FilmFest Preview: Golden Starfish Award Films Narrative Competition
The Hamptons International Film Festival will showcase movies that star George Clooney, Jennifer Garner and other Hollywood A-listers and we can’t wait to see them. But one of the most important awards at the Hamptons International Film Festival has always been its Golden Starfish Award and the films in the “Competitions for Best Narrative Feature.” Below are the movies that are entered into the competition and what they are about.
To view the film festivals movie schedule, click here. Look them up and check them out!
GOLDEN STARFISH AWARD (GSA) NARRATIVE COMPETITION
BULLHEAD
“Rundskop”
East Coast Premiere
Director: Michaël R. Roskam
Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Joroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy, Barbara Sarafian, Sam Louwyck
BULLHEAD plunges us into the corrupt underbelly of a mafia-run meat industry, where illegal use of growth hormones on cattle runs rampant. After a detective is murdered, Jacky (Matthias Schoenaerts)––a grotesquely muscular man supped-up on steroids––becomes suspicious of a potential partnership with a rival manufacturer. Compounding his weariness is the presence of Diederik (Joroen Perceval). Flashbacks into Jacky’s childhood soon reveal the two men are linked by a physically traumatic, life-altering tragedy. At center of this startling feature debut is Schoenaerts, whose astonishingly layered performance as, and physical transformation into, the hulking Jacky culminates into one of the most searing portraits of a scarred male psyche in modern cinema.
CRACKS IN THE SHELL
“Die Unsichtbare”
US Premiere
Director: Christian Schwochow
Cast: Stine Fischer Christensen, Ulrich Noethen, Dagmar Manzel, Christian Drechsler, Ronald Zehrfeld
The tension between actors and directors is painted in explosive dramatic detail in Christian Schwochow’s edgy, thrilling CRACKS IN THE SHELL. Stine Fischer Christensen stars as Fine, a struggling theater student whose lackluster stage performances result from a difficult home life. Fine is therefore shocked to receive an invitation to audition for, and to be subsequently cast in a famous director’s newest production. Her new director encourages self-discovery in order to connect with her difficult role, but Fine’s lack of boundaries prompts the full-scale excavation of her latent dark side. Christensen (AFTER THE WEDDING) gives a stunning performance that won her a top acting prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. [expand]
THE FAIRY
“La fée”
US Premiere
Directors: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy
Cast: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Philippe Martz, Bruno Romy, Vladimir Zorano, Wilson Goma
THE FAIRY is the latest irreverent gem from the team behind L’ICEBERG and RUMBA. A man prone to comic mishaps, Dom works the late shift at a motel in a sleepy seaside town. One night, a strange and slender “fairy” checks into the hotel and grants Dom three wishes. Caught up in her topsy-turvy world––a head-spinning series of foot chases, underwater dances, and hospital breakouts––Dom can’t help but fall in love. This gloriously silly romp pays homage to film greats like Chaplin, Keaton, and Tati, and stands as one of the most delirious comedies in years.
THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD
East Coast Premiere
Director: Joshua Marston
Cast: Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej, Refet Abazi, Ilire Vinca Celaj
With his piercing and compassionate storytelling voice, director Joshua Marston follows his breakthrough film, MARIA FULL OF GRACE, with this equally riveting drama, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. Set in a small, present-day Albanian town, where horse-and-cart transportation co-exists with cars and cell phones, a blood feud erupts when a father is accused of slaying a neighbor over a road dispute. The family’s life is now dictated by the strictures of the Kunan, a 15th-century Balkan code of traditions, which maintains that all men in the family, old and young included, must remain under house arrest for the unforeseeable future to atone for the crime.
WITHOUT
New York Premiere
Director: Mark Jackson
Cast: Joslyn Jensen, Ron Carrier, Darren Lenz, Piper Weiss, Bob Sentinella
WITHOUT is a daring, provocative, and uniquely sensitive look at the intersection between technology and social isolation. A young woman travels to a secluded, wooded island to be the temporary caretaker of an ailing and mute elderly man. Deprived of the Internet and phone reception, the woman makes desperate attempts to connect. Mysterious clues surface, and point to a recent tragedy that might be eroding her sanity. Actress Joslyn Jensen delivers a remarkable performance that fully explores the boundaries between connectivity and isolation in a story confronting the timely issue of Internet privacy.