Cinequest

We’re halfway through Cinequest 2016. What are the biggest hits and the most delightful surprises?

BIG MOVIES

Cinequest programmers hit a home run with the Opening Night rouser Eye in the Sky, the thriller-meets-thinker from Oscar-winning director Gavin Hood.  The screening was preceded by Cinequest co-founder Halfdan Hussey’s interview of Hood, which was probably the best ever on-stage interview in festival history (at least that I have seen).

The Cinequest audience also loved another Spotlight Film, the Norwegian disaster movie The Wave.

 

INDIES

Film festivals are very important to first-time directors, and Cinequest 2016 has hosted some world premieres of two wonderful debuts:

• Love Is All You Need?: The hard hitting exploration of homophobic bullying and hate crimes is the most sensational film at Cinequest.  COme to think of it, “hard hitting” is an understatement.
• Lost Solace: Highly original psychological thriller and a brilliant directorial debut – my personal favorite so far at this years festival.
• Heaven’s Floor: Absorbing and character-driven autobiographical drama about a most complicated woman and the choices that indelibly affect several lives.

 

WORLD CINEMA

As usual, Cinequest is screening some real gems from other nations. The best have been:

• The Memory of Water: This Chilean drama explores grief, its process and its impact and might just be most masterful filmmaking achievement at Cinequest 2016. Exquisite.  Probbly the best cinematic achievement at this year’s Cinequest.
• Demimonde: Sex, intrigue and murder in this operatic Hungarian period drama.
• Magallanes: A Peruvian psychological drama about those wrongs that cannot be righted.
• Fever at Dawn: Urgent period romance between Holocaust survivors, with an unexpected nugget at the end.

 

DOCUMENTARIES

The usual solid batch of Cinequest docs:

• Chuck Norris vs. Communism: The subversive impact of movies (ANY movies) on a culture-starved society.
• Dan and Margot: A very personal look at schizophrenia from the schizophrenic’s point of view.
• The Promised Band: A group of Israeli and Palestinian women seek to fight through the cultural, legal, political, military and security barriers between them by forming a girl band.
• The Brainwashing of My Dad: Personalizes the effects of right-wing media on mood and personality as well as on the political culture.
• Gordon Getty: There Will Be Music: Insights into the quiet passion and creative process of a most unusual classical composer.

WOMEN FILMMAKERS

This year, Cinequest presents the world or US premieres of sixty features and sixty-nine shorts. And of these 129 premieres, 64 were directed by women! These include Love Is All You Need?, Heaven’s Floor, The Brainwashing of My Dad, Dan and Margot and The Promised Band.

STILL TO COME

I’ve only seen The Daughter so far, but these upcoming films look promising:

• February (Shipka Kiernan from Mad Men, Emma Roberts) March 12; and
• The Adderall Diaries (James Franco, who will be making a personal appearance) March 12;
• The Little Prince (already spoken of as a contender for the 2017 Animated Feature Oscar) March 13.
• The Daughter: Based on an Ibsen play, this Australian drama is Cinequest’s Closing Night film and packs a powerfully emotional punch. March 13.

Bookmark my Cinequest 2016 page, with links to all my coverage. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.