Dallas Int'l Film Festival 2012: The Best of the Lone Star State

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 16 March 2012 10:00

Written by Sean Cusack

The annual Dallas International Film Festival takes place on April 12th – 22nd, 2012, in its titular Texas neighborhood showcaseing some of the finest new films to be released around the globe including two world premieres and nine Texas premieres. Approximately 180 films from all over the world will be screened over its 11 days.

The festival is a presentation of the Dallas Film Society. In addition to producing one of the largest festivals in the southwest, the Society produces numerous year round events, screening series and partnership programs with arts organizations around the city.

The Film Society celebrates films and their impact on society. As a non-profit organization, it recognizes filmmakers for their achievements in enhancing the creative community, provides educational programs to students to develop better understanding of the role of film in today's world, and promotes the City of Dallas and its commitment to the art of filmmaking.

For the first year since the festival’s inception there will be a Festival Village at the fashionable Mockingbird Station. The Festival Village will serve as the hub of the festival where filmmakers and film fans will have the chance to mingle and network at the Festival Lounge, and CBS Radio will present its first ever Music Lounge -- showcasing local music to the public every evening for the festival’s 11-day duration.  

Only a few steps from Mockingbird Station, Kimpton’s luxurious Hotel Palomar will conveniently offer a stylish retreat for the out-of-town filmmakers and visiting celebrities as the festival’s host hotel.

Legendary Disney animator, director, author and illustrator Glen Keane, best known for his work on modern classics such as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Tangled, will be awarded the highly coveted Texas Avery Animation Award presented by Reel FX. Keane has previously received the prestigious Winsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement in animation.

Other festival highlights include legendary director Lawrence Kasdan’s return to directing after nearly 10 years on hiatus with two new films, The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, and Luv.

Other features scheduled to screen include:

• America’s Parking Lot
  a comedy about two die-hard fans and leaders of the legendary 'Gate 6' tailgate party as they spend spend their last season with the Dallas Cowboys at historic Texas Stadium.
   
• Bindlestiffs
  Follows the journey of three high school virgins, suspended from school on a bogus graffiti charge, as they flee to the inner city in an attempt to live out the plot of The Catcher in the Rye -- a book they neither have read nor understand.  
   
• Sironia 
  starring Wes Cunningham, Amy Acker, Tony Hale, Jeremy Sisto, Courtney Ford, Carrie Preston and Robyn Lively, presents the simple story of a singer-songwriter beat up by the L.A. music machine who moves with his wife to the quiet town of Sironia, Texas -- quiet, that is, until he arrives.
   
• Darling Companion 
  with an outstanding cast that includes Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Richard Jenkins, Dianne Wiest and Elisabeth Moss is the story of a woman who loves her dog more than her husband… and then her husband loses the dog.

Several fantastic documentaries are set to be screened over the course of the festival, including:

• The Atomic States of America
  Featuring an appearance by Alec Baldwin. The film displays the fierce debate over the safety and viability of nuclear power after the March 11 earthquake and nuclear meltdown in Japan. The Atomic States takes viewers on a journey to reactor communities around the country, exposing the truths and myths of nuclear power, and poses the question of whether or not man can responsibly split the atom.
   
• Biba! One Island, 879 Votes
  follows the rallies and debates of Trenton Conner and Henry San Nicolas in their battle for control over the Pacific island, Tinian. Along the way we learn about Tinian's historic and geopolitical significance, being the launch point for the Enola Gay in World War II and presently the home of the Voice of America broadcasting towers, sending pro-democracy propaganda into China and North Korea.
  
  
• Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
  Escape exposes the perverse nature of American healthcare, contrasting the powerful forces opposing change with the compelling stories of pioneering leaders and the patients they seek to help. The film is about finding a way out, about saving the health of a nation.  
   
• Andrew Bird: Fever Year
  Filmed during culminating months of the acclaimed singer-songwriter's most rigorous year of touring, watches as Andrew Bird crosses the December finish line in his hometown of Chicago --feverish and on crutches from an onstage injury. 

Marking their third appearance at DIFF are filmmaking tandem Ashley Sabin and David Redmon as they go behind the scenes of the Japanese and Siberian modeling industry and uncover the unsettling truth in their latest work, Girl Model.

Horror genre fans will be thrilled as the director of The Grudge films, Takashi Shimizu, headlines the festival’s Midnight category and makes a special apperance at the screening his latest film, Tormented, the tale of a young boy whose family seems to be unraveling around him and finds release in manifesting a dangerous friendship with a stuffed toy rabbit that comes to life. A once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet one of the horror genre’s greatest modern icons.

The festival will culminate with the Dallas Film Society Honors on April 20, an evening of tributes with Dallas Star Award honorees and filmmaker award winners at the Hotel Palomar. 

Along with the cash prizes from Whole Foods and The Embrey Family Foundation, TXU Energy will award grants to the winning schools and student filmmakers for the Student Light Up the Red Carpet Film Contest. 

For more information go to: www.dallasfilm.org

Dallas Int’l Film Festival
April 12-22, 2012

Mockingbird Station
5321 E Mockingbird Lane
Dallas, TX 75206

The Dallas Film Society
3625 North Hall Street, Suite 740
Dallas, TX 75219

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