-- The 28th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) announced that the festival's opening night will be the World Premiere screening of The Sense of an Ending, directed by Ritesh Batra on Thursday, January 5. The festival will close with The Comedian, directed by Taylor Hackford on Sunday, January 15. The Festival will screen 190 films from 72 countries, including 58 premieres (9 World, 5 International, 20 North American and 24 U.S.) from January 2-16, 2017. The complete line-up including a focus on cinema from Poland, Premieres, New Voices/New Visions competition, Modern Masters, True Stories, After Dark and more were also announced, in addition to the Awards Buzz program released last week.
OPENING AND CLOSING SCREENINGS
PSIFF will open with the World Premiere of the CBS Film The Sense of an Ending,directed by Ritesh Batra. The film stars Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling who team up with the director of The Lunchbox in this mesmerizing adaptation of Julian Barnes's acclaimed novel about time, memory, jealousy, and the lies we tell ourselves to survive. The film also stars Harriet Walter, Freya Mavor, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Dockery, Matthew Goode and Billy Howle. The film opens in NY and LA on March 10th.
Closing the festival will be the Sony Pictures Classics film The Comedian, directed by Taylor Hackford. Robert De Niro stars as Jackie Burke, a bitter, angry insult comic who was once the popular star of a TV sitcom, and is now trying to claw his way back on the stand-up circuit, one scabrous joke at a time. The film's supporting cast features Leslie Mann, Danny Devito, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Keitel, Patti LuPone and Edie Falco.
I couldn't be more proud of this year's lineup. The programming team has managed to pull together a plethora of different viewpoints in storytelling from around the world in hopes of generating great discussion sorely needed in these divisive times, said Artistic Director Michael Lerman. Between the 42 Foreign Language Oscar submissions, each selected to represent their own country in a year that's more competitive than ever, to the poignant work being made by Modern Masters like Kim Ki-Duk, Ken Loach, Feng Xiaogang and Steve James, to the ever-surprising first and second features in our New Voices/New Visions competition like the unmissable Zoology and Kati Kati, the festival is jam-packed with gems. Along with that, I have to say what a pleasure it is to present the World Premiere of Ritesh Batra's second feature film, The Sense of an Ending for Opening Night. We were all massive fans of his first feature, The Lunchbox, and we can't wait to welcome him to Palm Springs.
PREMIERES
World premieres:
The Beautiful Fantastic (UK/U.S.), Director Simon Aboud
Breakable You (U.S.), Director Andrew Wagner with Holly Hunter, Tony Shalhoub and Alfred Molina
The Concessionaires Must Die! (U.S.), Director America Young
Do It or Die! (U.S), Director J rn Winther
Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Our Friends) (U.S./France), Director Colin Hanks
Everybody Loves Somebody (Mexico), Director Catalina Aguilar Mastretta with Karla Souza
Poorna (India), Director Rahul Bose
The Sense of an Ending (UK/U.S.), Director Ritesh Batra
Take Me Home Huey (U.S.), Directors Alicia Brauns and Christine Steele
International premieres:
The 4th Company (Mexico/Spain), Directors Amir Galv n Cervera and Mitzi Vanessa Arreola
Call Me Thief (South Africa), Director Daryne Joshua
Julie and the Shoe Factory (France), Directors Paul Calori and Kostia Testut
Tonio (Netherlands), Director Paula van der Oest
Xamou (Greece), Director Clio Fanouraki
North American premieres:
At the End of the Tunnel (Argentina/Spain), Director Rodrigo Grande
Bad Influence (Chile), Director Claudia Huaiquimilla
Dark Skull (Bolivia/Qatar), Director Kiro Russo
The Day Will Come (Denmark), Director Jesper W. Nielsen
Ethel & Ernest (UK/Luxembourg), Director Roger Mainwood with the voices of Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent
Half Ticket (India), Director Samit Kakkad
The Hippopotamus (UK), Director John Jencks with Roger Allam, Matthew Modine and Fiona Shaw
A Jew Must Die (Switzerland), Director Jacob Berger
King of the Belgians (Belgium/Netherlands/Bulgaria), Director Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth
The Liberation of Skopje (Macedonia/Croatia/Finland), Directors Rade erbed ija and Danilo erbed ija
Mellow Mud (Latvia), Director Ren rs Vimba
Mercenary (France), Director Sacha Wolff
Mountain Cry (China), Director Larry Yang
No Dress Code Required (Mexico), Director Cristina Herrera B rquez
The Spy and the Poet (Estonia), Director Toomas Hussar
Tommys Honour (U.S.), Director Jason Connery
The Turkish Way (Spain), Director Luis Gonz lez
Vincent and the End of the World (Belgium/France), Director Christophe Van Rompaey
When We Rise (U.S.), Director Gus Van Sant with Guy Pearce, Mary-Louise Parker, Rachel Griffiths and Rosie O'Donnell
The Winter (Argentina/France), Director Emiliano Torres
U.S. premieres:
Barakah Meets Barakah (Saudi Arabia), Director Mahmoud Sabbagh
Behind the Clouds (Belgium), Director Cecilia Verheyden
Blessed Benefit (Jordan/Germany/Netherlands), Director Mahmoud al Massad
Brimstone (Netherlands/Germany/France/Belgium/Sweden/UK), Director Martin Koolhoven with Guy Pearce and Dakota Fanning
Center of My World (Germany/Austria), Director Jakob M. Erwa
Daguerrotype (France/Japan/Belgium), Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Distinguished Citizen (Argentina/Spain), Director Mariano Cohn and Gast n Duprat
In Between (Israel/France), Director Maysaloun Hamoud
It's Not the Time of My Life (Hungary), Director Szabolcs Hajdu
J: Beyond Flamenco (Spain), Director Carlos Saura
King of the Dancehall (U.S./Jamaica), Director Nick Cannon with Louis Gossett, Jr., Whoopi Goldberg and Busta Rhymes
The King's
