AIFF 2012: H.P. Lovecraft, Señor Student, Coolio - All Coming to Anchorage International Film Festival 2012: Feature Peek

Screen Shot from Lad: A Yorkshire Story

[UPDATE Nov 11:  I just learned that two features were added - Deadfall and The Falls.  I've updated this post to include them.  Deadfall is scheduled for opening night and opens theatrically in New York, DC, and Cambridge, MA. the next week.]

The 2012 Anchorage International Film Festival begins Friday, Nov. 30. They posted their list of films officially selected to the festival earlier this week. 
 Below is the Features category.  These are the full length (55 minutes or more)  narrative films.  The kind you'd go to the movies to see normally, though few independent films ever make it to local theaters.  Except during film festivals.



There are 15 feature films from eight countries:

• Canada (2)
• Hungary (1)
• Italy (1)
• Mexico (2, one with Spain), 
• UK (2)
• USA (9 - one with Switzerland)

The links are my first quick and dirty looking around at what these films are about.  Some go to film websites, others to trailers, there's an interview with a director (in Spanish), and one or two reviews of the films, and a couple of interesting google translations.  I tried to find something that gives you a sense of the films.  These weren't just the first thing google listed. 

From Shouting Secrets

Features
Title	Director(s)	Country	Runtime
‡Aquí y Allá (Here and There)	Antonio Mendez Esparza	Mexico/Spain	110m
A föld szeretője (The Lover of the Soil)	Zsolt Pozsgai	Hungary	100m
‡Between Us	Dan Mirvish	USA	90m
‡Confine	Tobias Tobbell	United Kingdom	90m
Deadfall*	Stefan Ruzowitzky	USA	94m
El Estudiante (The Student)	Roberto Girault Facha	Mexico	98m
The Falls*	Jon Garcia	USA	90m
‡Grassroots	Stephen Gyllenhaal	USA	97m
Il cacciatore di anatre (The Duck Hunter)	Egidio Veronesi	Italy	90m
‡Lad: A Yorkshire Story	Dan Hartley	United Kingdom	96m
Passionflower	Shelagh Carter	Canada	83m
Redlegs	Brandon Harris	USA	67m
Servitude	Warren Sonoda	Canada	85m
‡Shouting Secrets	Korinna Sehringer	Switzerland/USA	88m
‡Things I Don’t Understand	David Spaltro	USA	111m
Two Hundred Thousand Dirty	Timothy L. Anderson	USA	89m
The Whisperer in Darkness	Sean Branney	USA	104m

[‡= in competition - updated 11/25]

A Föld szeretője

Some bits of info I picked up while checking film links, that might attract or repel movie goers:

Takes place in:
Cincinatti - Redlegs 
Guanajuato - El Estudiante
Seattle -  Grassroots
Winnipeg - Passionflower

Other:

About waiters - Servitude
Won Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor,  American Indian Film Festival - Shouting Secrets
Stars Coolio and a mattress store - Two Hundred Thousand Dirty
H.P. Lovecraft story brought to screen in 30's black and white style - The Whisperers of Darkness
Director involved in leak that Sarah Palin didn't know Africa is a continent - Between Us
Involves a Hospice - Things I Don't Understand
Director won an Oscar in 2008 for Best Foreign Film - Deadfall*
Two Mormon missionaries fall in love - The Falls *

There are also documentaries, animated films, short films, super short films, and Snow Dance films (shot by Alaskans or about Alaska.)

Screenshot from Things I Don't Understand

I'll post more about the festival as we get closer, but I thought I'd give folks an appetizer since the festival website now has lists of the selected films.  This means that of all the films submitted to the festival, these are the ones that the screeners have selected to be shown at the festival.  The next step is to identify the 'films in competition.'  These are the ones the screeners deem the best and eligible to compete for festival prizes.


[*Were added late, I added them here Nov. 11]



Here's a 2008 festival post that explains the different categories and the steps from submissions to awards.   I still have the 2011 AIFF Tab up above if you want to check out last year's festival.