar® nominations including Best Picture and Director, 11 BAFTA nominations and won Best Picture (Drama) at the Golden Globes.  His other recent feature, The Reader, earned five Oscar® nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture.

Past Director of the Year honorees include Ang Lee, Anthony Minghella, Alexander Payne, Sean Penn, Jason Reitman and David O. Russell.

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[caption id="attachment_2105" align="alignnone"]Asma’a[/caption]

The 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival announced a new program highlighting Arab Cinema as well as films selected to compete for the FIPRESCI Award, New Voices/New Visions Award and John Schlesinger Awards.  The Festival will screen 40 of the 63 official submissions to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Foreign Language Film. 

ARABIAN NIGHTS: A Showcase of CINEMA FROM THE MIDDLE EAST
This program will premiere 11 new films made in the Middle East.  The showcase reflects the dramatic upsurge of film production and the concurrent emergence of exciting new filmmaking talents across the region.  The films selected in the Arabian Nights program include:

Asma’a (Egypt) – Devout, careworn widow Asma’a has a secret.  She is HIV-positive in a world where the disease is still stigmatized.  Ultimately, the host of a daring TV show inspires Asma’a to speak out and fight back – both against her illness and social ignorance.  Director: Amr Salama.  Cast: Hend Sabry, Maged El Kedwani, Hani Adel, Ahmad Kamal, Sayed Ragab, Botros Ghali.

Cairo 678 (Egypt) – Tackling the issue of sexual harassment, which continues to plague Egyptian society, this social issues drama focuses on three women from different backgrounds.  Director: Mohamed Diab Bushra.  Cast: Nelli Kareem, Nahed El Seba’i, Maged El Kedwany, Bassem Samra.

Habibi (Palestinian Territories/USA, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates) – The first fiction feature set in Gaza in over 15 years offers a story of forbidden love.  Can Qays, a poet from the refugee camp, build a future with Layla, the daughter of a traditional, religious family?  Director: Susan Youssef.  Cast: Kais Nashif, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Yussef Abu-Warda, Amer Khalil.

How Big is Your Love (Algeria/Morocco) – A heartwarming examination of childhood and love in modern Algiers.  With his parents breaking up, 8-year-old Adel is sent to live with his grandparents.  Soon it’s like he’s lived there forever, he’s so intimately wrapped up in their lives.  Director: Fatma Zohra Zamoum.  Cast: Racim Zennadi, Adbelkader Tadjer, Louiza Habani, Loubna Boucheloukh, Zahir Bouzrar, Nadjia Debbahi-Laaraf.

Love in the Medina (Morocco) – In this colorful melodrama, a young man from a conservative Moroccan family infuriates his father when he decides to become a butcher.  Soon he discovers that there is only one thing that he loves more than choice cuts…Women.  Director: Abdelhaï Laraki.  Cast: Omar Lotfi, Ouidad Elma, Driss Rokh, Amal Ayouch.

[caption id="attachment_2106" align="alignnone"]Man Without a Cell Phone[/caption]

Man Without a Cell Phone (Palestinian Territories/France, Belgium, Qatar) – An Arab-Israeli village’s new cell-phone tower quickly goes from minor annoyance to symbol of oppression.  In turn, charming slacker Jawdat abandons youthful aimlessness for activism.  Tempering its pointed politics with gentle humour, Sameh Zoabi’s dramedy is an old-fashioned crowd-pleaser.  Director: Sameh Zoabi.  Cast: Razi Shawahdeh, Basem Loulou, Louay Noufi, Ayman Nahas.

On The Edge (Morocco/France, Germany) – In the demimonde of nocturnal Tangier, four street-smart young women struggle to escape their poverty turning tricks and pawning stolen valuables.  The film won Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress at the Taormina Film Festival.  Director: Leila Kilani.  Cast: Soufia Issami, Mouna Bahmad, Nouzha Akel, Sara Betioui.

The Rif Lover (Morocco/France, Belgium) – A bold, visually ravishing tale of women struggling against the bonds of tradition as a beautiful but naïve 20-year-old falls into the clutches of a drug baron.  Director: Narjiss Nejjar.  Cast: Nadia Kounda, Mourade Zeguendi, Nadia Niazi, Omar Lofti, Siham Assif.

Sea Shadow (United Arab Emirates) – Set in a small seaside town in the Emirates, this gentle coming-of-age story follows two teenagers on the road to adulthood.  Bound by tradition and deeply rooted values, Mansoor and his pretty cousin Kaltham must find the courage to forge their own paths.  Director: Nawaf Al-Janahi.  Cast: Omar Al Mulla, Neven Madi, Abrar Al Hamad, Khadeeja Al Taie, Aisha Abdulrahman, Ahmad Iraj.

The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (Lebanon) – Beautifully conceived and expertly edited, this playful documentary uses a wealth of clips from Egyptian star Hosni’s films to explore the iconic actress’s screen image and shed light on the Arab world’s most popular cinema.  Director: Rania Stephan.

Transit Cities (Jordan) – A 36-year-old divorcee returns to Amman after 14 years in the U.S., but finds her hometown, family and friends much changed. This affecting drama strikes enough universal notes pertaining to cultural estrangement to resonate with expats of any stripe.  Director: Mohammad Hushki.  Cast: Saba Mubarak, Mohammad Al-Qabbani, Shafika Al Til, Ashraf Farah, Manal Seihmeimat.

AWARDS BUZZ
The Awards Buzz section features 40 of the 63 official submissions to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Foreign Language Film, selected by Festival programmers as the strongest entries in this year’s race.  A special jury of international film critics will review these films to award the FIPRESCI Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, Best Actor and Best Actress.  The 2012 FIPRESCI jury members are Mario Abbade from Almanaque Virtual, Correio Braziliense and Globo (Brazil) and President and Curator of the Rio de Janeiro Association of Film Critics; Nathan Lee, former film critic for the New York Times, Village Voice, and NPR, currently contributing editor of Film Comment magazine (US); and Boyd van Hoeij, critic for Variety, Winq (Netherlands), Mate (US/UK), Filmkrant (Netherlands) and Indiewire (US).  The following films selected, in alphabetical order by country, are:

Breathing (Austria), Director: Karl Markovics

Bullhead (Belgium/Netherlands), Director: Michaël R. Roskam

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (Brazil), Director: Jose  Padilha

Tilt (Bulgaria/Germany), Director: Viktor Chouchkov

Monsieur Lazhar (Canada), Director: Philippe Falardeau

The Flowers of War (China), Director: Yimou Zhang

Alois Nebel (Czech Republic/Germany), Director: Tomáš Lunák

Superclásico (Denmark), Director: Ole Christian Madsen

Le Havre (Finland/France, Germany), Director: Aki Kaurismäki

Declaration of War (France), Director: Valérie Donzelli

Pina (Germany), Director: Wim Wenders

Attenberg (Greece), Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari

A Simple Life (Hong Kong/China), Director: Ann Hui

The Turin Horse (Hungary/France, Germany, Switzerland), Director: Bela Tarr

Volcano (Iceland/Denmark), Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson

Abu, Son of Adam (India), Director: Salim Ahamed

A Separation (Iran), Director: Asghar Farhadi

Footnote (Israel), Director: Joseph Cedar

Terraferma (Italy), Director: Emanuele Crialese

Postcard (Japan), Director: Kaneto Shindo

The Front Line (Korea), Director: Jang Hun

Back to Your Arms (Lithuania/Germany, Poland), Director: Kristijonas Vildziunas

Miss Bala (Mexico), Director: Gerardo Naranjo

Omar Killed Me (Morocco/France), Director: Roschdy Zem

Sonny Boy (Netherlands), Director: Maria Peters

The Orator (New Zealand/Samoa), Director: Tusi Tamasese

Happy, Happy (Norway), Director: Anne Sewitsky

In Darkness (Poland/Canada/Germany), Director: Agnieszka Holland

Jose and Pilar (Portugal/Spain, Brazil), Director: Miguel  Goncalves Mendes

Morgen (Romania/France, Hungary), Director: Marian Crisan

Montevideo – Taste of a Dream (Serbia), Director: Dragan Bjelogrlic

Tatsumi (Singapore/Indonesia), Director: Eric Khoo

Gypsy (Slovakia), Director: Martin Sulík

Black Bread (Spain), Director: Agustí  Villaronga

Beyond (Sweden/Finland), Director: Pernilla August

Summer Games (Switzerland/Italy), Director: Rolando Colla

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan), Director: Te-Sheng Wei

Once Upon a time in Anatolia (Turkey/Bosnis-Herzegovina), Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Patagonia (United Kingdom/Argentina, Wales), Director: Marc Evans

Rumble of the Stones (Venezuela), Director: Alejandro Bellame Palacios


NEW VOICES/NEW VISIONS
The New Voices/New Visions Award will honor one of ten films from top emerging international directors marking their feature film debut at the Festival, with the additional criteria that the films selected are currently without U.S. distribution.  The jury for this program includes: Jeff Lipsky, Co-Managing Executive Adopt Films; Paul Hudson, Co-Founder Outsider Films; Tom Quinn, Co-President The Weinstein Company/New Label.  The winner will receive a $60,000 Panavision camera rental package.  Films selected for this year include:


Almanya, Welcome to Germany (Germany) – Neatly structured into two interwoven time frames, this charming, colorfully styled comedy centers on multiple generations of a German-Turkish clan, and derives its touching, laugh-out-loud humor from cultural misunderstandings and the question of what constitutes national identity.  The film won Best Film at the German Film Awards.  Director: Yasemin Samdereli.  Cast: Vedat Erincin, Fahri Yardim, Lilay Huser, Demet Gul, Aylin Tezel, Denis Moschitto.

Generation P (Russia/USA) – A poet manqué rises to the top of the corporate heap in 1990s Russia in this delirious satire of post-Soviet culture, a drug-fueled rollercoaster ride through the era of Wild West capitalism, gangsters, oligarchs, and political puppets.  Director: Victor Ginzburg.  Cast: Vladimir Yepifantsev, Mikhail Yefremov, Vladimir Menshov, Andrei Fomin, Sergei Shnurov, Oleg Taktarov.

Habibi (Palestinian Territories/USA, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates) – The first fiction feature set in Gaza in over 15 years offers a story of forbidden love. Can Qays, a poet from the refugee camp, build a future with Layla, the daughter of a traditional, religious family?  Director: Susan Youssef.  Cast: Kais Nashif, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Yussef Abu-Warda, Amer Khalil.

The House (Slovak Republic/Czech Republic) – Contemporary Eastern Europe’s divisions – between generations, genders, economic strata, city and country – are given incisive treatment in this affecting family drama about an ambitious teen, her disowned elder sister and their dour, controlling father.  Director: Zuzana Liová.  Cast: Judit Bárdos, Miroslav Krobot, Tatjana Medvecká, Marian Mitas.

The Invader (Belgium) – The story of an illegal African immigrant whose journey begins in Brussels as he searches, like many other immigrants, for a better place in the world. hrough his confrontation with a harsh society, he slowly but irreversibly starts to incarnate our worst fears and becomes the monster we have created.  Director: Nicolas Provost.  Cast: Issaka Sawadogo, Stefania Rocca, Serge Riaboukine, Dieudonne Kabongo.

Las Acacias (Argentina/Spain) – A gruff truck driver is none too pleased when the woman riding with him from Paraguay to Argentina shows up with a baby.  In the course of their journey his tough demeanor thaws, and they form a touching, hesitant connection.  Director: Pablo Giorgelli.  Cast: Germán de Silva, Hebe Duarte, Nayra Calle Mamani.

Last Winter (Belgium/France) – Johann, the head of a farming co-op in central France, runs the cattle farm he has inherited from his father with great care. But economic realities increasingly pressure him to sell.  John Shank’s feature debut is effused with a quiet longing for simpler times.  Director: John Shank.  Cast: Vincent Rottiers, Anaïs Demoustier, Florence Loiret Caille, Aurore Clément, Michel Subor.

Off White Lies (Israel) – A poignant comedy about a teenager who returns to Israel to get to know her eccentric father, who is currently “between apartments.”  As war in Lebanon begins, the father proposes a creative plan to put a roof over their heads.  Director: Maya Kenig.  Cast: Gur Bentwich, Elya Inbar, Tzah Grad, Arad Yeni, Salt Achi-Miriam.

Old Goats (USA) – Shot in and around Seattle, writer/director Taylor Guterson’s film is an often hilarious and always heartfelt story of three older men (actors Bob Burkholder, David VanderWal, and Britt Crosley, playing themselves) who refuse to go quietly into the night of retirement and old age.  Director: Taylor Guterson.  Cast: Britton Crosley, Bob Burkholder, David VanderWal, Benita Staadecker, Gail Shackel, Steve Stolee.

Wreckers (United Kingdom) – Urbanites David and Dawn (rising stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy) move to the pastoral village of David’s youth, only to have the arrival of David’s soldier/brother Nick—and his revelations about family secrets—threaten their idyll.  Director: D.R. Hood.  Cast: Claire Foy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Shaun Evans, Peter McDonald, Sinead Matthews.


JOHN SCHLESINGER AWARD
The John Schlesinger Award for outstanding first documentary feature acknowledges the work of a first-time filmmaker whose documentary is presented in any section of the Festival.  The films will be judged by Mark Jonathan Harris, three-time Oscar-winning documentary director of Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, The Long Way Home, and The Redwoods; Oliver Ike, director of theatrical and non-theatrical sales at Seventh Art Releasing; and  Michael Lumpkin, Executive Director of the International Documentary Association (IDA).  Ten films are eligible for this award, and this year they include:


Arranged Happiness (Germany/India) – A loving, first-hand portrayal of a Muslim Kashmiri family’s search for a groom for 27-year-old Waheeda, this humane, mesmerizing documentary provides an intimate and compelling counterweight to widely held perceptions of Islam’s practices in the West.  Director:  Daniela Dar-Creutz.

Bert Stern, Original Madman (USA) – Bert Stern, the original “madman” photographer, sheds light on a fascinating, topsy-turvy life and career that took him from the mailroom to the heights of success as one of the most celebrated photographers of the 1950s and beyond.  Director: Shannah Laumeister.  With: Bert Stern, Marilyn Monroe, Stanley Kubrick, Elizabeth Taylor.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye has to Travel (USA) – Both the inventor and embodiment of the term “pizzazz,” Diana Vreeland ruled over the editorial content of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue for decades.  This tribute to one of our greatest style icons blends archival material and interviews with fashion luminaries with a chic, assured hand.  Director: Lisa Immordino Vreeland.  Co-Directors: Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt, Frederic Theng.  With: Ali McGraw, Anjelica Huston, Manolo Blahnik, David Bailey, Penelope Tree, Veruschka, Lauren Hutton, Diana von Furstenberg.

Die Standing Up (Mexico) – The inspiring story of Irina, a tireless fighter in the war for personal freedoms, a transsexual who works for progressive causes from her wheelchair despite a severe disability, and her powerful love story with her partner Nelida, whom she married as a man.  Director: Jacaranda Correa.

First Position: A Ballet Documentary (USA) – Filled with drama, tension and suspense, this enormously satisfying documentary follows six gifted ballet students from disparate social, regional, economic and ethnic backgrounds as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, a prestigious competition where the world’s top dance companies and schools prospect for new talent.  Director: Bess Kargman.

The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (Lebanon) – Beautifully conceived and expertly edited, this playful documentary uses a wealth of clips from Egyptian star Hosni’s films to explore the iconic actress’s screen image and shed light on the Arab world’s most popular cinema.  Director: Rania Stephan.

The Tiniest Place (Mexico/El Salvador) – The heartbreaking yet hopeful story of Cinquera, a small town in rural El Salvador that was completely depopulated during the Civil War, as told by the survivors who have returned with astonishing resilience to rebuild their lives on their native soil.  Director: Tatiana Huezo Sanchez.

Unfinished Spaces (USA/Cuba) – Masterfully interweaving art, politics and history, this spellbinding doc recounts the secret history of a little-known architectural marvel, commissioned as a showpiece art school by Fidel Castro, but then deemed “decadent” when he was forced to throw in his lot with the Soviet Union.  Directors: Alysa Nahmias, Benjamin Murray. 

Wish Me Away (USA) – Coming out is never easy, but when you’re a country music star it could also be career suicide.  This inspiring, award-winning doc introduces us to courageous singer-songwriter Chely Wright, a devout Christian who also happens to be a lesbian.  Directors: Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf.

You’ve Been Trumped (United Kingdom) – Anthony Baxter’s biting and entertaining documentary trails “The Donald” as he seeks to build a massive golf resort on unspoiled Scottish coastline and comes up against a spirited group of local landowners who will not go down without a fight.  Director: Anthony Baxter.  With: Donald Trump.


Additional awards include the Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.  The Bridging the Borders Award, presented by Cinema Without Borders and Hewlett Packard, honors the film that is most successful in exemplifying art that promotes bringing the people of our world closer together.  The prize includes an HP 8560w Elitebook Mobile Workstation with a built-in HP DreamColor display, valued at $4000.

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