Niche documentaries about cooking, architecture and action sports will screen alongside US and international awards contenders in the eclectic lineup for this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF), taking place from October 15-22 in Southern California.
It is “an especially strong year for awards contenders,” says NBFF co-founder and CEO Gregg Schwenk.
The US and UK titles in the line-up include Martin McDonaghs CIA comedy Wild Horse Nine, James Gray’s dramatic thriller Paper Tiger (to be introduced at the festival by the film’s Miles Teller), Danny Boyle’s tabloid tale Ink (with star Jack O’Connell in a post-screening Q&A) and, on the festival’s closing night, with its director in attendance, Tony Gilroy’s music-themed drama Behemoth!.
Also being showcased at the festival are David Greaves’ documentary contender Once Upon A Time In Harlem, Phuong Mai Nguyen’s animated In Waves and a quartet of submissions for the best international film Oscar: Spain’s Cannes prize-winner La Bola Negra, directed by Los Javis; Andrey Zvyagintsev’s French entry Minatour, which won the Cannes Grand Prix; Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, another Cannes prize-winner, from Poland; and, submitted by Luxembourg, Cyrus Neshvad’s Child.
World premieres
Beyond award contenders, the Newport Beach festival will give more than 20 films their world premieres and more than a dozen their first North American outings.
The global debutants include UK psychological thriller Better, from director Daniel Sharp, Vicky Wight’s Irish drama The Body Is Water, US nineties punk scene story …And Out Comes The Wolf, directed by Danny Peykoff, and Lisa Downs and Ashley Pugh’s UK-produced documentary As Far Back As I Can Remember…The Story Of GoodFellas.
Making their North American debuts are features including Sophie Heldman’s Berlin title The Education Of Jane Cumming, Richard Hawkins’ UK World War II drama Think Of England and Lance Daly’s Irish music comedy Trad.
The selection of international films at Newport Beach has expanded since the festival was launched in 1999.
“There was always a strong international component,” says Schwenk. “Over 27 years it has grown to reflect our relationship with our audience as well as the creatives producing the films.”
This year, in addition to the non-US films in other strands, the event’s international spotlight section offers 17 films from 15 different countries. Venice premiere Look Back, from Japan’s Hirokazu Koreeda, receives its North American premiere in the section, as does Royd Tolkien, Drew Cullingham and Robert Kavanah’s documentary There’s A Whole In My Bucket, marking a first-ever spotlight for New Zealand. La Bola Negra and Fatherland represent their respective countries in the section and further entries come from Italy, Sweden, France, Iran and Mexico.
Three films in the section - Dallan Shovlin’s Christmas crime comedy You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead along with The Body Is Water and Trad - reaffirm the festival’s close ties with Ireland. The territory has several other features and shorts elsewhere in the line-up and is sending a delegation of close to 20 filmmakers to Newport Beach.
The Irish presence at the festival “has grown exponentially over time,” Schwenk reports. “We probably have the largest collection of Irish films in North America.”
Newport Beach’s line-up is also significant for its diversity, with strands dedicated to films about music, sports and cooking. Films in these sections include Rob Arthur’s documentary Frampton, with musician Peter Frampton in attendance for the festival’s opening-night screening, and Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s Broken English, a documentary about rock icon Marianne Faithfull.
The action sports section has the North American premiere of Australian surfing documentary Stern Fever, while the culinary section includes the US premiere of Spanish restaurant documentary Noor: Eating History.
The festival’s diverse programme has been the natural result of audience interest in individual films on specific subjects, explains Schwenk.
“We would play one film [on a subject], and it would sell out and then play two and they would both sell out,” he explains. ”We realised there was a desire in Southern California for these types of films, and that we could tap into something that’s been neglected by other festivals.”
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