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The Sarasota Film Festival has announced its opening and closing films for the 15th annual event taking place April 5-14. Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s “Blackfish” will open the 2013 Festival with a screening at The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on Friday, April 5th. Noah Baumbach’s “Frances Ha” will screen as the Closing Night film on April 13th at The Sarasota Opera House. James Ponsoldt’s “The Spectacular Now” and Barbara Kopple’s “Running From Crazy” will be the festival's Centerpiece Films.
The Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) also announced their new Spotlight series, featuring Carlos Puga’s “Burma” starring Christopher Abbott and Gaby Hoffman, Justin Schwarz’s “The Discoverers” starring Griffin Dunne, and the World Premiere of Will Slocombe’s “Pasadena”, starring Peter Bogdanovich and Cheryl Hines.
The SFF will be hosting their annual Tribute Luncheon at the Sarasota Yacht Club on Friday, April 12th at 11:00 a.m., with Mariel Hemingway set to receive the festival’s third annual Impact Award, honoring women in the film industry for their off-screen impact. Ms. Hemingway will receive the award for her advocacy on the issue of suicide prevention. This award is co-presented by the Gulf Coast Chapter of UN Women.
Actress Lili Taylor will be receiving the festival’s Career Achievement in Acting Award, and will attend the festival with the North American Premiere of Tom Gilroy's “The Cold Lands”, playing in the festival’s Narrative Feature Competition. Two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple will be receiving the festival’s Director’s Award, and the festival’s Achievement in Acting Award will go to Griffin Dunne for his performance in “The Discoverers”. The festival’s World Cinema Award will be given to the Canadian actress Suzanne Clément for her performance in Xavier Dolan’s film “Laurence Anyways”.
The SFF also announced the participants in their annual Conversation Series. This year’s lineup features Mariel Hemingway on Thursday, April 11th, Lili Taylor on April 12th, Griffin Dunne on April 13th, with Peter Bogdanovich closing out the series on April 14th.
“Once again, the generosity of our filmmakers and the film community has allowed us to assemble a program of which we are very proud,” said Sarasota Film Festival Director Tom Hall.
“As a leader in the cultural life of our community, The Sarasota Film Festival once again looks forward to introducing Sarasota to a new group of superlative films and artists,” says Sarasota Film Festival Board President Mark Famiglio. “Our festival continues to thrive in no small part because of the support of our patrons and sponsors, and I know they share our excitement for this year’s event.”
For more information about the Festival, visit http://www.sarasotafilmfestival.com.
Follow me at Twitter.com@sarasotaradio.
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