All Over Albany

Film Columbia 2015

The annual FilmColumbia film fest returns October 19-25. And this year's festival has expanded to include screening venues in both Chatham and Hudson.

As usual, the festival slate includes a bunch of films that are already getting attention because of screenings at other festivals and/or they're eagerly awaited because of stars or directors involved.

A few of this year's selections that caught our eye are after the jump.

Tickets for the general public go on sale October 9. They're $12 for day films, $16 for evening films. There are also festival passes for all films ($225) and all films + events ($250).

Louder Than Bombs
October 20 - 5 pm - Crandell Theatre
October 25 - 7 pm - Hudson Lodge
Festival blurbage: "This is Norwegian director Joachim Trier's first English language feature as well as his first foray with major stars, after directing two films in his native tongue: Reprise and Oslo, August 31st. Louder Than Bombs is set in the aftermath of a family tragedy, wherein wife Isabelle Huppert, a famous war photographer dies in ambiguous circumstances, leaving her husband and two sons to reconcile themselves with the dysfunction of their family. Trier's agility as a story-teller, using dream sequences and shifting points of view enables him to avoid the pitfalls of his subject while exploring his themes with subtlety and gradually accumulating power. Also starring Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne, and Amy Ryan. Played the Cannes Film Festival."

45 Years
October 20 - 8:45pm - Crandell Theatre
Festival blurbage: "Both Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, each iconic actors in their own right, won the Best Acting Silver Bears this year at the Berlin Film Festival, and it is safe to predict each performer will cart off many more prizes before the year is up because, without hyperbole, as Geoff and Kate Mercer, a couple with a shaggy dog in a quaint Norfolk village, they are transcendent." The director of this film is Andrew Haigh, who also directed Weekend.

Brooklyn
October 22 - 8:30 pm - Crandell Theatre
Festival blurbage: "Saoirse Ronan turns in a brilliant performance in this screen adaptation of Colm Toibin's bestselling novel about a young, Irish immigrant woman who arrives on these shores in the 50's. From a script by Nick Hornby."

Truth
October 23 - 8 pm - Crandell Theatre
Festival blurbage: "Robert Redford plays CBS anchor Dan Rather and Cate Blanchett CBS producer and Peabody Award winner Mary Mapes in this film based on the scandal that cost Rather his job at CBS."

Band of Robbers
October 24 - 2:30 pm -Morris Memorial
Festival blurbage: "Mark Twain's iconic characters, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, are reimagined in this clever modern-day comedic heist film. When Tom Sawyer's childhood friend Huck is released from jail, Tom, now a police officer, takes the opportunity to create a gang of thieves to find a fabled treasure." An IndieWire review called it "wonderfully absurd."

Breaking a Monster
October 24 - 7:30 pm - Morris Memorial
Festival blurbage: "Three members of band, Unlocking the Truth, are all in 7th grade. In 2013, footage of these African-American kids from Brooklyn playing metal music in Times Square amazingly well, created a media sensation, and 18 months later they become the youngest band to sign with Sony, to the tune of $1.8 million. Their parents' involvement in juggling the group's growing pains as the 12 year-old sons deal with sudden fame and wealth, creates a charming, engaging, and very watchable film." Here's a Consequence of Sound review.

The Heart of a Dog
October 24 - 8:30 pm - Hudson Lodge
October 25- 7 pm - Crandell Theatre
Festival blurbage: "Laurie Anderson--musician, performance artist, painter-is about as close as we have to a renaissance woman, and this film, her first in thirty years, is a testimony to her remarkable skill as a filmmaker. Lolabelle, her beloved rat terrier, who learned how to play the piano, and gave her own concerts, anchors the movie, but this essay on film is much more than a dog-lover's tribute to her pooch; using 8mm home movies, animation, film clips, freshly shot material, and inventively manipulated images, she creates a mélange of interlocked meditations on her childhood, 9/11, the surveillance state, her late husband Lou Reed, and storytelling itself, ranging from the delicate to the dazzling. The film has played the Telluride and Toronto film festivals."