AFI Fest brings the best from other festivals to L.A. film fans

The American Film Institute announced the full program for this year’s AFI Fest on Tuesday, giving local audiences a chance for the first time to catch up with many titles from this year’s international festival circuit. The festival runs from Oct. 23–27.
As previously announced, AFI Fest will open with the world premiere of Laurent Bouzereau’s documentary “Music by John Williams,” a portrait of the five-time Oscar-winning film composer behind the themes to “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Superman” and countless others. As a centerpiece screening, the festival will host the world premiere of Robert Zemeckis’ “Here,” which reunites him with “Forrest Gump” stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Zemeckis will also do a Directors Spotlight, an event featuring clips and a career conversation between the filmmaker and his frequent collaborator Hanks.
The festival will close with the world premiere of 94-year-old Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2,” a legal thriller starring Nicholas Hoult.
“We are proud to bring the best in film from around the world to the city of Los Angeles,” said Todd Hitchcock, director of AFI Fest as well as the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Md., said in a statement. “It’s a celebration of storytelling in all its forms, where diverse voices and unique perspectives promise to inspire audiences of all ages.”
In its second year under Hitchcock’s leadership, the festival seems to be settling into a role of cherry-picking highlights from the year and bringing them to audiences in L.A. Among the films in Tuesday’s announcement were many from the year’s festival circuit, including titles that premiered at Sundance, Berlin, SXSW, Tribeca, Cannes, Venice, Telluride and Toronto.
Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s “Zurawski v Texas,” a documentary on abortion rights that was executive produced by Hilary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence, premiered at Telluride.
Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie as opera star Maria Callas; Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 5,” which dramatizes the Olympics hostage crisis of 1972; Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Harvest,” a medieval drama of farming life; Alex Ross Perry’s “Pavements,” which weaves together fact and fable to tell the tale of ’90s indie-rock heroes Pavement; and Justin Kurzel’s fact-based crime drama “The Order” all premiered at Venice.
Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “La Cocina,” about the multilingual culture clash in the kitchen of a New York City restaurant starring Raúl Briones and Rooney Mara, premiered earlier in the year at Berlin. So did Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s “No Other Land,” a documentary look at the Palestinian-Israeli conflict made by a collective of filmmakers from both countries. Festival screenings such as AFI Fest are the only way for audiences to see the urgent and timely film, which is still without U.S. distribution.
Among movies that premiered at Cannes are David Cronenberg’s grief-stricken drama “The Shrouds,” Paul Schrader’s reunion with his “American Gigolo” star Richard Gere in “Oh, Canada,” and Jia Zhang-ke’s “Caught by the Tides,” featuring footage captured by the director over two decades. Andrea Arnold’s fantastical drama “Bird,” actor and filmmaker Noémie Merlant’s horror-comedy “The Balconettes” and Carson Lund’s New England baseball drama “Eephus” first played at Cannes as well.
From Toronto comes Mike Leigh’s first contemporary-set drama in 14 years, “Hard Truths”; Durga Chew-Bose’s “Bonjour Tristesse,” a stylish adaptation of the classic coming-of-age novel by Françoise Sagan; and Samir Oliveros’ “The Luckiest Man in America,” about a behind-the-scenes scandal at the game show “Press Your Luck.” Also having premiered in Toronto is Rachel Morrison’s boxing drama “The Fire Inside,” from a screenplay by Barry Jenkins, and Marielle Heller’s psychological horror tale of motherhood, “Nightbitch” starring Amy Adams.
Jesse Eisenberg’s dramedy about reconciling with history, “A Real Pain,” and Chris Smith’s documentary on the long-running music group “Devo” premiered earlier in the year at Sundance. AFI Fest will also screen “De-Evolution Is Real: The Restored Films of Devo,” a selection of material from the band’s extensive archives.
The festival’s program will feature nine titles representing their respective countries for the international feature Academy Award, including Mati Diop’s “Dahomey,” Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here,” Sandhya Suri’s “Santosh,” Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Astrid Rondero’s “Sujo,” Damian Kocur’s “Under the Volcano,” Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language” and Maura Delpero’s “Vermiglio.”
Last year’s festival featured more than 20 of the submissions for the international feature Oscar, as well as opening with the world premiere of Sam Esmail’s “Leave the World Behind” and closing with a screening of Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro.”
Passes for this year’s AFI Fest are available now at fest.afi.com and eight-ticket bundles go on sale Oct. 4, with single tickets available beginning Oct. 7.