LRFF announces dates of 48 Hour Film Project (August 20-22)
The Little Rock Film Festival will produce this year’s 48 Hour Film Project (August 20-22) at the Riverdale 10 Theater. The LRFF is excited about the partnership with the 48 Hour Film Project and are looking forward to showcasing the amazing work of the Little Rock film community as part of the 48 Hour Film Project again this year.
The LRFF has pushed back the dates slightly to August 20-22, to give teams time to sign up and us time to prepare.
Now that we’re full steam ahead, please register for the Little Rock
48HFP today! Go to:
http://www.48hourfilm.com/littlerock
If you have any questions about this year’s LRFF 48 HFP, please contact Jacob@littlerockfilmfestival.org.
LRFF 2010 Award Winners
The Little Rock Film Festival announced its Fourth Annual LRFF award winners on Sunday June 6 during the Closing Night Gala and Awards Ceremony presented by the Arkansas Times at the Clinton Library. The winning films are as follows:
Golden Rock for Best Narrative Feature Film:
Winter’s Bone (Dir. Debra Granik)
Golden Rock for Best Documentary Feature Film:
Restrepo (Dirs. Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington)
The Oxford American Best Southern Film Award w/ $10,000 cash prize:
American: The Bill Hicks Story (Dirs. Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas)
Charles B. Pierce Award for Best Film “Made in Arkansas”:
Antiquities (Dir. Daniel Campbell)
Best Short Film Award:
The Greims (dir. Peter Bolte)
Arkansas Best Music Video Award:
Angelene and the Alpha Ray (Dir. David Fowlkes)
Arkansas Times Audience Award Winner:
Looking for Lurch (Dir. Tim Jackson)
LRFF Youth! Award Winner:
Outside the Lines- Fayetteville High School
LRFF Youth! Spirit Award Winner:
Will Sondheim
Arcadia Lost- WORLD PREMIERE
Haley Bennett's performance is one of the highlights of Arcadia Lost, the world premiere of which will be at 8 p.m. Friday at Riverdale Cinemas.
There was never a doubt about how Arcadia Lost would look. Few in the film industry have a reputation of excellence like Phedon Papamichael, the film’s director and cinematographer.
Papamichael picked his native Greece as the canvas on which to paint this latest masterpiece. The narrative is potent, layered with angst, discovery, tragedy and self-realization.
American teenagers Charlotte (Haley Bennett) and Sye (Carter Jenkins) are thrust together when their parents marry in Greece. After surviving a car accident, the step-siblings embark on a journey across the Greek countryside, following a drifter, Benerji (Nick Nolte), who seems at the same time wise and a little unstable.
As Charlotte discovers the power of her own sexuality, Sye becomes a disciple of Benerji’s teaching while also feeling compelled to protect Charlotte (sometimes from herself).
The kids and the camera are the stars of this film. Bennett and Jenkins both show great poise and range, and it wouldn’t be surprising if this performance launched both of their careers to greater heights.
As he did in previous works Sideways and Phenomenon, Papamichael uses the naturally beautiful backdrop as a way to help tell the story, lingering long on shots of Greece’s jagged coastline, rocky terrain and the sapphire-colored Aegean Sea.
Picturesque and cerebral, the world premiere of this film should be one of the biggest highlights of this year’s festival. The film will premiere at 8 p.m. Friday, June 4, at Riverdale Cinemas. Papamichael, screenwriter David Ariniello and producer Kelly Thomas will be on hand at the premiere.
Obselidia
George Samuels (Michael Piccirilli) is a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman who is determined to write The Obselidia, a compendium of obsolete things. In his quest he meets Sophie (Gaynor Howe) a silent movie theater projectionist who brings a different perspective believing nothing is obsolete if someone somewhere loves it. Down the line the two talk to a hermetic scientist who warns them that climate change will drive the world’s population down by 80% in less than 100 years.
The film is a landmark in depicting science in film winning the Alfred P. Sloan Award at Sundance 2010. Obselidia proves that you can have a incredibly charming film with a strong message that doesn’t dillute the film’s story.
Catch the trailer below and be sure to watch the film at Riverdale Cinemas #8 at 2:45 PM on Friday June 4 and 9:30 PM at the Riverdale Cinemas #1 on Saturday June 5. Director Diane Bell will be attendance along with editors John-Michael Powell and Russ Galusha who are both from Little Rock. Buy your tickets here!
LRFF 2010 Official Selection: Restrepo
Restrepo?
What does that title even mean? The feature-length documentary looks at a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley during 2007 in an outpost named after their medic Restrepo who was KIA. “Considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. Military” Restrepo the audience is thrown headfirst into some of the most wicked and intense battle scenes caught on camera.
Restrepo took home the Grand Jury Prize for Documentaries at the 2010 Sundance film festival and is presented by National Geographic Entertainment so you can count on the quality and integrity of this war-documentary. This film shatters any preconceptions you might have about the documentaries about the war in afghanistan and takes a non-political approach to its storytelling.
The film is harrowing and honest, frightening and confusing but easily one of the best documentaries about modern warfare and the toll it takes on its soldiers.
The film plays at 3:45 PM on Friday Jun 4 and 3:00 PM on Sunday Jun 6 during the festival at Riverdale Cinemas #2. You can view the trailer below and see more info on the film here.
“Winter’s Bone” to Open 4th Annual Little Rock Film Festival
Ozark Mountain drama Winter’s Bone set near the Arkansas-Missouri border about a young girl who must find her meth-addict father or risk losing her home will be the opening night film for the Little Rock Film Festival taking place June 2-6, 2010. The film was directed by Debra Granik and adapted by herself and cowriter Anne Rosellini from the novel of the same name by author Daniel Woodrell. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence as seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly who is left to fend for herself and her young brother and sister after her drug-dealing father puts their house up for his bail. Ree soon finds her journey stifled by her family’s deception around her father whereabouts. Winter’s Bone won the Best Narrative Feature in Sundance 2010′s US Dramatic Competition. Director Granik’s first feature Down to the Bone also won awards at Sundance in including the Dramatic Directing Award in 2004. The film also stars Lauren Sweester who grew up in Fayetteville, AR as Ree’s friend Gail. Winter’s Bone is also in Competition for the Oxford American Best Southern Film Award with a cash prize of $10,000.
