The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival, announced its massive 150-film lineup this week. The world's oldest film festival (Federico Fellini showed his film La Strada here when he was just a pup will open with Peter Bratt's La Mission -- starring brother Benjamin Bratt -- and closes with Alexis dos Santos' Unmade Beds, with Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer -- with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel -- as a Centerpiece. Francis Ford Coppola will receive the festival's directing award (previously awarded to Mike Leigh, Spike Lee and Werner Herzog) and will hopefully screen a trailer and some bits and pieces from his upcoming Tetro. Robert Redford will be honored with the Peter J. Owens award (for actors whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity). James Toback will receive the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting, and the festival will screen his new documentary Tyson. Other guests include Evan Rachel Wood and Elijah Wood (no relation).
World premieres include the documentaries The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story and Ferlinghetti. Other highlights are Claire Denis' 35 Shots of Rum, Jonathan Parker's (Untitled), the U.S. premiere of Yim Pil-sung's Korean horror pic Hansel & Gretel, the animated Battle for Terra, Fernando Eimbcke's Lake Tahoe, Duncan Jones's Moon, Rudo Y Cursi, directed by Alfonso's brother Carlos Cuaron; Atom Egoyan's Adoration, Catherine Breillat's Bluebeard, Stephan Elliot's Easy Virtue, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Still Walking, Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours, John Boorman's The Tiger's Tail, Joe Berlinger's Crude, Gerald Peary's For the Love of Movies, Peter Greenaway's Rembrandt's J'Accuse, and restored prints of John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) and Michelangelo Antonioni's La Amiche (1955), as well as tons of short films, parties and live music.
The festival runs April 23 to May 7, 2009.
1. I'm so excited for this year's festival! Here are my personal picks for films to check out =)
http://hoodscope.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/52nd-annual-san-francisco-international-film-festival-kicks-off-this-week/
Posted at 4:46PM on Apr 21st 2009 by Gene