Jonathan Lynn's Wild Target, Alexandra Codina's Monica N David, Mamoru Hosoda's
Summer Wars, the U.S. premiere of David Bradbury's Going Vertical: The Shortboard Revolution and special presentations of short films and the John Hughes' Brat Pack classic Sixteen Candles open the inaugural Anaheim International Film Festival on Oct. 13.
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Red carpet arrivals to Anaheim GardenWalk near the Disney resort, a gala and an after party accompany the opening night screenings in the UltraStar Cinemas, which will have presented 47 features and 80 shorts from 30 different countries by the time it all ends on Oct. 17.
The British black comedy Wild Target is about an uptight, middle-aged hitman (Bill Nighy) who has the hots for his latest target (Emily Blunt).
From the U.S., Monica N David is a year-in-the-life documentary about a young couple with Down syndrome preparing for their fairy tale wedding and the
realities of married life afterward.
Japan's Summer Wars, which is about an epic computer battle, has been hailed as among the best anime features in recent years.
The Australian documentary Going Vertical reignites a 40-year-old debate over whether surfing on shortboards was introduced in America or Down Under.
From 1984, when Molly Ringwald had control of her full powers, Sixteen Candles is about a girl who deals with a mad crush, a dorky freshman and a family who forgets her milestone birthday. The screening is part of a tribute to Hughes.
The opening night short films are: Joshua and Rebekah Weigel's Butterfly Circus; Max Lang and Jakob Schuh's The Gruffalo; Iram Haq's Little Miss Eyeflap; Natalia Mirzoyan's My Childhood Mystery Tree; Lilli Birdsell's Once Upon a Crime; James Redford's Quality Time (starring Jason Patric); Cordell Barker's Runaway; and Peter Meech's Winner Best Short Film.
“The screening of multiple films on opening night enables us to welcome a larger audience of Orange County movie goers and shine the spotlight on more of our talented filmmakers,” says AIFF chairman Sinan Kanatsiz in the lineup announcement.
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“This is an ideal way to introduce our festival and the impressive variety of films we intend to offer. Our team has worked very hard to deliver a world-class film program that will establish the AIFF as a valuable platform for emerging filmmakers and long-term addition to the festival circuit.”
Baltasar Kormakur's Inhale was also announced to be the closing night film. The thriller starring Dermot Mulroney, Diane Kruger and Rosanna Arquette follows a couple who take their sick daughter to a mysterious doctor in Juarez, Mexico, for a lungs transplant–and uncover an illegal organ harvesting operation.
The AIFF also closes with an Awards Night Celebration Oct. 16 with red carpet arrivals to Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, achievement awards for Jonathan Lynn (My Cousin Vinny) and veteran actor Hector Elizondo and a VIP showing of “World of Color,” the new nighttime water spectacular at Disney's California Adventure.
For ticket information and the full festival schedule, visit anaheimfilm.org.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.