It’s that time of year again. Gone are the days of vehicles racing through the desert with 4 stories of speakers and a guitarist on a swing, Triumph motorcycles being able to outpace a velociraptor and ….Vin Diesel. Don’t get us wrong, I am a summer movie junkie and crave those hot afternoons spent in an IMAX with a $30 bucket of popcorn and highly impractical plot lines unfolding on a seizure inducing scale.
But now it’s creeping into Fall, and that means the adults are back from vacation, the kids are locked in school, and the critics actually have to work again because it’s when the good movies come to a theater near you. It’s the beginning of award season in the movie business, anchored by a number of film festivals celebrating the year’s best films. The East End is lucky enough to host a pretty kick ass festival that is rapidly becoming an industry staple alongside the likes of Telluride, Sundance, and Tribeca. The 23rd annual Hamptons International Film Festival kicks off in less than a month with a pretty fantastic slate of films ranging from Foreign award winners to a Coen Brothers + Steven Spielberg project that is surely one of the most anticipated films of the year.
Photo by Jaap Buitendijk ©DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
From HIFF: The Festival’s closing night film is three-time Academy Award®-winning Steven Spielberg’s BRIDGE OF SPIES, is the story of James Donovan (two-time Academy Award® winner Tom Hanks), a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot. Written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, BRIDGE OF SPIES stars: three-time Tony Award® winner Mark Rylance, Scott Shepherd, Academy Award nominee Amy Ryan, Sebastian Koch, and Academy Award nominee Alan Alda. The Walt Disney Studios and Touchstone Pictures film will release in theaters on October 16, 2015.
“We have a strong slate this year which includes 72 features and 59 shorts representing a total of 41 countries,” said HIFF Executive Director Anne Chaisson. “It is a privilege to bring once again a diverse and sophisticated line-up to our audiences as we see our festival continue to thrive on such rich programs.”
There are two other movies we are stoked on checking out, one a bit more serious than the other. Produced by Michael Bederman, Oscar nominees Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, and Rachel McAdams star as the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, assigned by their newly appointed editor Martin Baron (Liev Schreiber) to investigate the allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, in the based on real life film Spotlight by acclaimed actor/director Tom McCarthy. This little number also stars the East End and Ditch Plains staple John Slattery. Who may or may not be a fan of @grant_moneyhands work.
Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams Photo by Sam Emerson, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
And then there’s that little biopic about The original country music star, Hank Williams. Back when country was country, and not pop music with cowboy hats and silk shirts. Country music legend Hank Williams is brought to life in Marc Abraham’s I SAW THE LIGHT, a moving tale of success and personal hardship based on Colin Escott’s award-winning biography.
Needless to say you will definitely find one of us at Hamptons International Film Festival, which will be held over Columbus Day Weekend, October 8th – 12th, 2015. Be sure to check out the HIFF site for all info and to get your tickets. First one to get a shot with Emily Blunt holding a copy of Whalebone wins a prize.
Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams
Photo by Alan Markfield, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics