November 5, 2015
The AFI FEST Interview: THE 33 Director Patricia Riggen
In AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi Centerpiece Gala THE 33, Mexican-born director Patricia Riggen tells the true-life story of the 2010 Chilean mine disaster in which a 100-year-old copper and gold mine collapse left 33 miners trapped deep underground for 69 days. As their families watched helplessly and rescuers drill through 2,300 feet of…
November 5, 2015
Join a Conversation with Director Scott Cooper and Johnny Depp at AFI FEST
AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi has added a new event to the festival – A Conversation with Director Scott Cooper and Johnny Depp. The two will discuss their recent collaboration on BLACK MASS (2015) in an evening moderated by Variety Deputy Awards and Features Editor Jenelle Riley. The Conversation will take place at AFI FEST…
November 5, 2015
The AFI FEST Interview: CHRONIC Director Michel Franco
Mexican director Michel Franco, whose acclaimed teenage bullying drama AFTER LUCIA screened at AFI FEST in 2012, returns this year with CHRONIC, an intense, uncompromising portrait of a palliative nurse working with chronically and terminally ill patients. Tim Roth gives a stunning, slow-burn performance as David, who selflessly and efficiently tends to his patients’ pain…
November 4, 2015
The AFI FEST Interview: SOUTHBOUND Director Roxanne Benjamin
SOUTHBOUND, from the producers of the V/H/S films, centers on a series of characters that all encounter sinister forces while on an isolated desert road. It screens in the Midnight section at AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi. AFI spoke with director/producer Roxanne Benjamin about this fresh new take on the horror anthology. AFI: You were…
November 3, 2015
Benicio Del Toro Is Coming to AFI FEST
AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi has added the special event On Acting: A Conversation with Benicio Del Toro to this year’s program. Academy Award®-winning actor Benicio Del Toro will come to the festival on Saturday, November 7 at 11:00 a.m. for a conversation about his extensive career — which includes the films CHE (2008),…
November 3, 2015
The AFI FEST Interview: MACBETH Director Justin Kurzel
Writer/director Justin Kurzel broke out of the Australian independent film scene with SNOWTOWN (AFI FEST 2011), a disturbing true crime retelling of a vicious spree of cult murders in the 1990s. Curious, then, that his next feature should be MACBETH, a Shakespeare adaptation that finds Kurzel working on a bigger-budget canvas carried by two Hollywood…
October 28, 2015
Michael Moore Is Kicking off the New AFI DOCS Film Series
Exciting news for Washington, DC-area documentary film fans: the American Film Institute announced today its new AFI DOCS FILM SERIES, a year-round documentary screening program in the nation's capital that will kick off November 16, 2015 at the Landmark E Street Cinema with Michael Moore's WHERE TO INVADE NEXT. Moore will also participate in a post-screening discussion. Admission...
October 27, 2015
AFI FEST 2015 Highlights: American Independents
Our American Independents section is a curated showcase for some of the country’s most exciting filmmakers, many of whom have shown work at festivals around the world. When selecting our program for the 2015 edition of AFI FEST, we noticed how well these 10 films complemented and contrasted one another. These diverse filmmakers all have strong…
October 27, 2015
New Auteurs: A Look Back at AFI FEST’s Competition Section
In 2009, AFI FEST introduced New Auteurs, a competitive section designed exclusively to raise the profiles of first- or second-time feature filmmakers. This section offers a launch pad for emerging new voices with whom we are eager to connect audiences. New Auteurs selections are eligible for prizes awarded by an esteemed jury of critics, writers…
October 25, 2015
The AFI FEST Interview: IXCANUL Director Jayro Bustamante
Jayro Bustamante’s hypnotic debut feature IXCANUL is Guatemala’s first-ever submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® — and one of the 11 films screening in the New Auteurs section at AFI FEST 2015. It follows a young Mayan woman living at the base of a volcano, who becomes pregnant outside of an impending arranged…
October 25, 2015
The AFI FEST Interview: BY THE SEA Director Angelina Jolie Pitt
Angelina Jolie Pitt’s third narrative feature, BY THE SEA, centers on a married couple (Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt) in the 1970s on vacation in a small seaside town, struggling to save their relationship. The film, set in France, is based on an original idea by Jolie Pitt. AFI: The film’s narrative and its characters…
October 25, 2015
The AFI FEST Interview: A WAR Director Tobias Lindholm
Tobias Lindholm (A HIJACKING, AFI FEST 2012) returns to the festival with his latest, A WAR, which centers on a company commander (Pilou Asbæk) who must make an impossible decision to save his men when a routine mission turns deadly. AFI spoke to Lindholm about the film, which is Denmark’s official 2016 Oscar® entry. AFI:…
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