PLAYING IT COOL
The 9th annual Dallas International Film Festival taking place April 9-19, 2015, announced the first 10 films, including the North American premiere of PLAYING IT COOL, a romantic comedy starring Chris Evans and Michelle Monaghan.
Making its world premiere at this year’s Festival is the Civil War drama ECHOES OF WAR, starring James Badge Dale, Ethan Embry and William Forsythe.
Director John Landis will receive the Dallas Star Award at Dallas Film Society Honors on Friday, April 17 at the Highland Hotel in Dallas. The Dallas Star Award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to modern cinema and the advancement of the art of film. The award presentation will be followed by a special screening of John Landis’s 1980 comedy classic THE BLUES BROTHERS on Saturday, April 18. John Landis has left a lasting impression on the film world as director of many iconic comedies such as NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE, ¡3 AMIGOS!, COMING TO AMERICA, TRADING PLACES, and INTO THE NIGHT. John Landis also wrote and directed AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and the groundbreaking theatrical short MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER.
The Festival will also celebrate the incredible life and career of Texas writer, actor and producer L.M. Kit Carson by featuring his 1983 film BREATHLESS. Carson is recognized for writing the Palme d’Or winning PARIS, TEXAS, and also for inventing the first ‘mockumentary’ with his film DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY.
5 FLIGHTS UP
Director: Richard Loncraine
USA
Cast: Morgan Freeman; Diane Keaton; Cynthia Nixon
Synopsis: Over one crazy weekend, a long-time married couple discovers that finding a new apartment is not about winding down, but starting a new adventure.
BEING EVEL
Director: Daniel Junge
USA
Synopsis: Millions know the man, but few know his story. In BEING EVEL, Academy Award® winning filmmaker Daniel Junge (SAVING FACE) and actor/producer Johnny Knoxville take a candid look at American daredevil and icon Robert “Evel” Knievel, while also reflecting on our voracious public appetite for heroes and spectacle.
ECHOS OF WAR (World premiere)
Director: Kane Senes
USA
Cast: James Badge Dale; Ethan Embry; William Forsythe; Maika Monroe
Synopsis: A Civil War veteran returns home to the quiet countryside, only to find himself embroiled in a conflict between his family and the brutish cattle rancher harassing them.
HOLLOW
Director: Ham Tran
Vietnam
Cast: Kieu Chinh; Jayvee Mai The Hiep; Ngoc Hiep Nguyen
Synopsis: A young girl falls into a river and drowns. When her body is found in a remote village along the river, her uncle arrives to claim her body, only to find that she is very much alive. But when she returns to her family, unexplainable occurrences lead them to believe she is possessed.
JASMINE
Director: Dax Phelan
USA
Cast: Jason Tobin; Byron Mann; Sarah Lian
Synopsis: JASMINE is a gripping and chilling psychological thriller about a man still struggling to come to terms with his grief nearly a year after his wife’s unsolved murder.
THE BLUES BROTHERS
Director: John Landis
USA
Cast: John Belushi; Dan Aykroyd; James Brown; Cab Calloway; Ray Charles; Aretha Franklin; John Lee Hooker
Synopsis: Jake Blues, just out from prison, puts together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and brother Elwood were raised.
THE LOOK OF SILENCE
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Denmark/Finland/Indonesia/Norway/UK
Synopsis: In Joshua Oppenheimer’s companion piece to the Oscar® nominated THE ACT OF KILLING, a family of survivors of the 1965 Indonesian genocide discovers how their son was murdered and the identity of the men who killed him. The youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence and fear under which the survivors live, and so confronts the men responsible for his brother’s murder – something unimaginable in a country where killers remain in power.
PLAYING IT COOL (North American Premiere)
Director: Justin Reardon
USA
Cast: Chris Evans; Michelle Monaghan; Luke Wilson; Aubrey Plaza; Topher Grace; Anthony Mackie
Synopsis: It’s this generation’s SWINGERS meets (500) DAYS OF SUMMER. The story is fresh, quirky, and weirdly relatable as this young, slightly pretentious man falls for an unlikely girl, and will stop at nothing to get her even after realizing she’s already in a relationship.
WELCOME TO LEITH
Director: Michael Beach Nichols; Christopher K. Walker
USA
Synopsis: A white supremacist attempts to take over a small town in North Dakota.
WESTERN
Director: Bill Ross; Turner Ross
USA/Mexico
Synopsis: For generations, all that distinguished Eagle Pass, Texas from Piedras Negras, Mexico was the Rio Grande. But when darkness descends upon these harmonious border towns, a cowboy and lawman face a new reality that threatens their way of life.