It’s time to get ready for the 2015 version of the San Jose film festival Cinequest, coming up on February 28 through March 8. At the media launch, Cinequest CEO and co-founder Halfdan Hussey pronounced himself “totally stoked”. We all should be stoked because Cinequest 2015 will host artists from 50 countries and present 91 world, North American or US premieres.
This is the 25th anniversary of the festival, but Hussey described Cinequest 2015 as “about today and tomorrow”, referencing both cutting edge cinema and the film technology of the future.
One of the surefire festival hits will be Clouds of Sils Maria, where the ever-radiant Juliette Binoche plays an actress now relegated to the older role in her breakthrough play, with the younger role going to Kristen Stewart (All About Eve, anyone?). The Twilight series has obscured what a good actress Stewart can be (Into the Wild, Adventureland, The Runaways), and her performance in The Clouds of Sils Maria has been getting raves.
Ann Thompson (Thompson on Film) will be receiving a Media Legacy Award and screening the Argentine revenge drama Wild Tales, which has been a festival hit at Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and Sundance.
Other highlights:
- Rosario Dawson will appear to receive a Maverick Spirit Award.
- That award will also go to Deliverance director John Boorman, who will be screening his newest work Queen and Country.
- Richard von Busack, the highly respected film critic for Metro, will receive a Media Legacy Award and screen L’Atalante, the 1934 masterpiece of French writer-director Jean Vigo, who died at age 29 soon after its completion.
But the real treasure at Cinequest 2015 is likely to be found among the hitherto less well-known films – like last year’s Cinequest jewel Ida, which is high on my list of Best Movies of 2014.
Take a look at the program and the passes and tickets. (If you want to support Silicon Valley’s most important cinema event while skipping the lines, the $100 donation for Express Line Access is an awesome deal.) You can download the Festival Guide from this page.
As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.
