|
Cambridge, Monday October 1st 2018 - The 38th Cambridge Film Festival (CFF) today announces its full programme, featuring a diverse collection of films celebrating cinema in all its forms; films which will engage, entertain and delight, while also addressing some of the most important issues facing the world today. The Festival will run from October 25th to November 1st 2018.
As the UK's 3rd longest running film festival, Cambridge has a strong reputation for presenting an eclectic film programme offering something for everyone. This year’s programme of 160 titles from 44 countries will include UK premieres of new features, classic retrospectives, insightful documentaries, discovery titles, family favourites, and a diverse array of short films.
The very best of both established and emerging filmmaking talent will be celebrated through the Festival’s Gold, Silver and Crystal Punt awards, 3 premiere competitions which forgo the jury system to place the Cambridge audience at the very heart of the Festival competition experience. Previous winners of the Golden Punt best feature award have included Pedro Almodovar (Volver) and Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers).
For the first time the entire Festival lineup is divided into thematic sections, encouraging existing audiences to dive deeper into the programme and providing ease of access for first time Festival goers. Alongside opening and closing night Galas, Special Events and touring programmes, CFF will present an exciting collection of exceptional cinema from around the globe under the headings; International Festival Highlights, Preview Heaven, Longing & Belonging, World Documentaries, New Fiction From Women Directors, Austrian Focus, Restorations & Rediscoveries, Horror, Human Rights, Camera Catalonia, Cambridge African Film Festival, Microcinema, ShortFusion & Family Film Festival. These diverse strands are home to not only the highest creative achievements in film making but also a host of feature premieres, with 4 World and 18 UK premieres gracing this year’s Cambridge Film Festival, alongside the UK premieresof a further 17 Short Films.
OPENING & CLOSING NIGHTS
The 38th Cambridge Film Festival will open on the 25th October 2018 with a gala screening of the much delayed and highly anticipated, Terry Gilliam magnum opus THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. In this modern and satirical twist on the classic tale, disillusioned advertising executive Toby (Adam Driver) returns to Spain, where he shot his graduation film. He discovers that the man he employed to play the role of Don Quixote (Jonathan Pryce) has spent the intervening years believing that he really is Don Quixote, who soon becomes convinced that Toby is his trusted Sancho Panza. The pair embark on a bizarre journey, jumping back and forth in time between the 21st and magical 17th century.
The Festival closes on November 1st with the powerful and urgently relevant MONSTERS AND MEN, the debut feature from award winning director Reinaldo Marcus Green. This film presents a ripple-effect narrative of the police killing of a black man: from an eyewitness who captures the shooting on his phone, and an African-American police office battling with his conscience, to a local high school student who transforms from passive bystander to vehement activist. Shot in Brooklyn, this timely and vital film features John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman), up-and-coming actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Mudbound), and star of Broadway’s Hamilton, Anthony Ramos.
[...]
RESTORATIONS & REDISCOVERIES
A partnership between Cambridge Film Festival and Cambridge-based Adder Technology creates an interesting juxtaposition pairing cutting edge technology with films from the very birth of cinema.
Spotlight on Lois Weber (a strand with live accompaniment by famed musicians Neil Brand and John Sweeney) focuses on a woman who more than 100 years ago was one of Hollywood’s most prominent and highly paid directors. From 1915, THE DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI was the first Hollywood blockbuster directed by a woman; THE BLOT is a sharply scripted drama full of pathos and humour while SHOES is both a remarkably sophisticated slice of storytelling and a fascinating time capsule of urban working-class life in 1916. Screening alongside SHOES will be mini thriller SUSPENSE which in 1913 pioneered the use of split screen.
Beyond the Lois Weber retrospective there is a wide range of rediscovery titles, from Jean Epstein’s 1926 spooky masterpiece THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER with accompaniment from Stephen Horne; to Margarethe von Trotta’s riveting introduction to one of cinema’s true greats SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN, which will screen alongside the master filmmaker’s seminal work THE SEVENTH SEAL. Maybe more relevant today than when it was made ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN dramatises the events of Washington’s most famous scandal; while the newly restored FAIL SAFE is a political thriller of a different kind which focuses on the threat of nuclear war. A new restoration of Billy Wilder’s comic masterpiece SOME LIKE IT HOT promises an utterly joyous big screen experience; Lindsay Anderson’s biting satire on public school life IF will be presented with an accompanying Q&A with actor David Wood while the uniquely entertaining show for kids of all ages COMEDY FOR KIDS WITH NEIL BRAND celebrates some of the greatest comics in silent cinema all accompanied by Neil, the fastest pianist in the business.
Read the full Press Release here.
|
