18th Annual Buffalo Int’l Film Festival (OCT 10-17) ANNOUNCES OPENING AND CLOSING NIGHT FILMS + EXPANDED 2024 FESTIVAL RUN
Buffalo Int’l Film Festival to open w/ the North American Premiere of Phoebe Nir’s Eco Village (Starring Rising Buffalo Star Sidney Flanigan – in attendance) and closes with the Western New York Premiere of Marco Gianfreda’s Tre Regole Infallibili / Three Infallible Rules (Starring Mother Cabrini herself, Cristiana Dell’Anna – in attendance)
Buffalo, NY: Friday, October 4, 2024 – The Buffalo Int’l Film Festival announces an extended run (from 5 to 8 days) October 10-17th at venues throughout the City of Buffalo. The festival’s programming will include 220+ Western New York premiere films from 30+ countries, many with visiting filmmakers in attendance to present their films and participate in live audience Q+As and panels.
BIFF’s Lineup of Official Film Selections is composed of acclaimed hits from major festivals including Sundance, South By Southwest, Tribeca, Hot Docs, Cannes Film Festival, and more; alongside exciting discoveries from around the WNY region and the globe.
Some of films presented in this year’s lineup, including BIFF’s Decolonial Spotlights (Renowned Mohawk Director Katsitsionni Fox and Star/Documentary Participant Jessica Shenandoah in attendance), ၁၀ နှစ်အက ြာ မြန်ြြာ / Ten Years Myanmar, and Next Gen: Teen + Youth-Made Shorts are offered free of charge thanks to the generous support from The National Endowment for Arts, New York Council on the Arts, and Erie County Arts and Cultural Funding, and BIFF’s many amazing community partners and supporters. Shorts blocks, like Racial Justice in View, as well as BIFF’s Offscreen series of music, art, and performance; industry and academic panels; and other special events are free for the general public to attend as well.
Seats can be reserved for free programming, and tickets and passes can be purchased at buffalofilm.org or at each venue’s box office on the day of the screening. Tickets are $12 for all in person screenings, $8 for select matinees. BIFF also participates in Arts Services Inc’s Arts Access Program, which allows program participants to reserve free tickets to all festival events. Films are now on sale including BIFF’s Opening Night and Closing Night selections. BIFF’s popular All-Access Bison Pass is also on sale for $70 and provides access to the festival’s 220+ film screenings, official events, and more.
BIFF will also present screenings and panels at – the North Park Theatre (1428 Hertel Ave), Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (341 Delaware Ave), and Burchfield Penney Art Center (1300 Elmwood Ave), Buffalo Toronto Public Media (140 Lower Terrace St), and Journey’s End Cinema at the Tri-Main Center (2495 Main St #530).
All of BIFF’s programming will take place in person, with the exception of hybrid events like panels and Offscreen art and performances that will be presented live and also live streamed.
“We’re so excited to host some many incredible filmmakers here in Buffalo this October, and to celebrate these phenomenal films and bold cinematic works,” said Executive Director Anna Scime. “All are welcome and there’s a little something for everybody – we can’t wait to see you at the fest!”
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SPOTLIGHT + CENTERPIECE FILMS:
OPENING NIGHT GALA – Eco Village – Friday, October 11, 2024 – 7:15 PM – North Park Theatre
Phoebe Nir (Dir), 82 minutes, USA, North American Premiere
Director/Writer Phoebe Nir, Star Sidney Flanigan, Star Lindsay Burdge, Star Eric Austin, Producer Giovanni Labadessa and Editor/Co-Producer Linds Gray in attendance.
Songwriter Robyn (Sidney Flanigan of Never Rarely Sometimes Always + Only the Good Survive) hitch-hikes her way to a commune. There, she meets an eccentric cast of characters, including commune founder Ursula (Lindsay Michelle Burdge) and handyman Jake (Alex Breaux), the later becoming her lover.
This relationship upsets the delicate equilibrium of the eco-village ecosystem, setting off a drug-addled frenzy of shifting power, manipulation, friendship and lust. Throughout these uncertain alliances and games, music remains Robyn’s salvation and structures the film.
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Related BIFF Panels (free!)
BIFF Panel: It Takes an Eco Village – Friday, October 11th, 4pm @ Buffalo Toronto Public Media + live streamed to social + website
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BIFF Panel: Buffalo’s Brightest – Sunday, October 13th, 5pm @ Buffalo Toronto Public Media + live streamed to social + website (Daniel Croix (Huli), Sidney Flanigan (Eco Village), Patrick Gallo (The Disinvited)
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CLOSING NIGHT GALA – Tre Regole Infallibili / Three Infallible Rules – Thursday, October 17, 2024 – 7:15 PM – North Park Theatre
Marco Gianfreda (Dir), 98 minutes, Italy, Western New York Premiere
Director Marco Gianfreda and Star Cristiana Dell’Anna in attendance.
In Italian w/ English subtitles.
Fourteen year-old Bruno (Guglielmo Aquaro) is in a state of panic: he finds out his first love is requited, but has no idea what to do next. He needs someone to teach him the ropes, and it just so happens that his best bet is the much detested Luca (Matteo Olivetti), the only man capable of making his hopeless mother Claudia (Cabrini Star Cristiana Dell’Anna) fall in love again.
Bruno must swallow his pride and accept his worst enemy’s advice. Little does he know that Luca and Claudia’s relationship is anything but exemplary.
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Related BIFF Panel (free!) Love (Italian Style) – Thursday, October 17th, 4pm @ Buffalo Toronto Public Media + live streamed to social + website
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SOCIAL JUSTICE SPOTLIGHT – Songs from the Hole – Sunday, October 13, 2024 – 7:15 PM – North Park Theatre
Contessa Gayles (Dir), 106 minutes, USA, New York State Premiere
Director Contessa Gayles in attendance. (Buffalo Native)
At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. A documentary visual album, SONGS FROM THE HOLE follows James “JJ’88” Jacobs through a musical opus of Hip-Hop and Soul, inspired by his innermost struggles as both a person who has committed and experienced violent harm, as he serves a double-life prison sentence.
The film interweaves the collective storytelling of its non-fiction participants with imagined representations of memories, dreams and spiritual dialogues set to its protagonist/writer’s original music.
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ARTHOUSE CENTERPIECE – New Wave – Thursday, October 10, 2024 – 7:00 PM – Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
Elizabeth Ai (Dir), 89 minutes, USA, Western New York Premiere
Director Elizabeth Ai and Producer Rachel Sine in attendance.
A self reflexive story of joy and youthful defiance, filmmaker Elizabeth Ai explores a musical phenomenon in the 1980s known to Vietnamese American teens as new wave.
As she delves into the lives of family members and icons of the new wave scene, a surprising and powerful story emerges about lasting effects of the Vietnam War and displacement on the community’s mental health, and how that impact carries over generations.
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ARTHOUSE SPOTLIGHT –S/He Is Still Her/e – Sunday, October 13, 2024 – 7:15 PM – North Park Theatre
David Charles Rodrigues (Dir), 99 minutes, USA, Western New York Premiere
Pioneering electronic musician/avant-garde artist/spiritual explorer/gender revolutionary/cult leader(!?) Genesis P. Orridge has been featured in numerous films and videos, but never the full story…until now.
In this “authorized” but extremely raw and personal documentary, award-winning director David Charles Rodrigues (GAY CHORUS DEEP SOUTH) documents the final year of P-Orridge’s existence as they grapple with mortality and get ready to “drop [their] body.”
Featuring William Burroughs, Brion Gyson, Timothy Leary, Alice Genesse (PTV), David J (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets), Nepalese monks, African Witch doctors and a special cameo by her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, plus never before seen archival treasures, performances from COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV. Very few artists lived their art, but Genesis died three times for it.
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DECOLONIAL SPOTLIGHT – BIFF Shorts: Decolonial Spotlights – Monday, October 14, 2024 – 7:15 PM – North Park Theatre
Anti-ethnographic works that provide windows into the lives, minds and cultures of some of the world’s most exciting, contemporary Indigenous filmmakers. Free screening! 62 minutes.
“Tentsítewahkwe”
Katsitsionni Fox (Dir) 18 minutes, Akwesasne / USA / Canada, New York State Premiere
Director Katsitsionni Fox and Star/Documentary Participant Jessica Shenandoah in attendance.
In Kanien’kéha and English w/ English subtitles.
Haudenosaunee people follow the season cycles of the earth – their mothers and grandmothers knew how to take what was harvested from the land to create what was needed for their families. Jessica Shenandoah is Wolf Clan from the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation and comes from a large family of knowledge keepers. As a young girl, she picked medicines, berries and wild food plants with her mother and grandmother. She is now a mother of four, seeking to bring back the land based practices that have been lost. Jessica reaches both inside and outside Haudenosaunee territories to find those who have reconnected this knowledge, so she can bring it back to her community and the future generations. She embodies Tentsítewahkwe, as she picks up knowledge of the old ways, these slow methods of creating and connecting in reciprocity with the earth reemerge.
LEGACY GALA – Demolition Man w/ Production Designer David L. Snyder – Wednesday, October 16, 2024 – 7:15 PM – North Park Theatre
DEMOLITION MAN, directed by Marco Brambilla (USA)
Followed by an extended conversation and live audience Q+A with BIFF’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement award winner, BAFTA Winning + Academy Award nominated Production Designer David L. Snyder (Buffalo Native)!
John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) is a risk-taking LAPD police officer in 1996 with a reputation for causing destruction while carrying out his work. After a failed attempt to rescue hostages from evil crime lord Simon Phoenix (Westley Snipes), they are both sentenced to be cryogenically frozen. Phoenix is thawed for a parole hearing in 2032 but escapes into a society that has changed after all violent crime has seemingly been eliminated. This pacifistic future society is ill-equipped to deal with a criminal of Phoenix’s caliber, and Spartan is released from the cryogenic prison to pursue his old ultra-violent-nemesis. A Warner Brothers release.
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About Buffalo Int’l Film Festival:
Buffalo International Film Festival (est. 2006) champions regional, national, and international films that push the limits of independent cinema – presenting quality films from around the world to WNY residents and visitors. BIFF is committed to amplifying diverse voices and exhibiting cutting-edge programming in narrative, documentary and experimental film. A proud supporter of local filmmaking and the arts; BIFF also offers workshops, seminars, industry panel discussions, fiscal sponsorship and professional development opportunities, as well as an Offscreen series of art, music and performance.
For more info, please visit buffalofilm.org.