On March 9th, Arthouse Film Festival will return for ten weeks to its home base New Jersey theatres: AMC Mountainside and AMC Monmouth Mall. If you are not one of the thousands of New Jersey film buffs who have attended in years past, just imagine seeing a festival-winning gem before release to the public, then the lights come up, and there in front of you are the creators of the film, ready to answer questions and discuss their work.
Oscar winners and nominees Alan Arkin, Frank Darabont, Jesse Eisenberg, Ethan Hawke, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Melissa Leo, Viggo Mortensen, Chazz Palminteri, John Sayles, Aaron Sorkin, Fisher Stevens and David Strathairn have joined Dylan Baker, Jim Breuer, Famke Janssen, Danai Gurira, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Derek Luke, Mary Stuart Masterson, David Morse, Connie Nielsen, Joe Pantoliano and Kevin Smith as guest speakers who have come to share their insights with festival participants.
The festival has hosted 1,954 movie premieres with 1,192 live guest appearances over the past 29 years.
“The program will always be flexible in order to take advantage of opportunities as they arise,” said festival director Chuck Rose. “Wonderful surprises and fantastic celebrities can pop up out of nowhere, so we try to keep the schedule as fluid as possible.
“Even before we started in 1991, I began working to create an international VIP network of actors, directors, screenwriters, producers, journalists and film industry pros whose jobs involve creating and evaluating the cream of Sundance, Cannes, Toronto, Telluride, Venice, Berlin, SXSW and the other important film festivals. We also work to ferret out potential hits in the development and production stages so we are ready to pounce on the best films first.
“Last year, before release to the public, we premiered: Marriage Story, The Two Popes, The Biggest Little Farm, Waves, In the Aisles, By the Grace of God, The Current War and many more outstanding films which then went on to earn 9 Oscar, 10 Golden Globe and 11 British Academy Award nominations.”
For information, to see which films were screened in the past, or which ones may be screened this year, or to register, visit www.ArthouseFilmFestival.com.
The festival is open to anyone, but seating is limited, so early enrollment is advised. Subscription is $139 for five weeks or $245 for all ten weeks. After March 3rd, rates will go up. Also being offered is a specially priced flex ticket so users may choose any eight out of ten nights for their convenience.
Confirmed films and those under consideration for the upcoming festival include: Driveways with Brian Dennehy, Christine Ebersole, director Andrew Ahn; Fatima with Harvey Keitel, Goran Visnjic, director Marco Pontecorvo; I’m Your Woman with Rachel Brosnahan Marsha Stephanie Blake, director Julia Hart; John Lewis: Good Trouble, director Dawn Porter; Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, director Werner Herzog; Nomadland with Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, director Chloe Zhao; Oliver Sacks: His Own Life director Ric Burns; Out Stealing Horses with Stellan Skarsgard, Jon Ranes, director Hans Peter Moland; The Painted Bird with Udo Kier, Julian Sands, Harvey Keitel, director Vaclav Marhoul; The Personal History of David Copperfield with Tilda Swinton, Dev Patel, director Armando Iannucci; Resistance with Jesse Eisenberg, Ed Harris, director Jonathan Jakubowicz; Slay the Dragon, directors Chris Durrance, Barak Goodman; The True History of the Kelly Gang with George MacKay, Nicholas Hoult, director Justin Kurzel; The Truth with Catherine Deneuve, Ethan Hawke, Juliette Binoche, director Hirokazu Koreeda; Two of Us with Barbara Sukowa, Martine Chevallier, director Filippo Meneghetti; and more to come!
