Film & Cinematography News South Africa

A film festival of festivals

The second annual Festival of Festivals has begun its circuit around the country, showcasing fine cinematic fare fresh from gracing the silver screen at the world's top film festivals. And according to the festival organisers, based on last year's lineup and their subsequent stellar awards performance, it may not be too far-fetched to speculate that some could conceivably end up being next year's Oscar frontrunners.
Still from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Still from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

From 7 - 13 November 2008, the showcase is at Ster-Kinekor Cinema Nouveau theatres at Cedar Square in Fourways, Johannesburg, and Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria. Thereafter, it travels to Cape Town's V&A Waterfront and Durban's Gateway Theatre of Shopping, 14 - 20 November.

The nine films on the programme are hot off the red carpet after showing at this year's Cannes, Toronto, Berlin and Venice film festivals, and promise a feast for lovers of art-house movies.

The films have not yet been released in South Africa, giving cinema-goers advance word on the contenders everyone is likely to be talking about as awards season heats up.

Penélope Cruz, Catherine Keener and Patricia Clarkson feature strongly in this year's lineup, each starring in two of the nine films on offer at the Festival of Festivals.

On the menu are Mike Leigh's latest venture, Happy-Go-Lucky; Woody Allen's comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson; The Stone Angel, based on the best-selling novel by Margaret Laurence; the English comedy Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution; Elegy with Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz; Colin Firth and Catherine Keener in the love story Genova; The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, about the young son of a Nazi officer; Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman; Atom Egoyan's intriguing and haunting drama Adoration and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

For more information, go to www.sterkinekor.com.

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