Wednesday, October 03, 2018
HIFF 2018
HIFF
The 26th Annual Hamptons
International Film Festival
October 4 - 8, 2018
OPENING NIGHT
THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
Directed by Sara Colangelo (HIFF 2013 Lab participant!)
Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal
THE
FAVOURITE
Friday Centerpiece
FIRST MAN
Saturday Centerpiece
Directed by Damien Chazelle
Starring Ryan Gosling and Claire
Foy
CAN
YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Sunday Centerpiece
CLOSING NIGHT
BOY ERASED
Directed by Joel Edgerton.
Starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole
Kidman, Russell Crowe and Joel Edgerton
TALENT ATTENDING INCLUDES
Alan Alda, Bob Balaban, Matthew Broderick,
Bill Camp, Kayli Carter,
Damien
Chazelle, Jamie Dornan, Emilio Estevez, Rupert Everett,
Maggie
Gyllenhaal, Peter Hedges, Matthew Heineman, Alessandro Nivola,
Rosamund Pike, Cory Michael Scott, Josh
Singer,
Amandla
Stenberg, George Tillman Jr., Dolly Wells & more…
The Hamptons International Film Festival is exciting every year!
I've been developing a webVR site to display 3D 360 VR videos: Here's a BETA! version of my HIFF 2017 interview with Alison Chernick, director of last year's terrific opening night film ITZHAK! in 3D 360 VR on BETA! webVR. This will most likely work in 3D 360 using the Oculus or Samsung browser on Oculus Go. (It will not work using the Firefox Reality browser). It will most likely work as a 2D 360 video with Chrome or Firefox on a desktop. It may require a "mouse" click or refresh to start playing. It may not work using Edge. (Yes, webVR is still inconsistent and hard to use, but it will be GREAT! when it matures.)
I've been developing a webVR site to display 3D 360 VR videos: Here's a BETA! version of my HIFF 2017 interview with Alison Chernick, director of last year's terrific opening night film ITZHAK! in 3D 360 VR on BETA! webVR. This will most likely work in 3D 360 using the Oculus or Samsung browser on Oculus Go. (It will not work using the Firefox Reality browser). It will most likely work as a 2D 360 video with Chrome or Firefox on a desktop. It may require a "mouse" click or refresh to start playing. It may not work using Edge. (Yes, webVR is still inconsistent and hard to use, but it will be GREAT! when it matures.)
THE HAMPTONS
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (HIFF)
PROGRAMS AND
SECTIONS INCLUDE:
·
Competition
sections:
o
Narrative;
o
Documentary;
·
Spotlight
section;
·
World
Cinema Narrative;
·
World
Cinema Documentary;
·
Conflict
& Resolution;
·
Views
From Long Island;
·
Air, Land
& Sea;
·
Compassion,
Justice & Animal Rights; and
·
Shorts
Programs.
ANTICIPATED FILMS
INCLUDE:
·
Yorgos
Lanthimos’ THE FAVOURITE, starring
Academy Award®-winning
actresses Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, and Golden Globe®-winning actress Olivia Colman,
about two cousins fighting to be the court favorite of Queen Anne, which will
serve as the Friday Centerpiece;
·
Marielle
Heller’s CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
which will screen as the Sunday Centerpiece, a biopic based on the life of
writer Lee Israel and starring Academy Award®-nominated actress Melissa
McCarthy;
·
Academy
Award®-winning
director Steve McQueen’s WIDOWS, starring Academy Award®-winning actress Viola Davis,
Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo, the story of four
women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’
criminal activities; and
·
The East
Coast Premiere of Felix Van Groeningen’s (HIFF
2009 & 2013 alum) BEAUTIFUL BOY,
starring Academy Award®-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet (one of last year’s “Breakthrough Artists!”) and Golden
Globe®-nominated actor Steve Carell, adapted from father and son David and Nic Sheff’s
best-selling memoirs about a son’s struggle with drug addiction that
threatens to tear a family apart.
Narrative Competition Films include:
·
the New
York Premiere of Yen Tan’s 1985;
·
the U.S.
Premiere of Eva Trobisch’s ALL GOOD;
·
Ali
Abbasi’s BORDER;
·
the U.S.
Premiere of Zsófia Szilágyi’s ONE DAY; and
·
Dominga
Sotomayor’s TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG.
Documentary
Competition Films include:
· the World
Premiere of Jesse Sweet’s CITY OF JOEL;
· Alexis
Bloom’s DIVIDE AND CONQUER: THE STORY OF
ROGER AILES;
· the New
York Premiere of Daniel Zimmerman’s WALDEN;
· the East
Coast Premiere of Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldon’s GHOST FLEET;
· as well
as the East Coast Premiere of THE LAST
RACE from Michael Dweck, (also
screening in the Views From Long Island Section).
The Spotlight section will include:
·
the U.S. Premiere
of BEN IS BACK, directed by Peter Hedges
and starring Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts;
·
CAPERNAUM directed by Nadine Labaki;
·
TO DUST, directed by Shawn Snyder, starring
Matthew Broderick, and produced by Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer;
·
the East Coast Premieres of
o EVERYBODY KNOWS, directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Javier Bardem and Penélope
Cruz;
o GREEN BOOK, directed by Peter Farrelly;
o A
PRIVATE WAR, directed by
Matthew Heineman and starring Rosamund Pike and Jamie Dornan;
o THE
PUBLIC, directed by Emilio
Estevez;
·
ROMA, directed by Alfonso Cuarón; and
·
WILDLIFE, starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Camp
and directed by Paul Dano;
·
THE HAPPY PRINCE directed by and starring
Rupert Everett; and
·
THE HATE U GIVE, directed by George Tillman Jr. and starring Amandla Stenberg (part of the Breakthrough Artists Panel!),
K.J. Apa, and Anthony Mackie.
The Views From Long
Island section will include:
·
BLACK
MOTHER, directed by Khalik Allah, about two different worlds on
the island of Jamaica, through the lens of an intimate documentary portrait;
· the East
Coast Premiere of THE LAST RACE from
Michael Dweck, (also screening in the Documentary Competition Section);
·
the World Premieres of
o
Emily Anderson’s short film ONLY THE WIND IS LISTENING, set against
the backdrop of an unforgiving Montauk winter; and
o
Ross Kauffman’s STILL PLAY WITH TRAINS, where John Scully reconstructs his idyllic
1950s childhood in the form of one of the world’s largest model train sets in
his East Hampton basement.
The Air, Land & Sea program will present :
·
Academy
Award®-nominated
director Rory Kennedy’s ABOVE AND
BEYOND: NASA’S JOURNEY TO TOMORROW, a Discovery Channel documentary
chronicling the history and exploration of America’s space force;
·
Nicolas
Brown’s THE SERENGETI RULES, about
five international scientists during the 1960s and their attempt to learn more
about the planet; and
·
the U.S.
Premiere of GRIT, directed by Sasha
Friedlander and Cynthia Wade.
The Compassion, Justice, & Animal Rights program will
include:
·
a World
Premiere presentation of Rob Fruchtman and Steven Lawrence’s THE CAT RESCUERS, about four activists
in Brooklyn setting out to provide housing for the over one million cats
abandoned in New York City alone; and
·
the East
Coast Premiere of Richard Miron’s FOR
THE BIRDS.
The Conflict & Resolution program will include:
·
Charles
Ferguson’s WATERGATE, examining the
Watergate scandal from new interviews and subjects from all sides of the investigation;
·
Almudena
Carracedo and Robert Bahar’s THE SILENCE
OF OTHERS, about six individuals looking to bring those responsible for
Spain’s 40-year dictatorship to justice;
·
the New
York Premieres of
o
Ísold
Uggadóttir’s AND BREATHE NORMALLY;
o
Talal
Derki’s OF FATHERS AND SONS, which
provides a look at war-torn Syria through the eyes of a photojournalist posing
as pro-jihadist; and
o
Chris Martin’s UNDER THE WIRE, about the final mission of war correspondent Marie
Colvin and photographer Paul Conroy.
·
the U.S.
Premiere of “I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS
BARBARIANS” directed by Radu Jude;
·
NON-FICTION,
directed by Olivier Assayas;
·
PRIVATE
LIFE, directed by Tamara Jenkins;
·
the World Premiere of ASK FOR JANE directed by Rachel Carey;
·
the U.S. Premieres of
o LETO directed by Kirill Serebrennikov;
o STYX directed by Wolfgang Fischer;
o WOMEN AT WAR directed by Benedikt Erlingsson;
·
the New York Premieres of
o BIRDS OF PASSAGE directed by Christina Gallego and Ciro Guerra (Colombia’s official
entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®);
o BURNING directed by Lee Chang-dong;
o COLD WAR directed by Pawel Pawlikowski;
o DEAD PIGS directed by Cathy Yan;
o THE GUILTY directed by Gustav Möller;
o HAPPY AS LAZZARO, directed by Alice Rohrwacher (with
her sister, Alba Rohrwacher, a Breakthrough Artist at HIFF several years ago,
in the cast);
o SHOPLIFTERS directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan’s
official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar); and
o WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY directed by Madeleine Olnek.
The World Cinema Documentary section includes:
·
Academy Award®-winning
director Morgan Neville’s THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD;
·
the U.S.
Premiere of THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING,
directed by Tom Donahue;
·
MARIA BY CALLAS, directed by Tom Volf;
·
MONROVIA, INDIANA, directed by Frederick
Wiseman;
·
TIME FOR ILHAN, directed by Norah Shapiro;
·
World
Premieres of
o
HENRI DAUMAN: LOOKING UP, directed by Peter Jones, and
o
THE PANAMA PAPERS directed by Alex Winter;
·
the East
Coast Premiere of MAKING THE GRADE,
directed by Ken Wardrop;
·
the New
York Premiere of THE TRUTH ABOUT KILLER
ROBOTS, directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin;
·
A MURDER IN MANSFIELD, directed by Barbara Kopple;
·
THE PROPOSAL, directed by Jill Magid;
·
ROLL RED ROLL, directed by Nancy Schwartzman; and
·
SHIRKERS, directed by Sandi Tan.
World Cinema Documentary is sponsored by Investigation Discovery.
Short film programs include:
·
Narrative
and Documentary Short Film Competitions;
·
New York
Women In Film and Television;
·
Women
Calling the Shots;
·
Zoom!
Shorts For All Ages;
·
University
Short Films Showcase;
·
Let’s Go
Crazy;
·
Never
Going Back Again;
·
Please
Don’t Tell;
·
and five
short films that will play before features.
“A Conversation With…” will include conversations with…
·
Academy
Award®-winning director Damien Chazelle,
whose film FIRST MAN is the Saturday
Centerpiece;
·
Emilio Estevez, whose film THE
PUBLIC will screen in the Spotlight section; and
·
Academy
Award®- and Golden Globe®-nominated actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who stars in the festival’s Opening Night film THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER.
All Conversation events will take place at Bay
Street with Gyllenhaal on Friday, October 5th at 3:00PM, Estevez on Saturday,
October 6th at 3:30PM, and Chazelle on Sunday, October 7th at 12:30PM.
A special screening: of Dava Whisenant’s BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY, winner of the 2018 SummerDocs Audience
Award, sponsored by Candescent Films.
Winick Talks at Rowdy Hall, morning conversations with
special guests in East Hampton, presented by The Gary Winick Memorial Fund, include:
·
a #MeToo
focused panel with the one-year anniversary of the global movement for change
on Friday, October 5;
·
Breakthrough
Artists panel with Kayli Carter, Cory Michael Smith and Amandla Stenberg on
Saturday, October 6; and
·
a
VR-focused panel bringing together project creators and virtual reality experts
to examine what the future of VR means for the ways we interact with visual
entertainment and the arts on Sunday, October 7.
This series is presented by The Gary Winick
Memorial Fund.
An immersive storytelling and VR experience, THE HIDDEN, a political thriller that literally drops
you in the middle of a high-stakes game of cat and mouse without telling you
who is hunting whom, will be available for audiences at Mulford Farm in the
afternoons on October 5-8.
This program is presented with the support of
the Organización Latinoamericana de Alcaldes (OLA).
The Narrative Jury
will include:
·
Geralyn Dreyfous, Academy Award®-winning
producer of BORN INTO BROTHELS, THE SQUARE and THE INVISIBLE WAR and founder of
the Utah Film Center and co-founder of Impact Partners Film Fund;
·
Jamie Patricof, producer of THE AFTER
PARTY, THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC and BLUE VALENTINE; and
·
Linus Sandgren, FSF, Academy
Award®-winning Cinematographer who collaborated on films including FIRST LAND,
LA LA LAND, JOY and AMERICAN HUSTLE.
The Documentary Jury
will include:
·
Rory Kennedy, Academy Award®-nominated director of
films including ETHEL, LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM and the upcoming ABOVE AND BEYOND:
NASA’S JOURNEY TO TOMORROW, screening at the festival; plus
·
additional jurors to be
announced.
The 26th annual Hamptons International Film Festival takes place over
Columbus Day Weekend, October 4 – 8, 2018.
The Hamptons International Film
Festival “greatly appreciates the
support from their corporate sponsors and media partners, including premiere
sponsors Audi and Out East, lead sponsors Delta Air Lines, Altour.” (So do we: without the sponsors HIFF could not
be the same!)
For more information visit www.hamptonsfilmfest.org.
Labels: Hampton's International Film Festival, HIFF
Thursday, August 10, 2017
HIFF 2017 (25TH ANNIVERSARY!) HONORS JULIE ANDREWS
THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF
THE HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2017
HONORS JULIE ANDREWS
WITH THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
HIFF AND
THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES
WILL CO-PRESENT A SPECIAL SCREENING OF
VICTOR VICTORIA
The 25th annual Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF 25) will take place over Columbus Day Weekend, October 5 - 9, 2017.
The Hamptons International Film Festival will honor Oscar®-winning actress Julie Andrews with a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the festival’s 25th anniversary.
Well known for her defining roles on stage in “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot,” and her classic screen performances in “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music,” the multi-talented and award-winning actress is a Kennedy Center Honoree (2001), a Disney Legend inductee and the recipient of the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a bestselling author of over 30 children’s books as well as the first installment of her autobiography, “Home: A Memoir of My Early Years” (2008) and is now working on the companion sequel.
Ms. Andrews just completed directing a hugely successful revival of “My Fair Lady” which is currently touring though Australia, and is the co-creator and star of “Julie’s Greenroom,” a newly released series on Netflix which teaches young children about the theater and the arts.
HIFF and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will co-present a special screening of “Victor Victoria” on Saturday, October 7th in East Hampton. The film, which stars Ms. Andrews, won the Oscar for Original Song Score and Its Adaptation -or- Adaptation Score. Ms. Andrews will participate in a post screening conversation with Alec Baldwin and a special award presentation with special guests.
ABOUT THE HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Labels: Alec Baldwin, Camelot, Hampton's International Film Festival, HIFF, Julie Andrews, My Fair Lady, The Sound Of Music
Saturday, October 18, 2008
HIFF: EVE & THE GSA SHORTS
on location at the Firebird Restaurant in New York
for the scene illustrated in the top photo above.
First, a slight digression...
...Those little star-like things on the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) logo are apparently Golden Starfish. And so,the acronym is translated as the "Golden Starfish Award Shorts". (Note: See the post below for more about "Golden Starfish".)
Back to the films...
There were five shorts shown in the program:
Fingers is a simple film about a young musician who travels to Nashville to play a gig.
I Am So Proud of You is a hand-animated, manually photographed story of a life, which alternates between sardonic wit and depressingly dark humor.
JerryCan is a little bit of Austrailian boys' nasty mischief gone even worse than they planned.
Glory At Sea is a mess of a movie, but once you realize -- not made clear in the film itself -- that it is kind of a metaphor for the disaster in New Orleans; that it is made in New Orleans, with survivors of Katrina, with detritus from the storm, the film becomes more interesting. Indeed the mess of the movie becomes, itself, a metaphor for the mess that was Katrina.
All these films above are interesting short films. They feel like short films. Short films often feel like "short films".
The fifth film in the program, however, is not a "short film". It is a film. It is also a minor masterpiece. It is perhaps the best short film I've ever seen. The film is beautifully shot and edited, and brilliantly written and directed, by Natalie Portman (the actress).
Eve is the story of grandma who goes on a date with a widower. Her granddaughter, who has come over to visit and talk about her mother (Eve), ends up as chaperone and chauffeur, and otherwise somewhat ignored. Grandma is played superbly by Lauren Bacall, and the widower by Ben Gazzara. The iconic performers give iconic performances that make this an iconic film, a celebration of the power of life as people age.
(I thought of Vicki Christina Barcelona (VCB) , when I saw this film. VCB uses the iconic personalities and iconic performances of Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, and Scarlett Johansson to make an iconic film about a summer romance abroad.)
Eve (the grandma's daughter, the young woman's mother) appears in the film only as a photograph. That is a brilliant device. "Eve" is the perfect name for the film and the photograph is the perfect place for her to appear. The film is in some profound sense not just about the date, but also about the entire backstory and subtext and life that precedes the film. Eve, the missing mother/daughter provides a link to that world.
Interestingly, according to the producer, Eve was not the original title, nor was the photo of the mother in the original script. I think that illustrates why in film (as opposed to theater) it works so well to have the writer and director be the same person. In theater, every performance is a different interpretation of the script, so a director needs to let the actors free themselves from the words and own the characters. In a film, the script is just a suggestion, or notes, or a crib sheet. The film is the film. So a director can work with the material as the edit is being constructed and continue to sculpt the project until it is in its final form. The film is the only performance that counts. When the writer and director are the same person, that performance can be perfected.
With a rich and beautiful story, outstanding cinematography, and brilliant writing, directing, and acting, Eve is (one of the few times I've ever said this about a short) a film not to be missed!
Labels: Ben Gazzara, Eve, Hampton's International Film Festival, HIFF, Lauren Bacall, Natalie Portman
Thursday, October 16, 2008
HIFF 2008 DAY 1
The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) opened Wednesday Oct 15 with Valentino: The Last Emperor (and then a party at the beautiful Gurney's Inn). With its parties, premieres, previews, panels, prizes and generally relaxed and pleasant presence, HIFF can be one of the most enjoyable of the major festivals. Here are a few random images from this year's festival:
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All photos by Eric Roffman for QPORIT.
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Labels: Flash of Genius, Greg Kinnear, Hampton's International Film Festival, Hannah Herzsprung, HIFF, Sloan Foundation
