SDIFF: Putting Empathy and Courage Center Stage

The 18th annual San Diego International Film Festival offers a jam-packed lineup of 107 films.. The selection's curated from 3000 submissions(68 countries). The festival showcases an eclectic mix of genres with five features in the narrative spotlight competition, 20 in the narrative contest, nine in the documentary competition and 66 short films in total. SDIFF runs Oct 5-20 with regional premieres, panels, and gala events split between the Theater Box, the ArcLight Cinema La Jolla and the Pendry San Diego venues. 

The Southern California premiere of Jo Jo Rabbit, opened the San Diego International Film Festival last night (October 15) at the historic Balboa Theater in downtown San Diego. Festival screenings at the ArcLight Cinema La Jolla kick off with Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” starring Robert De Niro, on Oct. 17.  Kriss caught a screening of Jo Jo Rabbit at TiFF so, stay tuned for an audio review from the crew in the coming days. 

SDIFF Gala Features and Spotlight Films

The festival includes highly anticipated films as its gala features: “Motherless Brooklyn,” a 1950s noir film directed by Edward Norton; “Clemency,” directed by Chinonye Chukwu and starring Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge; and “The Kill Team,” an Afghanistan war drama directed by Dan Krauss and starring Alexander Skarsgård.

While its spotlight films, ‘Parasite,’ directed by Bong Joon-ho, ‘The Truth,’ directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, ‘Ordinary Love,’ directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, ‘A Portrait of a Lady on Fire,’ directed by Céline Sciamma and ‘Sea of Shadows,’ directed by Richard Ladkani, Sean Bogle and Matthew Podolsk” further add to the diversity of the year's offerings. 

Festival go-ers must choose between “A Hidden Life,” a drama set during WWII, written and directed by Terrence Malick, and “Marriage Story,” a divorce dramedy written and directed by Noah Baumbach, starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, as a closing-night film.

Empathy and Courage Take Center Stage

SDIFF always dedicates time and space to issue of social importance. Carrying its theme "The Power of Perspective" forward, this year's slate is no different. Of particular note the film Doing Money, By the Grace of God and the documentaries, My Body is Not A Weapon, Tribes on the Edge and Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World, tackle sex trafficking, abuse of power (priesthood), the exploitation of women, the plight of indigenous peoples in the face of modern colonialism and journalism in a changing world dynamic head on. 

Panel discussions will address the impact of artificial intelligence on the business, streaming services, women in film, and how to navigate the stages of film development as well an entire panel on the social impact of film.

October 16: Feature (s) On My Radar

This year's lineup offers film lovers a chance to put together five days of movie watching to inform the mind, up lift the soul, and tickle the funny bone.

Safe Inside

Steven Brand and Andrea Tivadar in Safe Inside (2019)

Synopsis: A young American couple, Ana and Tom are traveling across France. They don't come from money, so when Richard hires them to work on his estate, it feels like a dream come true. In the following days, the dark secrets of the property and its owner start coming to light. One day Tom makes a discovery, which may be more than he can handle. Ana is forced to accept the difficult truth, which will change her forever. Because the worst part isn't the dream itself, it's waking up.

Safe Inside_FEATURE - Trailer

This is "Safe Inside_FEATURE - Trailer" by San Diego Intl Film Festival on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

The Truth

---

Follow more of our San Diego International Film Festival 2019 Reviews and Coverage on our Press Page Page: https://press.mtrnetwork.net

Follow us on Social Media:

MTRNetwork

MTRNetwork

@BookBlerd

@TheMTRNetwork

 

The post SDIFF: Putting Empathy and Courage Center Stage appeared first on MTR Network.