Need a vacation from your vacation? If you're tired of rain and snow, or are looking for a post-holiday escape, the Palm Springs International Film Festival starts this Wednesday and should really hit its stride on Friday night. Billing itself as "the premier presenter of world cinema on the North American continent," PSIFF features films from Argentina to Ethiopia, from Vietnam to Uzbekistan. A number of the films being shown this year are award winners (the South Korean film, Shi, or "Poetry", won Best Screenplay honors for Lee Changdong at the Cannes Film Festival, this year). Son of Babylon, which plays this week, was one of my favorites from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival lineup (a Marine in the theater that night felt the film presented an accurate portrait of Iraq as he saw it, while stationed there; it certainly is a moving portrayal of the life of a Kurdish boy searching for his missing father in that war-torn country):
Many PSIFF films have already screened at other high-profile festivals around the world. PSIFF claims to show "a majority of the official international submissions to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Foreign Language Film." In other words, this is a great place to watch for Oscar contenders.
In addition to films, this year's "Talking Pictures" series focuses on actors considered to be Academy Awards frontrunners: after a screening of their films, Colin Firth, Javier Bardem, and Michael Douglas will each appear on stage for a live, in-depth interview.
There are also a number of filmmaker tributes scheduled for Saturday's Black Tie Awards Gala at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The following stars can be expected to appear on the red carpet, that night:
Jennifer Lawrence (Rising Star Award)
Carey Mulligan (Breakthrough Performance Award)
Javier Bardem (International Star Award)
Diane Warren (Frederick Loewe Music Award)
David O. Russell (Director of the Year Award)
Colin Firth (Desert Palm Achievement Actor Award)
Danny Boyle (Sonny Bono Visionary Award)
Natalie Portman (Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award)
Robert Duvall (Career Achievement Award)
Ben Affleck (Chairman's Award)
The Social Network (Ensemble Performance Award)
If nothing else, it should be a celebrity-watcher's dream weekend. Do try to see a film or two, though, will you?
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