Big Island Film Festival

58 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

Big Island Film Festival at the Fairmont Orchid, Hawai‘i

KOHALA COAST, HAWAI‘I ISLAND—Now in its eleventh year, Big Island Film Festival (BIFF) has announced its 58 Official Selections, to be screened May 26-30, 2016. BIFF, the “talk story” film festival is a celebration of narrative filmmaking in the luxury resort setting of the Fairmont Orchid, Hawai‘i and The Shops at Mauna Lani.

The new, independent shorts and feature-length films are widely diverse, with something for every movie fan genre from sci fi to all kinds of romance, belly-laugh comedy, zombie suspense, martial arts action, captivating mysteries, family stories, and a short, “Cosmopenguin,” by a 7-year old Austrian filmmaker.

Michael Gross, best known as Steven Keaton, Michael J. Fox’s TV dad in “Family Ties,” stars in the new feature “Last Call at Murray’s,” showing Sunday night. Gross will attend in person, following a salute and reception in his honor.  Bellamy Young, who plays ambitious First Lady on “Scandal,” will also be honored at BIFF, with a salute and reception on Saturday. Tickets for both events are available online.

Of note are feature films to be screened at the Fairmont Orchid’s Plantation Estate, where no-host bar and snacks make movie-watching even more fun, and beach chairs are welcome. On Saturday, “Winter’s Dream,” a futuristic sci fi drama pairs with “Plan Z,” a gripping trip through the zombie apocalypse, with soundtrack by artists like Rhianna, the Black Eyed Peas and more. Friday’s lineup includes a hilarious defense of family leave, “The Bad Mother,” and a multi-level love story filmed on our island, “Throuple.”  On Sunday, “The Closer” is an intense drama about super high stakes real estate during the boom and bust of Brooklyn’s subprime meltdown.

“I am so impressed with the quality of films this year,” said Executive Director Leo Sears. “Picking the Official Selections was very difficult. The features are excellent, and the shorts are so good that we added an extra film block so we could show six more. Many of the daytime movies are good enough to be shown in the prime Festival Venue, but we only haveso much space. This is a great selection that any movie-lover will enjoy and we hope everybody will come and support indie films with us.”

The Official Selections for BIFF 2016 are:

A Mighty Nice Man

As You Like It

Bernie and Rebecca

Between the Miles

Beyond Shattered Lenses

Blue Borsalino

Boomerang

Breathe

Catfish Blues

Cosmopenguin

Cuddle Party

Danny Boy

Diablo (Devil)

Dream Land

Ellis

Fade

Frankie (Italian roulette)

God Is A Dog

Green Lake

Hook Man

Indigo

Instance

Jack’s Apocalypse

Jagon

Last Call at Murray’s

Market St.

Monty and the Runaway Furnace

New Generation

Out of the village

Plan Z

Popolo

Prick

Psychoanalysis

Rated

Regression

Reservations For Three?

Ribbons

Romantic Rouse

Speaking of Fairies

Spunkle

Stoked Steves

Superior

The Bad Mother movie

The Bench

The Boy

The Closer

The End aka John Doe

The End of Blessings

The Kidnapping of a Fish

The Light Thief

The Schoolboy

The Surrender Call

Throuple

Water Girl

West of Her

White Lies Blue Dream

Wifey Redux

Winter’s Dream

The five-day schedule includes free Opening Night and family films at The Shops at Mauna Lani, daytime movies and screenings under the stars at Plantation Estate, special events, screenwriting workshops, Awards Brunch and more.

A limited number of ballots will be given to audience members during each screening. Votes are tallied at the end of the festival, to determine the Audience-choice Feature and Short to be screened at Best of the Fest on Monday, May 30. An exciting closing night event, Best of the Fest will kick off with a Hawaiian music concert, and two ways to give back: a silent auction for Fisher House at Tripler Army Medical Center, and a portion of each ticket sold donated to Hawai‘i Island Food Basket.

The Big Island “Talk Story” Film Festival is a celebration of independent narrative films and filmmaking, taking place May 26-30. Major sponsors include the Fairmont Orchid, Hawai‘i and The Shops at Mauna Lani and Hawai‘i Tourism Authority/Hawai‘i County CPEP. For complete schedule information and tickets, visit www.BigIslandFilmFestival.com.

Photos by: Kirk Lee Aeder, from BIFF 2015