2008 AFI Fest Lineup
Tickets for AFI Fest which runs October 30 – November 9 went on sale to AFI members this morning and tickets will be available to the general public beginning Friday.
As reported previously, the opening night film is the world premiere of Joe Wright’s The Soloist starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx. It tells the true story of an LA Times columnist (Downey, Jr.) and a gifted but schizophrenic violinist (Foxx) who has ended up homeless on the streets of LA.
Closing the festival is the world premiere of Edward Zwick’s Defiance, the story of three Jewish brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell) who form a resistance to the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II.
In between, there will be gala screenings of Steven Soderbergh’s Che starring Benicio Del Toro; Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood; and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Also making its world premiere on a date to be announced is Joel Hopkins’ Last Chance Harvey, a romantic drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.
Rounding out the schedule are several familiar titles that have made their splashes at Sundance, Cannes or one of the other major festivals. These include Paul Schrader’s Adam Resurrected, Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom, Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Sugar, Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho’s Tokyo!, James Gray’s Two Lovers, Kelly Riechardt’s Wendy and Lucy, Takeshi Kitano’s Achilles and the Tortoise, Laurent Cantet’s Cannes winner The Class, Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird, Steve McQueen’s The Hunger, Gerardo Naranjo’s I’m Gonna Explode, Bent Hamer’s O’Horten, Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours, Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir, Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman, and Lisandro Alonso’s Liverpool.
The Narrative and Documentary Competition categories include the world premieres of Rafael Monserrante’s Poundcake and Danny Ledonne’s Playing Columbine. The Alt Cinema category includes Nacho Vigalando’s Time Crimes and the world premiere of Michael (Hamlet, Nadja) Almereyda’s experimental Paradise.
I’m not too interested in the opening and closing night films so the only gala screening I’m planning on is Che. I’m anxious to catch The Wrestler, but it conflicts with two or three other smaller films that might not be opening in LA for a while. I believe The Wrestler will be opening in LA in December so I’ll catch it then. Otherwise, I’d like to see just about everything else I’ve listed, especially, A Christmas Tale, Waltz with Bashir, Hunger, The Class and Gomorrah. I doubt I’ll be able to schedule everything, plus I’ll probably make some compromises to catch a few of the promising looking films that I don’t know anything about.
However it plays out, this is an intriguing lineup for those of us who weren’t at Cannes, Sundance or Toronto.
Check out the full lineup at the AFI website.
Filed under: Film Festivals
Tags: AFI Fest
You lucky son of a gun…
Awesome lineup, sight unseen!
Craig, is the AFI fest in Los Angeles?
Well, sir, you will finally get to see CHE, a film you have been hankering to see for a very long time, and one that almost brought you over here on the East Coast to see us all.
But there are other goodies there as you note, and the Aronofsky would be define. I am for some reason afraid of that Zwick film (saw trailers in theatres) yet his GLORY ranked among my favorite films of 1989.
Great lineup.
Wow, that should be fun. Congrats on scoring the tickets and good luck with the fest.
Yes Sam, AFI is in LA.
As I said, I’ll regrettably be skipping Wrestler, but I’m very excited about Che.
I’m more interested in the Zwick film than any of his latest films because of the cast, but it can wait for sure.
Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any to make an entrance on the comments section of LiC.
Craig, you were behind me a couple of times in the press line at LAFF and I took notice of your site name while tapping my foot waiting anxiously in the heat outside of the Crest before AMERICAN SON, only to later find we were fellow Muriels voters. I’ve been coming back to LiC ever since and really enjoy the writing.
I was gushing over AFI lineup when it was released by eBlast a couple of days ago, especially the galas (although I’ll have to catch THE WRESTLER later)… Last year’s AFI Fest was my first, and for someone who had only attended sub-par film-festivals up to that point, my 84% recommendation-record was terrific.
In addition to the tent-poles, I’m very excited for TOKYO!, A CHRISTMAS TALE, TWO LOVERS, THE CLASS and…
…SUGAR!!!
A screener of GOGOL BORDELLO NONSTOP is headed my way and I should be able to hit this week’s press-screening of IT’S A GOOD DAY TO BE BLACK AND SEXY, which looks semi-interesting.
Ah, how I love festival season and the feeling that truly good will consistently be coming out in multiplexes at the same time, too.
Good to hear from you Danny. I always tried to casually check out the press people standing in line at LAFF without actually letting them know I was checking them out. I’ll bet I recognize you when I see you again.
I had a lot of fun at AFI last year, it was the first festival I blogged about on a daily basis and then followed it up with LAFF this summer. Considering how many movies I saw, there were surprisingly few stinkers. I suppose both AFI and LAFF get a lot of stuff that has been proven elsewhere so the hit rate is higher.
Daytimes are hard for me to make screenings so I’ll have to miss the early press stuff which sucks, but that’s life.
I’ll keep my eye out for you this year. If you see me, be sure to say hi.
Have fun Craig! Awesome, awesome line up.
Hmm, is this pure envy I’m feeling? I think it must be. Have a great time, Craig. Wish I could be there to divide and conquer all the enticing films with you! (always wiling to chip in and do my part for LiC).
I wish AFI was as sexy and exciting as Sundance or Cannes, but I get to pretend that it is. I’m still in candy store mode where I want to see everything and haven’t gotten serious about wittling the list down to reality.
Perhaps when the economy recovers (or we turn to lives of crime) and we’re all rich, you and Mr. Bee will fly out and join me. Screw that, we’ll meet in Cannes.
Considering every movie I’ve been sitting hot for this year (especially Sugar) is screening here, with the exception of Ben Button and QoS and a couple blockbusters, uh, yeah I’d say this a little taste of paradise.
I’ll try to balance my envy with some enthusiasm that there’ s trustworthy source on the ground reporting back to us.
Uh…sitting hot?
Never heard that one, babe…
Sounds good, Craig. I’m planning on winning Powerball this weekend, so I’ll book our tickets right afterwards.
Me neither, M…I don’t even know what it means, but I’m doing it from now on!
In LA, they don’t just sit pretty, they sit hot.