All Over Albany

FilmColumbia 2016

The annual FilmColumbia film fest returns October 22-30. And again the festival will be showing films in both Chatham and Hudson.

As usual, the festival schedule 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.

This year's festival starts with a "James Ivory Tribute and Kickoff Celebration" screening of Howard's End, introduced by Ivory. There will also be a cocktail party with hosts that include Julianna Margulies, Parker Posey, Richard Dreyfuss, Lauren Ambrose, Gaby Hoffman and many other actors. (Tickets for that event are $150 each.)

There's also the annual unnamed "sneak preview" screening that's a surprise until it's screened. (Last year's surprise film was Spotlight.)

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

Tickets for the general public go on sale October 15 at 10 am. They're $12 for day films, $16 for evening films. There are also festival passes for all films ($225) and all films + events ($250).

Many of these screenings do sell out, so if you spot a film on the schedule you'd like to see, it's worth getting tickets sooner rather than later.

A few screenings that caught our eye

All blurbage via FilmColumbia.

The Salesman
October 26 at 6 pm at the Crandell Theatre in Chatham
"The latest from the great Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, whose film, A Separation, not only won an Oscar, but also established him as a world-class director. In The Salesman, a married couple is preoccupied with putting on a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman in Teheran, when a shadowy intruder enters their home and shatters the tranquility of a comfortable marriage, exposing a sheltered middle class life to ugliness and random violence. The husband (Shahab Hosseini) takes it upon himself to play detective, tracking the intruder and giving Farhadi the opportunity to reflect upon the larger themes of revenge and justice. The Salesman earned Farhadi the Best Screenplay honors at Cannes this year, while his lead, Hosseini, won Best Actor."

Lion
October 26 at 8:30 pm at the Crandell Theatre in Chatham
"This powerful drama wowed audiences at the Toronto Film Festival. Saroo, a five year old Indian boy gets on a train and finds himself in Calcutta, thousands of miles from his home and family. After a dire childhood as a street urchin, he is adopted by an Australian couple. As an adult, he is determined to locate his biological mother and brother. With the help of Google Earth, he embarks on a seemingly quixotic quest to find them among India's 1 billion people. This is a story guaranteed to make strong men weep. Starring Dev Patel (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, and Oscar nominee Rooney Mara."

Julieta
October 27 at 8:15 pm at the Crandell Theatre in Chatham
"Pedro Almodovar's lively, luminous, and seamless adaptation of three short stories from Alice Munro's Runaway is his jubilant return to fabulous melodrama. In gorgeous sunny Spain, the relationship between a mother and daughter unfurls over a generation, through several life changes. Add in designer everything, a housekeeper from Hell, secrets within secrets, a worrying disappearance, and you have a film that tickles the eye and tricks the mind. Played Cannes, Toronto, New York Film Festivals."

Diverge
October 29 at 5 pm at Morris Memorial in Chatham
"Filmmakers usually show off in their first films; Diverge, mercifully, takes the other route. It is a stark, stylish, less-is-more sci-fi thriller from newcomer James Morrison that won the top award at the U.S. in Progress, in Paris, a market that showcases promising American indie films. The story is familiar--time travel and a world-ending plague--but it is handled so beautifully that it feels new and fresh. Q & A with filmmakers afterwards."

Toni Erdmann
October 30 at 4 pm at the Crandell Theatre in Chatham
"Yes, Germans can be funny-very. In this wry comedy of manners that elicited spontaneous applause from American critics at Cannes, a father who lives in Germany, tries to rescue his business-like daughter working in Romania from terminal seriousness. Enough said, except that what happens is unanticipated, understandable, and hilarious. As Manohla Dargis wrote from Cannes, Toni Erdmann is a work of "great beauty, great feeling and great cinema." Played Cannes, Toronto, New York film festivals."