Film lovers rejoice your favourite time of the year is here! Cinéfest Sudbury Internation Film Festival is kicking off its 30^th anniversary season with tons of new flicks for you to check out. The Cinefest program runs the gamut from documentaries, Canadian Features, Wold Film, and even shorts. With over 100 films to choose from we defy you not to find one you’ll be raving about! The festival runs from September 15^th-23^rd at Silvercity Sudbury and offers a unique chance for you to see films from all sorts of different perspectives and from all over the world that otherwise would not make it to Sudbury screens. Special guests including actors, directors, producers are on hand for many of the films and available for Q&A’s after the film – when else would you have the chance to grill the people directly involved with a movie you just finished watching? For an extra special treat check out their daily Gala presentations at 7PM which features a cocktail party with special guests and audience members alike (after taking in a world class film of course). We’ve scoured this years offerings in preparation for our own viewing pleasure so here’s a few of the films we’re most excited to check out!

Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival runs from September 15^th – 23^rd at Silvercity Sudbury. For tickets and more information visit: http://www.cinefest.com/en/

MY GENERATION – SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 16 @ 9:30PM

(World Doc, 2017, UK, 85min)

Director: David Batty

British film icon Michael Caine narrates and stars in My Generation, the vivid and inspiring story of his personal journey through 1960s London. Based on personal accounts and stunning archival footage, Batty’s film sees Caine travel back in time to talk to The Beatles, Twiggy, David Bailey, Mary Quant, The Rolling Stones, David Hockney, and other star names. My Generation has been painstakingly assembled over six years to tell the story of the birth of pop culture in London, through the eyes of the young Michael Caine. “For the first time in history the young working class stood up for ourselves and said; we’re here, this is our society and we’re not going away!” My Generation uses carefully intercut audio of Caine’s conversations with his co-stars blended with unseen archive material to take the movie viewer back to the heart of the 1960s. In one poignant sequence we accompany Caine as he drives through Piccadilly Circus—today overlaid with original 60s film to create a remarkable time travel effect.

 

UNDER THE SILVER LAKE – TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 18 @ 8PM

(Special Presentations, 2018, USA, 139min)

Director: David Robert Mitchell

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough

Sam (Garfield) is a disenchanted 33-year-old who discovers a mysterious woman, Sarah (Keough), frolicking in his apartment’s swimming pool. When she vanishes, Sam embarks on a surreal quest across Los Angeles to decode the secret behind her disappearance, leading him into the murkiest depths of mystery, scandal, and conspiracy in the City of Angels.

 

ASSASSINATION NATION – TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 18 @ 9:30PM

(#GenXY, 2018, USA, 110min)

Director: Sam Levinson

Starring: Odessa Young, Hari Nef, Suki Waterhouse, Bill Skarsgård, Joel McHale, Bella Thorne, Maude Apatow

High school senior Lily (Young) and her group of friends live in a haze of texts, social media posts, selfies, and meaningless chats—just like the rest of the world. When an anonymous hacker starts posting details from the private lives of everyone in their small town, the result is absolute madness. Lily and her friends are forced to question whether or not they’ll live through the night.

 

FERRIS’S ROOM – TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 19 @ 6PM

(Cinema 9 Prime Time/Virtual Reality Experience, 2018, Canada, 77min)

Director: Ryan Mains

Toronto artist Sarah Keenlyside’s re-creation of Ferris Bueller’s bedroom at the Gladstone Hotel was one of the most bussed-about art events of 2016. This brand-new documentary follows Keenlyside as she travels to Chicago to mount Ferris Bueller’s bedroom as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of John Hughes’s classic comedy. Get a glimpse of her process as she tracks down replicas of Ferris’s prized possessions and works against the clock to get the installation ready in time for the big day. Along the way, she faces unexpected challenges, meets super fans who keep the spirit of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off alive, and reveals how art (whether it’s a nostalgic installation or a lighthearted film) brings us together.

 

THE NEW ROMANTIC – WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19 @ 7PM

(Wednesday Night Gala, 2018, Canada 82min)

Director: Carly Stone

Starring: Jessica Barden, Vinnie Bennett, Alexandre Bourgeois, Annie Clark

In order to escape her looming post-college graduation fate, which includes a large amount of student debt and zero romantic prospects, Blake (Barden) becomes a sugar baby. In hopes of winning a journalism award and the cash that comes along with it, she decides to document her entire experience. The journey she embarks upon opens the door to a world that causes her to question whether society is right to judge such women, and whether her own self-worth comes with a price. Reception to follow at Milestones Grill + Bar (1299 Marcus Drive).

 

FUGUE – WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19 @ 8:30PM

(Cinema 9 Prime Time/ #TheNorthStarsNow, 2018, Canada, 85min)

Director: Tomas Street

Starring: Jack Foley, Laura Tremblay, Mike Donis. Kristen Da Silva, Michael Lipka

Malcolm awakes, unsure of where or who he is. He’s put on edge when a stranger appears, revealing herself to be his wife, Helen. Through stories she remind him who he is and the man she needs him to be. As Malcolm regains fragments of his former self Helen reassures him the amnesiac state is temporary. Malcolm gets his back up when a man appears at their door, Helen introduces Ian, their friend, there to help. As Ian’s stories shed light on other aspects of Malcolm’s life he starts suspecting things aren’t as they seem. Are they telling him everything? Just as Malcolm’s persona comes into sharper focus, masked intruders put everyone’s lives in danger. The truth will come out, one way or another.

MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. – THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20 @ 9:30

(#GenXY, 2018, USA/UK, 96min)

Director: Steve Loveridge

Drawn from a cache of personal video recordings from the past 22 years, Matangi/Maya/M.I.A is a startlingly personal profile of the critically acclaimed artist—a chronicle of her remarkable journey from refugee immigrant to pop star. She began as Matangi. Daughter of the founder of Sri Lanka’s armed Tamil resistance, she hid from the government in the face of a vicious and bloody civil war. When her family fled to the UK, she became Maya, a precocious and creative immigrant teenager in London. Finally, the world met her as M.I.A when she emerged on the global stage, having created a mashup, cut-and-paste identity that pulled from every corner of her journey along the way; a sonic sketchbook that blended Tamil politics, art school punk, hip-hop beats, and the unwavering, ultra-confident voice of a bourgeoning multicultural youth. Never one to compromise on her vision, Maya kept her camera rolling throughout.

FIRECRACKERS – FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21 @ 9:30PM

(Features Canada, 2018, Canada, 93min)

Director: Jasmin Mozaffari

Starring: Michaela Kurimsky, Karena Evans, Callum Thompson, Tamara LeClair, David Kingston

Lou (Kurimsky) and Chantal (Evans) desperately want to get out of their small town. They want to leave their homes and families behind for the promise of creating new, exciting lives for themselves. The two women create a plan that enables them to work towards leaving their mundane town—not in an attempt to seek fame, or love, but to seek the freedom they long for and the desire to “blow up” in the big city. Jasmin Mozaffari graduated from the acclaimed Film Studies program at Ryerson University in 2013. Her first major success came when her fourth year thesis short film (also titled Firecrackers) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to screen at numerous other festivals around the world. Firecrackers marks her first venture into directing a feature-length film.

 

CLIMAX – SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 22 @ 10:30PM

(#GenXY, 2018, France, Fench w English Subtitles, 95min)

Director: Gaspar Noé

Starring: Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub, Kiddy Smile, Claude Gajan Maull, Giselle Palmer

From director Gaspar Noé comes a hypnotic, hallucinatory, and ultimately hair-raising depiction of a party that descends into delirium over the course of one wintry night. In Climax, a troupe of young dancers gathers in a remote and empty school building to rehearse. The troupe begin an all-night celebration that turns nightmarish as the dancers discover they have been pounding cups of sangria laced with potent LSD. Tracking their journey from jubilation to chaos and full-fledged anarchy, Noé observes crushes, rivalries, and violence amid a collective psychedelic meltdown.

 

YOU ARE HERE – SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 23 @ 11AM

(Cana-Doc, 2018, Canada, 83min)

Director: Moze Mossanen

You Are Here is an intimate documentary that goes deep into the community of Gander, Newfoundland where 38 airliners carrying over 6,500 passengers were forced to land after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The film pulls back the emotional layers surrounding the five days during which the community housed, fed and cared for the dislocated passengers (or the “come from aways” in Newfoundland parlance).  While their stories were the inspiration for the extraordinary Broadway hit musical Come From Away, the documentary reveals first-hand accounts of the great kindnesses and energetic resourcefulness the community showed their unexpected guests. Their emotional and sometimes humorous story of compassion and generosity, born of a long history of rescuing and welcoming shipwrecked sailors, resonates with a legacy of healing and reconciliation for the world—especially for the survivors of those murdered on 9/11, and for the first responders who lost their own lives saving others on that fateful day.