AFI FEST 2019

AFI FEST Presented by Audi 2019
November 14-21 - TCL Chinese Theatres

AFI FEST 2019 presented by Audi takes place November 14-21, 2019, at historic theaters in Los Angeles.  Screenings, Galas, and other events will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatre, the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres and the Hollywood Roosevelt and will open on Thursday, November 14 with the World Premiere of AFI Conservatory alumna Melina Matsoukas’s QUEEN & SLIM.

Academy Award® nominee Peter Morgan will be honored with a Tribute of his career and a Gala screening of the third season of THE CROWN on Saturday, November 16, Academy Award® winner Clint Eastwood’s RICHARD JEWELL will have its World Premiere as a Gala screening on Wednesday, November 20 and the festival will close with the World Premiere of George Nolfi’s THE BANKER on Thursday, November 21.

This year’s Tribute honors famed producer and director Alan J. Pakula, creator of some of the most iconic films of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Academy Award®-nominated Pakula will be celebrated with a screening of the new documentary ALAN PAKULA: GOING FOR THE TRUTH (DIR Matthew Miele), along with screenings of three of his classic films, KLUTE, SOPHIE’S CHOICE and THE STERILE CUCKOO.

AFI FEST will honor Martin Scorsese with a Tribute on Friday, November 15 at the TCL Chinese Theatre. The evening will celebrate the AFI Life Achievement Award recipient and Academy Award® winner’s indelible impact on culture as one cinema’s most acclaimed filmmakers. Following the conversation with Scorsese, AFI FEST will present his most recent film, Netflix’s THE IRISHMAN, an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century.

The program for this year’s AFI FEST includes 142 titles of which 51% are directed by women. The Midnight section screenings feature the chilling and provocative genre films JALLIKATTU and SAINT MAUD. 

For the full film lineup and schedule, please visit Fest.afi.com.

WORLD CINEMA SECTION

   

The World Cinema section showcases the most anticipated and celebrated international films of the year and features 16 titles representing 19 countries. The section includes five official International Feature Film Oscar® submissions screening at this year’s festival:  Sweden’s AND THEN WE DANCED (DIR Levan Akin), Canada’s ANTIGONE (DIR Sophie Deraspe), Poland’s CORPUS CHRISTI (BOŻE CIAŁO) (DIR Jan Komasa), Italy’s THE TRAITOR (DIR Marco Bellocchio), and Romania’s THE WHISTLERS (DIR Cornlieu Porumboiu). The section also includes the Los Angeles premiere of Terrence Malick’s A HIDDEN LIFE. The film, a historical drama about Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter who refused to fight for the Nazis during World War II, is set to be released in the United States on December 13, 2019.

AND THEN WE DANCED

While training at the National Georgian Ensemble, the arrival of preternaturally talented Irakli awakens a sense of friendly competition in Merab, along with more complicated feelings between the two boys. This twirling, rhythmic romance sees the profundity of first love intensified by the risk that exposure could threaten career, familial and community support.

ANTIGONE

An immigrant family is ripped apart by a police shooting in Québécois writer/director Sophie Deraspe’s original and propulsive drama that takes its inspiration from Sophocles’ tragedy and centers it on a daughter’s painful choices that could determine the family’s fate.

BACURAU

The inhabitants of a remote Brazilian village realize that their town has been erased from the map. When the water supply is cut, cell-phone coverage fades and a local family is murdered, it becomes clear they are under attack. Tension explodes into war as the community bands together, determined to survive the assault.

BALLOON (QI QIU)

Shepard Dargye and his wife, Drolkar, live a simple life with their sons and patriarch on the family farm in rural Tibet. When a death in the family occurs, the family must make decisions as faith and political realities collide in this delicate and beautiful film from Pema Tseden.

CORPUS CHRISTI (BOŻE CIAŁO)

After he is released from a brutally violent juvenile detention center, a young man, disguised as a priest, finds himself hiding out in a small town with a dark past. As the townspeople grieve and the priest attempts to help them heal, he moves towards grace in a most unexpected way.

DEERSKIN

In Quentin Dupieux’s surreal, dark comedy, Georges (Jean Dujardin) buys his dream jacket — vintage, fringed and 100% deerskin —in the French Alps. As George’s madness spirals from existential midlife crisis to violent psychotic breakdown, he attempts to document his new mission of ensuring that the jacket is the only one left in existence.

A HIDDEN LIFE

Terrence Malick returns with this harrowing true-life tale of conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, eliciting comparisons in scope to his Academy Award-nominated TREE OF LIFE. When the Third Reich shatters Franz’s simple life, he is forced to reconcile the prevailing beliefs of his church and country with his own personal convictions.

I WAS AT HOME, BUT… (ICH WAR ZUHAUSE, ABER…)

In Angela Schanelec’s cryptic, disjointed and enigmatic winner of Best Director at the 2019 Berlinale, familial trauma is premise to a series of defiantly fragmented vignettes. Astrid attempts to purchase a second-hand bicycle, her son and his classmates stage Hamlet, two teachers discuss their relationship, a dog, a rabbit and a donkey.

LIBERTÉ

In a small clearing in the woods somewhere between Potsdam and Berlin, over the course of one extended night of debauchery, a band of exiled Libertines seeking support from the German Duc de Walchen (Helmut Berger) will revel in the freedom to take sexuality to its darkest places.

PROXIMA

Sarah, a French astronaut, earns her dream job: a spot on a year-long mission to Mars. During training, Sarah wrestles with the stress of separation from her daughter and earning respect from her male colleagues. Shot on location in real training facilities, PROXIMA is a poignant, thoughtful journey through the complexities of parenthood.

THE SLEEPWALKERS (LOS SONÁMBULOS)

While preparing to spend the summer at her mother-in-law’s cottage, Luisa discovers her teenage daughter Ana sleepwalking naked. In the countryside, each woman becomes alienated by repeated attempts to connect and be understood and, with surmounting feelings of entrapment, will be pushed beyond complacency in Paula Hernández’s elegant and bold debut.

SON-MOTHER (PESAR-MADAR)

A single mother of two faces a terrible dilemma of whether to marry a single father who will provide for her and her daughter but, who, due to Iranian custom, refuses to also take in her 12-year-old son. Director Mahnaz Muhammadi brilliantly navigates this unsentimental critique of Iranian traditions and the impossible choices that they can impose.

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

Facing production difficulties and confrontations amid language barriers and uncomfortable misunderstandings, the on-camera host of a Japanese crew shooting a travelogue in Uzbekistan begins to spiral into untapped anxieties, alienation and loneliness, leaving her to wander the streets of the unfamiliar landscape alone, where fears of the unknown are all-consuming.

THE TRAITOR

Celebrated Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio (FISTS IN THE POCKET, 1965) steps behind the camera with one of the most compelling modern dramatic stories of our time. THE TRAITOR is the ultra-widescreen true story of the Sicilian Mafia and Tommaso Buscetta, who makes a fateful decision that will permanently transform the Mafia.

THE TRUTH

In his first film outside of Japan, Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda (SHOPLIFTERS) casts legendary actresses Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche as a fading screen star and her daughter in this witty and touching battle of wills between two women coming to grips with the movie business and each other.

THE WHISTLERS

An epically proportioned heist plot unravels when corrupt police officer Cristi is drawn into an elaborate money laundering scheme and ubiquitous hidden cameras threaten to expose him. A departure for Romanian auteur Corneliu Porumboiu, this tremendously entertaining and inventive crime thriller flashes a droll sense of humor under its stone-faced seriousness.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

ATLANTICS 

After a group of unpaid construction workers disappear at sea one night in search of a better life abroad, the women they have left behind in Dakar are overwhelmed with a mysterious fever. Ada, 17, secretly grieves for her love Souleiman, one of the departed workers, but she has been promised to another man. After a fire breaks out on her wedding night, a young policeman is sent to investigate the crime. Little does he know that the aggrieved workers have come back as haunting, possessive spirits. While many of them seek vengeance for their unpaid labor, Souleiman has come back for a different purpose — to be with his Ada one last time.  Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, ATLANTICS marks the feature narrative debut of director Mati Diop.

BLACKBIRD 

Battling a terminal illness, Lily has decided to end her life on her own terms and requests her loved ones spend a final weekend together. Lily’s daughters arrive with their own families and emotional baggage in tow and what begins as a peaceful gathering unravels as secrets are exposed. With a stellar ensemble cast, BLACKBIRD is a thoughtful and elegant portrait of life, death and family.

CLEMENCY 

Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard), a stoic death row prison warden, navigates the physiological complexities and consequences of her profession. With the next execution looming, Bernadine detaches emotionally from her husband and colleagues. Awarded the US Narrative Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, CLEMENCY showcases the collateral damage of flawed justice.

THE FRIEND 

Based on the National Magazine Award winning article that went viral moving millions, THE FRIEND tells the extraordinary true story of Nicole (Dakota Johnson) and Matthew Teague (Casey Affleck) who, after learning that Nicole has only six months to live, receive the unexpected support of the couple’s best friend Dane (Jason Segel) who puts his life on hold and moves into their family’s home.  Infused with heart, humor, and ultimately hope, THE FRIEND is a moving and entertaining depiction of the power of friendship, unconditional love and how one person can make a difference in the world.

JUST MERCY 

JUST MERCY is the true story of young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his history-making battles for justice in Alabama. Stevenson refuses to back down as he fights a legal system without mercy stacked against him and his clients at every turn. One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), a man whose clear innocence means nothing to the corrupt and compassionless forces Stevenson doggedly takes on.

PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU) 

At a French villa, Marianne is charged with secretly painting Héloïse, a woman fresh from a convent and betrothed to a strange man. Spending days as Héloïse’s walking companion, Marianne paints her by memory at night. Filmmaker Céline Sciamma delivers a bold cinematic masterpiece about self-discovery, memory and freedom.

THE SONG OF NAMES 

Director François Girard orchestrates a stellar ensemble as its players in this potent film about two boys connected by World War II and music.  Spanning generations — as boys, Jewish violin prodigy Dovidl and non-Jewish Martin come together in London and remain close for years until Dovidl’s mysterious disappearance.  Decades later the adult Martin (Tim Roth) embarks on a transcontinental journey in search of his beloved friend (Clive Owen).

TROOP ZERO 

In rural 1977 Georgia, a misfit girl dreams of making contact with outer space. When a national competition offers her a chance at her dream, to be recorded on NASA’s Golden Record, she recruits a makeshift troop of Birdie Scouts, forging friendships that last a lifetime and beyond.

DOCUMENTARY FILMS SECTION

The Documentary section presents some of the most engaging and powerful real-life stories depicted in global non-fiction cinema. With subjects and themes both profound and impactful, the section includes two-time Academy Award®-winning director Barbara Kopple’s DESERT ONE, a film that revisits the 1980 secret mission by the Army’s elite Delta Force to rescue US hostages held captive in Tehran.

BIKRAM: YOGI, GURU, PREDATOR 

Capitalizing on yoga’s growing popularity, the charismatic Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram Yoga, built an empire of yoga studios and teaching programs. Eva Orner’s stunning documentary exposes Choudhury’s dark secret — he was abusing his position of authority, preying on women and creating a cult-like atmosphere that gave him virtual immunity.

CHEZ JOLIE COIFFURE 

Inside a bustling Brussels hair salon, manager Sabine can be seen braiding hair and lending support to a vibrant group of African migrants. In this lovely observational chamber piece, filmmaker Rosine Mbakam offers an affectionate tribute to Sabine and her community. Despite the traumas of migration, their enduring charm and laughter are testament to human resilience.

CITIZEN K 

Hero or villain? Mikhail Khodorkovsky is perhaps a unique blend of both. In this gripping documentary, Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney charts the fascinating rise and fall of the former Russian oil tycoon whose story bears witness to Putin’s ruthlessness and to the changing fortunes of those who dared to oppose him.

DESERT ONE

Two-time Academy Award®-winning director Barbara Kopple revisits the 1980 secret mission by the Army’s elite Delta Force to rescue US hostages held captive in Tehran. Using previously unused archival material and featuring riveting interviews with the principals, Kopple’s breathtaking account paints an unforgettable portrait of American heroism — and its profound cost.

THE HUMAN FACTOR 

Dror Moreh’s (THE GATEKEEPERS) fair-minded and highly dramatic documentary delivers vivid recollections from American diplomatic envoys who have witnessed — and shaped —the most tenuous negotiations of the Middle East peace process.  Their insights into world leaders, including Arafat, Rabin and Clinton, leave a devastating impression about what could have been… and still isn’t.

I AM NOT ALONE

Capturing the fury, emotion and spontaneous expressions of freedom that overtook the streets of Armenia in 2018, Garin Hovannisian’s fascinating eye-witness documentary affords a unique glimpse into a revolution-in-the-making by offering unprecedented access to the grassroots movement that dared to challenge an entrenched regime, as well as the regime’s leaders themselves.

OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE

Famed neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks (“The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat”), who died in 2015, led an extraordinary life. Master filmmaker Ric Burns granted intimate access in Sacks’ final months, paints a deeply moving portrait that captures his remarkable life and reveals the enormity of his spirit.

PRESENT.PERFECT. (WAN MEI XIAN ZAI SHI)

Winner of the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival, Zhu Shengze’s found-footage documentary compiles live streaming footage from over 800 hours of material. Its hosts are those with disabilities, the marginalized and the working-class, who poetically demonstrate the need to seek out or create global communities and the threat this poses to state control.

READY FOR WAR

Andrew Renzi’s startling documentary tells the heartbreaking immigration story of veterans of the Armed Services who, after having fought for the U.S. as a path to legal citizenship, find themselves not only without citizenship but being deported instead. For some, in a cruel twist, once in Mexico, the drug cartels pressure them to join their ranks.

SEARCHING EVA

For 25-year-old Eva, complex emotions surrounding adolescence, family, body, art and sex work are processed publicly through unflinchingly personal photos and writing posted on social media. In an attempt to capture the essence of this elusive personality, Pia Hellenthal’s extraordinary feature debut is a cinematic portrait that unfolds as a blitz of sound and image.

SOUTH OXFORD, ALL IOWA LAWN TENNIS CLUB, MARAVILLA, SERVE

Filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe returns to the screen with a series of intimate nonfiction shorts exploring America’s culture and passion for tennis and handball. Four stories, warmly crafted with both archival and original materials, illustrates the great humanity of society and the powerful, soulful bond we experience through sports.