BIFF Unveils 2011 World Cinema Showcase

A bittersweet comedy and a compelling drama from two of the world’s leading independent filmmakers will bookend this month’s 14th annual Bermuda International Film Festival [BIFF].

BIFF today [Mar.7] announced the opening and closing films for this month’s event – as well as the full World Cinema line-up.

Kicking off this year’s festival on March 18, will be “Barney’s Version”, a humorous yet tragic tale of Barney’s three marriages. Lead Actor, Paul Giamatti, won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for this film, which also stars Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver and Rosamund Pike.

“Rolling Stone” magazine’s Peter Travers raved that while it was an almost impossible task to squeeze all of Mordecai Richler’s sprawling novel about an SOB into one little movie, director Richard J. Lewis and screenwriter Michael Konyves succeed in distilling the picaresque essence of the classic book.

” … Paul Giamatti brings passion and ferocious fun to pain-in-the-ass Barney Panofsky, a Canadian TV producer and murder suspect who looks back on his life and three failed marriages through the prism of oncoming Alzheimer’s,” said Mr. Travers. “I’ll say no more, except that Rosamund Pike is perfection as Barney’s true love, and Dustin Hoffman makes magic as Barney’s randy dad. It’s acting heaven.”

And BIFF’s closing night film on March 24 will be “Somewhere”, directed by the formidable Sofia Coppola. Winner of the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival, it is an intimate portrait of a somewhat absent father (Stephen Dorff) who has missed out on much of his daughter Cleo’s (Elle Fanning) childhood and now has an opportunity to make up some lost time.

The 2011 World Cinema line-up of ten films, features two Oscar winning films, two Golden Globe winners and three Cannes Film Festival award-winners. Leading the pack with both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Feature Film, In a Better World. A Danish film with English subtitles, it tells the story of a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark and his work at an African refugee camp.

“The Illusionist”, which scooped Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globes and a nomination in the same category at the Oscars, will also be shown at BIFF 2011. It’s a French and Gaelic film about a magician whose thunder is being stolen by emerging rock stars and how he meets a young fan who changes his life forever.

Also on the BIFF 2011 line-up is “Another Year”, a look at four seasons in the lives of a happily married couple and their relationships with their family and friends. The film picked up the 2011 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Arguably the most high profile film on the BIFF 2011 line-up is “Biutiful”, which was nominated at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and for which Javier Bardem received a Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar nomination. “Biutiful” is a love story between a father and his children set in modern Barcelona. It is joined at BIFF 2011 by “Incendies”, which was also nominated in the Best Foreign Feature Film category at the Academy Awards.

Several film highlights of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival also feature on the BIFF 2011 line-up. “Poetry”, a Korean film, won best screenplay there, while “Of Gods and Men” received the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes, as well as a British Academy of Film &^ Television Arts [BAFTA] nomination for Best Film not in the English language. “Armadillo”, Critic’s Week Grand Prize winner at Cannes, and also the Grierson Prize for best documentary at London Film Festival, will also be screened in Bermuda this month.

“Life During Wartime”, Best Screenplay winner at Venice Film Festival, and “Position Among the Stars”, winner of the World Cinema Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival 2011, the Best Feature-Length Documentary Award and the Best Dutch Documentary Award at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, complete the World Cinema line-up for BIFF 2011.

David O’Beirne, programme director of Bermuda International Film Festival, says: “We are really pleased with the BIFF 2011 selection, which could well be the most celebrated yet. BIFF’s mission is to advance the love of independent film from around the world and I believe this World Cinema showcase will do just that, with features from Korea, Denmark and Canada to name just a few. There is something for everyone from the poignant and thought-provoking to the sublimely funny.”

The full programme for BIFF 2011 will be announced this week. Films will be screened at Speciality Cinema & Grill, 12 Church Street, Hamilton and Liberty Theatre, 49 Union Square, Hamilton.

Full film synopses:
Opening Film
“Barney’s Version”
Director Richard J. Lewis, Canada / USA / 2010 / 134 minutes / Colour / R
Director Richard J. Lewis’ picaresque portrait of TV producer Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti) — a blunt, irascible grouch — is a freewheeling journey through Barney’s memories of a life that took in two disastrous marriages before he met the love of his life, elegant radio presenter Miriam (Rosamund Pike). Giamatti and Pike excel, with more than able support from Dustin Hoffman (as Barney’s dad, Izzy) and Minnie Driver as the second Mrs. P. Barney’s journey runs the gamut of moods from broad humour to real tragedy, the plot’s twists and turns add up to a beguiling, touching, grown-up piece of filmmaking.

World Cinema
“Another Year”
d. Mike Leigh UK / 2010 / 129 minutes / Colour / PG-13
This is the kind of film that makes you want to go out and hug old people. Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) are that rare happy couple in their twilight years who routinely have less fortunate friends and family over for dinner, tea and occasionally a lot of wine. As the conflicted friend who might make life’s cycle fall off its spokes, veteran Lesley Manville delivers an awards-calibre performance masking pain and vulnerability with drunken eccentricity. Some are declaring this melancholic and affectionate film Leigh’s finest work.

“Armadillo”
d. Janus Metz Denmark / 2010 / 100 minutes / Colour / Danish with English subtitles
In February 2009, Danish soldiers, accompanied by documentary filmmaker Janus Metz, arrived at Armadillo, an army base in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. Metz and cameraman Lars Skree spent six months following the lives of young soldiers situated less than a kilometre from Taliban positions. The filmmakers repeatedly risked their lives shooting this tense, brilliantly edited, and visually sophisticated probe into the psychology of young men in the midst of a senseless war whose victims are primarily local villagers. This gripping and authentic drama provoked furious debate in Denmark.

“Biutiful”
d. Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu Spain, Mexico / 2010 / 148 minutes / Colour / R Spanish with English subtitles
Iñárritu (“Babel”, “21 Grams”, “Amores Perros”) describes Uxbal, played by Javier Bardem, as “devoted father, tormented lover, mystified son, underground businessman, ghost seeker, spiritual sensitive, consumer-goods pirate, guilty conscience and urban survivor.” Uxbal wanders the mean streets of Barcelona trying to put his life in order, evading the law while caring for his two kids since their bipolar mother is incapable. Biutiful is relentless but digs out beauty in the rubble and is as riveting as the world a remarkable actor lets us see through Uxbal’s eyes.

“Incendies”
d. Denis Villeneuve Canada / 2010 / 130 minutes / Colour / R French and Arabic with English subtitles
Incendies merges dark drama with mystery as it delves into the past of the distant Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal) through the journey of her twin children Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) from Canada to the Middle East in search of answers to questions in their family history. Blessed with the help of a strong cast, the country’s best cinematographer (Andre Turpin) and his own leaned-out screenplay, Villeneuve has crafted a work of searing intensity, terrible beauty and great emotional power.

“In a Better World”
d. Susanne Bier Denmark, Sweden / 2010 / 113 minutes / Colour / R Danish with English subtitles
Two families cope with issues of morality and vengeance. Christian, full of fury after his mother dies, turns to revenge as a means of getting control over his life. He begins a friendship with Elias, whose father is away practicing medicine in Africa and who is the school bully’s prime target. After he takes care of Elias’s nemesis, Christian looks for bigger fish to fry. Mikael Persbrandt is superb as the good doctor trying to resist violence and director Susanne Bier expertly ramps up the tension in this intelligent meditation on masculinity, family and accountability.

“Life During Wartime”
d.Todd Solondz USA/2009/98minutes/Colour/R
The latest film from celebrated director Todd Solondz assembles an amazing ensemble cast including Allison Janney, Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Michael Kenneth Williams, Ally Sheedy, Charlotte Rampling, and Ciáran Hinds in an hilarious exploration of the boundaries of forgiveness, family, and love. Ten years have passed since shocking revelations shattered the world of the Jordan family, and now sisters Joy, Trish, and Helen, each embroiled in their own unique dilemmas, struggle to find their place in an unpredictable and volatile world. The past now haunts their family both literally and otherwise, and jeopardizes the future. Alternately hilarious and tragic, outrageous and poignant, Life During Wartime is an audacious comedy with unexpected resonance.

“Of Gods and Men”
d. Xavier Beauvois France / 2010 / 122 minutes / Colour / PG-13 Arabic and French with English subtitles
The 1996 kidnapping and murder of seven French monks from an Algerian monastery is the basis for this profoundly moving drama. With random attacks of violence by an Islamic fundamentalist group on the rise, the monks — led by brother superior Christian (Lambert Wilson) — realise it’s only a matter of time before they are targeted. However, they are reluctant to desert the village for which they provide medical care and have become part of the community. An intense and thoughtful film about the all-conquering strength of faith.

“Poetry”
d. Lee Chang-dong South Korea / 2011 / 139 minutes / Colour Korean with English subtitles
This crackling multi-layered policier gains most of its power from an unsentimental performance by the divine Yun as a dutiful grandmother still vibrant in her 60s who takes up writing poetry to fend off the early stages of dementia. She’s more than capable of finding true beauty in everyday life, but it’s only as she comes to understand her grandson’s connection to a young woman’s mysterious suicide that poetic inspiration touches her. Lee cleverly plays up the character study while keeping the criminal case in the background. Good and evil deeds share the screen with lofty dialogue and cinematic imagery. It’s uncommonly effective and subtly executed.

“Position Among the Stars”
d. Leonard Retel Helmrich Netherlands / 2010 / 111 minutes / Colour Indonesian with English subtitles
Twelve years ago, Dutch filmmaker Retel Helmrich decided to visit Indonesia, the birthplace of his Dutch father and Indonesian mother, looking for inspiration. The trip ignited his fascination with the country and he started filming the Shamshudin family living in a Jakarta slum. He followed them as the country shook off the rule of President Suharto (“The Eye of the Day”), experienced a rise of Islamic power (“Shape of the Moon”) and eventually nascent democracy, corruption and a widening income gap. At the start of “Position Among the Stars”, grandmother Rumidjah, openly Christian, has left the bustle of Jakarta to live in the countryside. But when her adolescent, smart Tari granddaughter turns out to be too much for her son Bakti to handle, Bakti asks his mother to return to the city’s slums to provide the girl with a sense of values and purpose in life.

“The Illusionist”
d. Sylvain Chomet France, UK / 2010 / 80 minutes / Colour / PG French and Gaelic with English subtitles
“The Illusionist” is based on an unproduced screenplay by French screen legend Jacques Tati, creator of “M. Hulot’s Holiday” and “Playtime”. It’s a gentle pas de deux between a paternal old stage magician and a wide-eyed girl as they navigate a changing world. Playing in a tiny Scottish village the magician befriends a chambermaid who’s still young enough to be dazzled by his sleight of hand. When he leaves for a city gig she follows him and the two end up travelling together. A marvellously dry and rewardingly subtle comedy.

Closing Film
“Somewhere”
d. Sofia Coppola USA/2010/97minutes/Colour/R
Somewhere is a film that is along the same lines as “Lost in Translation”, in that it is an intimate portrait, this time of a somewhat absent father (Stephen Dorff) who has missed out on much of his daughter Cleo’s (Elle Fanning) childhood and now has an opportunity to make up some lost time. Johnny is a big time movie star who is living ‘the life’ and staying at the infamous Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. His life seems to be charmed with fast cars and women throwing themselves at him, but he is empty and sad and missing something.

Created as a non-profit organisation in 1997, the Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF) seeks to advance the love of independent film from around the world, and create a community welcoming to filmmakers and filmgoers. BIFF organises an annual film festival held in March each year.

In addition, the organisation hosts a monthly film series, BIFFlixs, summer student camps to nurture young filmmaking talent on the island and filmmaking Labs for adults. BIFF is recognised as a qualifying festival for the Short Film Oscar ® by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

How to find BIFF:
Website: www.biff.bm
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BIFF.bm
Twitter: @BERMUDAFILMFEST

#BermudaInternationalFilmFestival #FullLengthMovies

Category: All, Entertainment, Films/Movies, News, Videos