MyNorth News Service

(Press Release provided by Benzie County Visitors Bureau)

FRANKFORT: The seventh annual Frankfort Film Festival features 17 international award-winning films during the peak of Northern Michigan fall color. Benzie County’s Garden Theater hosts the Northern Michigan film festival from October 22 to October 25, inviting both award-winning filmmakers from around the world and local student filmmakers from the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Live music and presentations from filmmakers are also part of this four-day Frankfort festival. View a list of the foreign, short, and full feature indie films being presented at this Northern Michigan event below.

Passes for the four-day film festival are $85 for the entire weekend. Individual tickets for each showing are $10 and can be purchased one hour in advance of each showing. A Director Sponsor pass for one ($115) or two people ($200) will allow VIP passes for the weekend and access to the opening night party at the Garden Theater on Thursday, October 22. A listing of the festival schedule is available online at frankfortgardentheater.com.

The Frankfort Film Festival 2015 Schedule

Starting at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 22 and ending at 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, October 25

MOMMY
THURSDAY, 12:30 PM
DRAMA | 139 MINUTES | RATED: R | FRENCH W/ SUBTITLES
A feisty widowed single mom finds herself burdened with the full-time custody of her unpredictable 15-year-old ADHD son. As they struggle to make ends meet, Kyla, the peculiar new neighbor across the street, offers her help. Together, they find a new sense of balance, and hope is regained.
Director: Xavier Dolan
Awards: Jury Prize Cannes Film Festival, Best Actress Palm Springs Film Festival, Audience Award Stockholm Film Festival
PHOENIX
THURSDAY, 3:00 PM
DRAMA | 98 MINUTES | RATED: PG-13 | GERMAN W/ SUBTITLES
A disfigured concentration-camp survivor, unrecognizable after facial reconstruction surgery, searches ravaged postwar Berlin for the husband who might have betrayed her to the Nazis.
Director: Christian Petzold
Awards: Best Supporting Actress German Film Awards, Best Actress Seattle International Film Festival
FOOD PATRIOTS
THURSDAY, 5:00 PM
DOCUMENTARY | 74 MINUTES | RATED: G | ENGLISH
A feature-length documentary film and public campaign with the goal of getting everyone to improve their buying and eating habits by 10%. That’s 10% more fresh fruits and veggies, 10% more organics, 10% more locally grown – 10% more from wherever you are on the continuum. As consumers learn to demand better food we will pressure both policy and supply changes in our food system.
Directors: Jeff Spitz & Jennifer Amdur Spitz
***FILMMAKER MAY ATTEND***
IMDB MOVIE
WEBSITE
THE HUNDRED YEAR-OLD MAN
THURSDAY, 8:00 PM
ADVENTURE/COMEDY | 114 MINUTES | RATED: R | ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, SWEDISH, ITALIAN, RUSSIAN
Based on the internationally best-selling novel by Jonas Jonasson, the unlikely story of a 100-year-old man who decides it’s not too late to start over. After living a long and colorful life, Allan Karlsson finds himself stuck in a nursing home. On his 100th birthday, he leaps out a window and begins an unexpected journey.
Director: Felix Herngren
Awards: Audience Choice Award Chicago International Film Festival, Audience Award Durban International Film Festival, Best International Feature Florida Film Festival
LEVIATHAN
FRIDAY, 12:30 PM
DRAMA | 140 MINUTES | RATED: R | RUSSIAN W/ SUBTITLES
Kolya lives in a small fishing town near the stunning Barents Sea in Northern Russia. He owns an auto-repair shop next to the house where he lives with his young wife and his son. When told that his house will be demolished, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man’s arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Awards: Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globes, Best Screenplay Cannes Film Festival, Best Film London Film Festival
BLACK COAL, THIN ICE
FRIDAY, 3:00 PM
CRIME DRAMA | 110 MINUTES | RATED: R | MANDARIN W/ SUBTITLES
An ex-cop and his ex-partner decide to follow up on the investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murders begin again.
Director: Yi’nan Diao
Awards: Best Actor Asian Film Awards, Golden Bear Berlin International Film Festival, Best Feature Film Golden Horse Film Festival
SLOW WEST
FRIDAY, 5:00 PM
THRILLER/WESTERN | 84 MINUTES | RATED: R | ENGLISH
At the end of the nineteenth century, a young Scottish man (Kodi Smit-McPhee) journeys across the American frontier in search of the woman he loves. He is joined by Silas (Michael Fassbender), a mysterious traveler, and hotly pursued by an outlaw along the way.
Director: John Maclean
Awards: Grand Jury Prize World Cinema Dramatic Sundance Film Festival, Best Film Transatlantyk International Film Festival
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
FRIDAY, 8:00 PM
COMEDY/HORROR | 86 MINUTES | RATED: R | ENGLISH
Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are vampires who are finding that modern life has them struggling with the mundane – like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flat-mate conflicts. Clement and Waititi, creators of the HBO hit series “Flight of the Conchords,” co-wrote, co-directed, and co-star in this hilarious send-up.
Director: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi
Awards: Best Narrative Feature Hawaii International
Film Festival, People’s Choice Award Midnight Madness Toronto International Film Festival
HAPPY VALLEY
SATURDAY, 11:00 AM
DOCUMENTARY | 98 MINUTES | RATED: NR | ENGLISH
A documentary that observes the year after Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s arrest on child sex abuse charges.
Director: Amir Bar-Lev
Awards: Best Documentary Feature Sarasota Film Festival
THE LOOK OF SILENCE
SATURDAY, 1:00 PM
DOCUMENTARY | 103 MINUTES | RATED: PG-13 | INDONESIAN W/ SUBTITLES
Through Joshua Oppenheimer’s work filming perpetrators of the Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered – and the identity of the men who murdered him.
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Awards: Peace Film Award Berlin Film Festival, Best Documentary Bodil Awards, Audience Award SXSW Film Festival
’71
SATURDAY, 3:00 PM
ACTION/DRAMA | 99 MINUTES | RATED: R | ENGLISH
A young British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a terrifying riot on the streets of Belfast in 1971. Unable to tell friend from foe, the raw recruit must survive the night alone and find his way to safety through a disorienting, alien and deadly landscape.
Director: Yann DeMange
Awards: Best Director British Independent Film Festival, Best New Director Munich Film Festival, Best Picture Athens International Film Festival
FRAME BY FRAME
SATURDAY, 5:00 PM
DOCUMENTARY | 85 MINUTES | RATED: NR | DARI & ENGLISH
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, taking a photo was a crime. Set in modern Afghanistan, Frame By Frame follows four Afghan photojournalists as they navigate an emerging and dangerous media landscape reframing Afghanistan for the world and for themselves.
Directors: Alexandria Bombach, Mo Scarpelli
***FILMMAKER MAY ATTEND***
Awards: Audience Award Documentary Feature Brooklyn Film Festival, Grand Jury Prize Documentary Nashville Film Festival
MEET THE PATELS
SATURDAY, 8:00 PM
COMEDY/DOCUMENTARY | 88 MINUTES | RATED: PG | ENGLISH
A laugh-out-loud real life romantic comedy about Ravi Patel, an almost-30-year-old Indian-American who enters a love triangle between the woman of his dreams – and his parents.
Directors: Geeta Patel, Ravi Patel
Awards: Best Documentary Feature Los Angeles Film Festival, Audience Award Best Documentary Film Traverse City Film Festival
TIMBUKTU
SUNDAY, 12:45 PM
DRAMA | 97 MINUTES | RATED: PG-13 | FRENCH W/ SUBTITLES
A cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives – which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith – abruptly disturbed.
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
Awards: Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award Nomination, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Cannes Film Festival, Best Director Chicago International Film Festival
RED ARMY
SUNDAY, 2:45 PM
DOCUMENTARY | 84 MINUTES | RATED: PG | ENGLISH & RUSSIAN
Red Army is a feature documentary about the Soviet Union and the most successful dynasty in sports history: the Red Army hockey team. Told from the perspective of its captain Slava Fetisov, the story portrays his transformation from national hero to political enemy. From the USSR to Russia, the film examines how sport mirrors social and cultural movements and parallels the rise and fall of the Red Army team with the Soviet Union.
Director: Gabe Polsky
Awards: Audience Choice Award Chicago International Film Festival, Audience Award World Cinema AFI Fest
GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM
SUNDAY, 4:30 PM
DRAMA | 115 MINUTES | RATED: NR | HEBREW & FRENCH W/ SUBTITLES
An Israeli woman seeking to finalize her divorce from her cruel and manipulative husband finds herself effectively put on trial by her country’s religiously based marriage laws, in this riveting drama from sibling directors Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz.
Directors: Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz
Awards: Best Screenplay Chicago International Film Festival, Audience Award Jerusalem Film Festival
SUNSHINE ON LEITH
SUNDAY, 7:45 PM
COMEDY/DRAMA/MUSICAL | 100 MINUTES | RATED: PG | ENGLISH
Sunshine on Leith is based on the sensational stage hit of the same name, featuring music by pop-folk band The Proclaimers. The film follows the stories of Davy and Ally, who have to re-learn how to live life in Edinburgh, Scotland after coming home from serving in Afghanistan. Both struggle to learn to live a life outside the army and to deal with the everyday struggles of family, jobs and relationships.
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Awards: British Breakthrough Award Richard Attenborough Film Awards, Nominated Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Directing, Best Film BAFTA Awards Scotland

For more information on the festival held at the Garden Theater, please email info@frankfortgardentheater.com.

The Frankfort Film Festival is held in Benzie County along M-22, just voted the Best Scenic Autumn Drive in the Nation by USA Today. Explore Northern Michigan fall color along the Lake Michigan shoreline and Sleeping Bear Dunes during your visit!


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