Filmfest DC is screening more than 70 foreign films from 30 countries through April 26, including premieres, the world's first interactive movie, plus directors discussing their work.

The festival is one of DC's best, along with the Cherry Blossom Festival, and one of the best bargains. General admission tickets are $10, and a package of ten is $80.

Filmfest began April 16 with Japan's "Departures", the exquisitely poignant winner of the 2008 best foreign film Oscar®, and a sushi and champagne buffet reception at the Harman Center for the Arts.

Oscar-winner "Departures" magnificently opened Filmfest DC

Japan's Ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, welcomed the audience and said he had "spent the last two weeks thinking and talking about only two things, cherry blossoms and North Korean missiles." He noted that Hollywood often remakes Japanese films after about ten years, like "Shall We Dance", and he believes "Departures" may be the next re-make.

Also among the festival's six "New Japanese Cinema" selections is the 80th feature of director Yoji Yamada, "Kabei" ("our mother"). After her professor husband is arrested for "thought crimes", Kabei struggles to support her family, even harder after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. 

Among the festival's showings with a Washington, DC regional connection:

     -- "Breaking News Breaking Down". This documentary by Mike Walter, who covered Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 for DC's WUSA, examines how "trauma journalism can be dangerous and emotionally devastating." He'll attend the April 18 showing. It's one of several films examining "Views from the News" around the world.

    -- "Bonecrusher". A son is determined to follow the family tradition of working in Virginia's Hazel Mountain coal mine, despite the wishes of his father who has lung cancer.  Director Mike Fountain will appear at the April 20 screening.

     -- "Bedford: The Town They Left Behind".  The Virginia National Guard's Company A, from Bedford, lost the most men per capita on D-Day. The documentary makes connections between those soldiers and Bedford's men now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Directors Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab will appear at the April 25 screening.

A special Filmfest presentation is the U.S. premiere of the world's first interactive film, "Kinoautomat", a Czech creation in which the audience determines the plot through voting buttons. The 1967 film had been shelved by the Communist government in 1972, and this is one of the film's few showings since then. 

"Kinoautomat" is one of several Eastern European offerings in the festival. Other categories are "Latin Films", "Francophone Films", and "Global Rhythms". Global Rhythms' films about two spectacular Cuban performers "Celia the Queen" and "Old Man Bebo" are particularly timely in view of President Obama's overtures at the Summit of the Americas to begin thawing U.S.-Cuban relations.

Here is the complete listing and schedule of the 23rd annual Filmfest DC.