31st Valencia International Film Festival

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 14 October 2010 17:06

Written by Mark Ozdoba

The 31st Valencia International Film Festival (Mostra de Valencia) begins this Friday and runs for over a week, from October 15-23, 2010. This city on the coast of the Spanish Mediterranean is home to a host of arts centers and museums, constructed over the last 20 years in a concerted effort to widen its worldwide appeal. 

This year, the festival highlights action and adventure films, and among the special events is a tribute to Wolfgang Peterson whose films screening in this retrospective are:

• Shattered
• Das Boot
• The Perfect Storm
• Troy
• Poseidon

He is a late replacement for John McTiernan who will be honored at a future date. McTiernan was sentenced to a year in prison last Monday for matters related to his hiring of private detective Anthony Pellicano, now serving a 15-year prison sentence for wiretapping; McTiernan is free pending his appeal so he couldn't attend.

Main-slate American selections include:

• Ben Affleck’s Boston crime drama The Town
• The Robert De Niro/Edward Norton feature Stone
• French maestro Bertrand Tavernier's In The Electric Mist starring Tommy Lee Jones and John Goodman. (Did you know he directed an American action film last year? Me neither.) 

Entries from the rest of the world include:

• Victorio -- a Mexican drama of crime and poverty
• Oily Boogie -- based on the long-running Argentine comic book parody of the typical American tough guy/thug
• Jerry Cotton -- a German action-comedy in the same vein with Mónica Cruz, sister of Penélope

A separate “Panorama Mediterranean” section highlights the works of Mediterranean filmmakers exclusively, with films from Serbia, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, and Algieria. 

The Strange Case Of Angelica, the new work from legendary Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira (who at 101 is the eldest elder statesman of cinema in the world), is a highlight of this section.

Other activities in keeping with this year’s theme include Mostra Comics, with exhibits, workshops, roundtables, meetings, and films celebrating the 75th anniversary of DC Comics and the Warner film adaptations of same, plus a tribute to producer-director Peter Lord of Aardman Animations.  Illustrator Dave McKean (the Sandman comic series; Mirrormask; conceptual artist for the Harry Potter films) will also be present for this section.

A television section, Mostra TV, will highlight broadcast television of the region and the world with panels and screenings, including a discussion of sitcoms called “The Tyranny of the Sofa,” a spotlight on British television, and a day of new Fox programming October 16.

For updates and further info go to: http://www.mostravalencia.com/home.html

Valencia International Film Festival (Mostra de Valencia)
October 15-23, 2010
Plaza Ayuntamiento-Passeig Russafa
Valencia, Espana

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