FEST+, A Google Hangout On Air

JOHN DIES AT THE END

Join AFI FEST in an online conversation celebrating our Midnight movies and one of our New Auteurs, Brandon Cronenberg.

AFI FEST programmer Lane Kneedler and Fangoria Magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Alexander will lead a conversation with the filmmakers behind ABCs OF DEATH, JOHN DIES AT THE END and ANTIVIRAL.

The best part — you get to be a part of the conversation! Just sign on via Google+ and join the chat LIVE as we dispatch from the heart of Hollywood.

Want to ask us something? Tweet @AFIFEST and we’ll respond on air!

In addition to Cronenberg, the chat will feature JOHN DIES AT THE END director Don Coscarelli, and a team of filmmakers from ABCs OF DEATH, including Simon Barrett, Adrian Bogliano, Marcel Sarmiento, Jon Schnepp, Marc Walkow and Adam Wingard.

When: Saturday, November 3, 3:00 p.m.
Where to Watch: Circle in @AFIFEST on Google+ or find @AFIFEST on YouTube
How to Join: Anyone with a Google+ account can circle in and ask a question. A Google Plus Account is not required just to watch. To join Google Plus, visit the tutorial here.

Fan Station Broadcasting Live from the Box Office! Anyone can join just by hopping over to the fan station at the AT&T Box Office on the 4th Floor of Hollywood and Highland and interact live with our digital panel. Stop by, get your tickets, and join the conversation!

1 November Permalink

World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight and Short Film Selections

World Cinema showcases the most anticipated and prize-winning international films of the year, Breakthrough highlights work discovered only through the submission process and Midnight’s selections are always haunting. Both World Cinema and Breakthrough feature a number of films making their North American or U.S. Premieres, including THE ANGELS’ SHARE, GREATEST HITS, LAURENCE ANYWAYS, NAIROBI HALF LIFE, PIETA, WHITE ELEPHANT and ZAYTOUN.

Two of the shorts in competition are from AFI Conservatory’s recent class of 2011 – Justin Tipping’s NANI and Ryan Prows’ NARCOCORRIDO, both winners at the 39th Annual Student Academy Awards® in the Narrative film category earlier this year. Heidi Levitt (AFI Class of 1987) is once again represented at the festival, this time as executive producer of GINGER AND ROSA in the Special Screenings section.

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15 October 8 Permalink

A Stylized Head Trip

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW
Chinese 6, 11/4/2011, 11:59 PM
Chinese 1, 11/9/2011, 11:00 PM 

By Karina Wilson

If the whole point of a midnight movie is to elicit the audience response “What was that?” then BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW hits the sweet spot.

Panos Cosmatos’ debut has outraged audiences at film festivals this year, reportedly causing mass walkouts and fervent applause in equal measure.  Buy a ticket at your peril.  

If you hang in till the end, it’s because you’re seduced by the lush synth soundtrack (described by composer Jeremy Schmidt as “continuing explorations of the ether-synth abyss”), the sumptuous neon of the visuals, and the smorgasbord of filmic references to Stanley Kubrick, Roger Vadim, Mario Bava, Don Coscarelli, even Steven Lisberger.  

If you quit 30 minutes in, it’s probably because of the plot, or lack thereof.  The narrative revolves loosely around a bizarrely bewigged killer operating in a fictionalized 1983 (although the sets look like they were dreamed up by John Barry a decade earlier), and has something to do with a clinic, and a naïf in a surgical robe who may or may not have special powers—this stuff is important and then it’s not, as the final act degenerates into slasher bloodshed.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Or that the above in any way spoils the story for you.

Cosmatos was never going to be the next Michael Bay.  The son of a Greek movie director father and a Swedish experimental artist mother, he roamed the globe with his family, winding up in Mexico in the early-’80s, before finally settling in Canada.  His vagabond years allowed him to view both American and European pop culture through a refractive lens, and BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW reflects his unique perspective. It’s less a movie than a vision of a stylized head-trip that evokes the memory of experimental photographs you once saw back-projected in a club in Reykjavik.

Cosmatos claims it’s the movie he was never allowed to see growing up. 

“I wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated films when I was a kid, but when we’d go to the video store on the corner, a mom and pop shop called Video Attic, I’d obsessively look at all the horror movie videotapes. I was mesmerized by the lurid box covers and the vivid descriptions on the back.”

Unlike every other kid on the block in the early-’80s, young Panos didn’t watch these horror movies at his friend’s house—you know, that friend with the absentee parents and the direct line to all kinds of video nasties?  He’d play them back on his own personal, internal projector.

“So I’d imagine, in great detail, my own versions of these movies without having ever seen them. That was one of the key inspirations for the film. The idea of making one of those imagined movies.”

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW certainly has the feel of a series of vignettes that a psychopath—a sophisticated, educated, tasteful psychopath with a Bachelors in Film—might play across the back of his or her eyelids.  It’s the perfect midnight movie, the one you can describe to your friends with a simple, enigmatic “I was there”.

Karina Wilson writes at Horror Film History.

3 November Permalink

AFI FEST 2011 - WORLD CINEMA, BREAKTHROUGH, MIDNIGHT AND SHORTS SELECTIONS

We are thrilled to announce the films screening in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight and Short Film Categories of this year’s AFI FEST 2011 presented by Audi.

World Cinema showcases the most anticipated and prize-winning international films of the year, Breakthroughhighlights works discovered only through the submissions process and Midnight’s eclectic selection presents films with provocative and unexpected ideas. Both World Cinema and Breakthrough feature a number of films making their U.S. premieres, including ALMAYER’S FOLLY, CAFÉ DU FLORE, FAUST and WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT(World Premiere).

Three of the 35 shorts in competition are from AFI Conservatory’s recent classes of 2010 and 2011 – Julian Higgins’THIEF, which won the top prize in narrative filmmaking at the 38th Annual Student Academy Awards and top honors at the 32nd College Television Awards earlier this year, Lindsay MacKay’s CLEAR BLUE, which placed second at the 32nd College Television Awards and Casey Cooper Johnson’s UNMANNED, which was finished just in time for festival submission. Rick Rosenthal’s (AFI Directing Class of 1973) BLINK is also in competition. The AFI Conservatory was rated the #1 film school in the world by The Hollywood Reporter for the quality of its instructors and speakers, and its “glittering parade of alumni.”

WORLD CINEMA SELECTIONS A showcase of modern masters and emerging filmmakers from across the globe, this year’s World Cinema program showcases some of the most anticipated and prize-winning international films of the year.

ALMAYER’S FOLLY: DIR/SCR Chantal Akerman. Belgium/France. U.S. Premiere.

ALPS: DIR Yorgos Lanthimos. SCR Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou. Greece/France. U.S. Premiere.

ARIRANG: DIR Kim Ki-duk. South Korea.

CAFÉ DU FLORE: DIR/SCR Jean-Marc Vallée. Canada. U.S. Premiere.

CARRÉ BLANC: DIR/SCR Jean-Baptiste Léonetti. France/Luxembourg/Russia/Belgium/Switzerland. U.S. Premiere.

THE DAY HE ARRIVES: DIR/SCR Hong Sang-Soo. South Korea.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL: DIR/SCR Nacho Vigalondo. Spain.

FAUST: DIR Alexander Sokurov. SCR Alexander Sokurov, Marina Koreneva. Russia. U.S. Premiere.

FOOTNOTE: DIR/SCR Joseph Cedar. Israel. Israel’s official foreign-language Oscar submission.

THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD: DIR Joshua Marston. SCR Joshua Marston, Andamion Murataj. USA/Albania/Denmark/Italy.

THE INVADER: DIR Nicolas Provost. SCR Nicolas Provost, Giordano Gederlini, François Pirot. Belgium. U.S Premiere.

JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI: DIR David Gelb. USA.

KINYARWANDA: DIR/SCR Alrick Brown. USA.

MAMA AFRICA: DIR Mika Kaurismäki. Germany/South Africa/Finland.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA: DIR Nuri Bilge Ceylan. SCR Ercan Kesal, Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Turkey/Bosnia/Herzegovina. Turkey’s official foreign-language Oscar submission.

PLAY: DIR/SCR Ruben Östlund. Sweden/France/Denmark.

A SEPARATION: DIR/SCR Asghar Farhadi. Iran. Iran’s official foreign-language Oscar submission.

THE SILVER CLIFF: DIR Karim Aïnouz. SCR Beatriz Brachner, Karim Aïnouz. Brazil.

TARGET: DIR Alexander Zeldovich. SCR Vladimir Sorokin, Alexander Zeldovich. Russia.

THIS IS NOT A FILM: DIR/SCR Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Jafar Panahi. Iran.

THE TURIN HORSE: DIR Béla Tarr. SCR Béla Tarr, László Krasznahorkai. Hungary. Hungary’s official foreign-language Oscar submission.

BREAKTHROUGH SELECTIONS The Breakthrough films are true discoveries – films that come straight from the submissions process.

EXPECTING: DIR/SCR Francisca Fuenzalida. Chile. U.S. Premiere.

LIGHT OF MINE: DIR Brett Eichenberger. SCR Jill Remensnyder. USA.

THREE AND A HALF: DIR/SCR Naghi Nemati. Iran. U.S. Premiere.

WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT: DIR/SCR Alexandra-Therese Keining. Sweden. World Premiere.

MIDNIGHT SELECTIONS The Midnight section showcases an eclectic group of films across the globe from fearless proponents of provocative, jarring and unexpected ideas.

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW: DIR/SCR Panos Cosmatos. USA.

HEADHUNTERS: DIR Morten Tyldum. SCR Lars Gudmestad, Ulf Ryberg. Norway.

KILL LIST: DIR Ben Wheatley. SCR Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump. UK.

SHORT FILM SELECTIONS (In Competition) The films in this section are in competition for the Grand Jury Prize for Live Action Short Film and Animated Short Film. Both award categories are recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as qualifiers for the annual Academy Awards®.

30,000 DAYS: DIR Stephanie Barber. USA.

ALL FLOWERS IN TIME: DIR Jonathan Caouette. USA.

ALL IN ALL: DIR Charlie Reff, Jacki Sextro. USA.

ANOTHER BULLET DODGED: DIR Landon Zakheim. USA.

BABYLAND: DIR Marc Fratello. USA.

BLINK: DIR Rick Rosenthal. AFI Conservatory Directing Class of 1973. Canada.

BROKEN NIGHT: DIR Yang Hyo-Joo. Korea.

CLEAR BLUE: DIR Lindsay MacKay. AFI Conservatory Thesis Film/AFI Directing Class of 2010. USA.

DR. BREAKFAST: DIR Stephen Neary. USA.

THE EAGLEMAN STAG: DIR Michael Please. UK.

EX-SEX: DIR Michael Mohan. USA.

FROZEN STORIES: DIR Grzegorz Jaroszuk. Poland.

INFINITE MINUTES: DIR Cecilia Felmeri. Hungary/Romania.

JUAN Y LA BORREGA: DIR J. Xavier Velasco. Mexico.

LIBERTAS: DIR Kan Lume, Megan Wonowidjoyo. Australia/Singapore.

LITTLE KITTEN: DIR Stephanie Barber. USA.

MASKA: DIR Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay. USA.

MEXICAN CUISINE: DIR Francisco Guijarro. USA.

NEGATIVIPEG: DIR Matthew Rankin. Canada.

NIGHT HUNTER: DIR Stacy Steers. USA.

ONCE IT STARTED IT COULD NOT END OTHERWISE: DIR Kelly Sears. USA.

ONE MINUTE PUBERTY: DIR Alexander Gellner. USA.

PIONEER: DIR David Lowery. USA.

PROTOPARTICLES: DIR Chema García Ibarra. Spain.

THE RUNAWAY: DIR Victor Carrey. Spain.

SATAN SINCE 2003: DIR Carlos Puga. USA.

SLEEP STUDY: DIR Kerri Lendo, John Merriman. USA.

TATUM’S GHOST: DIR Stephanie Barber. USA.

THIEF: DIR Julian Higgins. AFI Conservatory Thesis Film/AFI Directing Class of 2010. USA.

TO DIE BY YOUR SIDE: Dir Simon Cahn, Spike Jonze. France.

UNMANNED: DIR Casey Cooper Johnson. AFI Conservatory Thesis Film/AFI Directing Class of 2011. USA.

THE VOYAGERS: DIR Penny Lane. USA.

WE’RE LEAVING: DIR Zachary Treitz. USA.

YEARBOOK: DIR Carter Smith. USA.

ZERGUT: DIR Natasha Subramaniam, Alisa Lapidus. USA.

SHORT FILM SELECTIONS (Out of Competition)

AANTENI: DIR Todd Cole. USA.

I SAW YOUR SISTER YESTERDAY: DIR Mina Park. USA.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO: DIR Juliano Dornelles. Brazil.

MY BOW BREATHING: DIR Enrico Maria Artale. Italy.

21 October 67 Permalink