As big-name festival season winds to a close in the wake of TIFF (though there are still plenty of other fests coming soon, as Andrew prepares for Flyaway and the Toronto-ites gear up for Toronto After Dark), AFI Fest is headed for its first week of November time slot, gathering the best of the rest of the year’s festivals together, along with a set of mainstream fall premieres and good chunk of smaller films from up and coming directors. This year’s fest, officially the AFI Fest 2011 Presented by Audi, will be the third AFI Fest in a row to provide free tickets to every screening, which is kind of a huge deal when most festival tickets are in the $12-20 range. Check the website at www.afi.com/afifest to see when tickets are going to be available, but even if the reserved tickets go quickly (and they do), there’s a very good chance at getting in via rush lines the day of the screening. There are also festival passes available if you’d rather not deal with the hassle of reserving tickets and rush lines.
This year Pedro Almodovar will serve as the festival’s artistic director; I can only hope we get as entertaining an intro video as David Lynch provided last year! Lineup announcements are still trickling out; they’ve already announced the opening film of the festival will be Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, starring Leonardo diCaprio. Five other major Hollywood releases will join it as gala presentations at the landmark Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Last week, they also announced the first three programs of films, New Auteurs, Young Americans, and a Spotlight on Joe Swanberg. There are a few films I’m interested in here, especially in the New Auteurs section, but the majority of notable titles will likely come in the yet-to-be-announced World Cinema category.
New Auteurs selections:
The New Auteurs section highlights first and second-time feature film directors from around the world.
ATTENBERG: DIR/SCR Athina Rachel Tsangari. Greece.
BONSAI: DIR/SCR Cristián Jiménez. Chile/France/Argentina/Portugal.
BULLHEAD: DIR/SCR Michaël R. Roskam. Belgium.
HANAAN: DIR/SCR Ruslan Pak. Russia/South Korea/Uzbek.
THE LONELIEST PLANET: DIR/SCR Julia Loktev. USA/Germany.
MICHAEL: DIR/SCR Markus Schleinzer. Austria.
OSLO, AUGUST 31: DIR Joachim Trier. SCR Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier. Norway.
RESTLESS CITY: DIR Andrew Dosunmu. SCR Eugene Gussenhoven. USA.
SNOWTOWN: DIR Justin Kurzel. SCR Justin Kurzel, Shaun Grant. Australia.
Of this group, I’m most intrigued by Attenberg (though I still haven’t seen Greece’s other major film Dogtooth yet, I ought to get in on this new wave of Greek films that seems to be happening) and The Loneliest Planet, though I’ve also heard very good things about Oslo, August 31 (including “loved” ratings from both Kurt and Bob from TIFF) and Snowtown, though it doesn’t sound like much fun to watch. The only other one I’ve heard of out of this group is Michael, and I’m not sure such a portrait of a pedophile is something I need to see.
Check under the seats for the rest of the lineup so far.
Young Americans selections:
The Young Americans section features work by emerging U.S. filmmakers.
THE COLOR WHEEL: DIR Alex Ross Perry. SCR Alex Ross Perry, Carlen Altman.
THE DISH & THE SPOON: DIR Alison Bagnall. SCR Alison Bagnall, Andrew Lewis.
DRAGONSLAYER: DIR Tristan Patterson. (Documentary)
GREEN: DIR/SCR Sophia Takal.
SPARK OF BEING: DIR Bill Morrison. (Experimental)
WUSS: DIR/SCR Clay Liford.
I haven’t heard of any of these before; it’s quite possible they may be premieres, though the press release doesn’t say for sure. The film guide will once it comes out. Based on the still released so far, they mostly look like your standard young people’s indie American film (if you’ve seen many of these, you know what I mean), but even so, there’s usually one of these per festival that manages to impress me quite a lot, it’s just a question of picking which one to roll the dice on this year. The Dish and the Spoon has got Greta Gerwig in it, so that’s a leg up already.
Spotlight on Joe Swanberg:
SILVER BULLETS: DIR/SCR Joe Swanberg.
ART HISTORY: DIR Joe Swanberg. SCR Joe Swanberg, Josephine Decker, Kent Osborne.
THE ZONE: DIR/SCR Joe Swanberg. World Premiere.
One of the most highly prolific and visible members of the Mumblecore movement, Joe Swanberg has three films coming out this fall (four in 2011, including the already-released Uncle Kent), and AFI made a sidebar spotlight just for them. I’ve only seen one Swanberg film (Hannah Takes the Stairs) and while I liked it, I haven’t been in a huge hurry for more. Four in one year seems spread a little thin, too, but I guess we’ll find out.
