.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Wm. Brian Owens, Executive Director
317.513.9379, brian.owens@indyfilmfest.org
Indianapolis International Film Festival announces award-winning line-up
March 10, 2005 – Indianapolis, IN – The Indianapolis International Film Festival released its line-up for 2005 at a press conference held at Hollywood Bar & Filmworks, the festival's exclusive host. This year's line-up includes films featuring individuals that have received 41 Oscar Nominations and taken home 10 trophies. The festival will begin Thursday, April 21 with the Opening Night Gala Presentation, Steve Buscemi's Lonesome Jim . Shot in Goshen, Indiana in 2004, Lonesome Jim features Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, and Academy Award nominee Seymour Cassel. The festival concludes Sunday, April 24 with an awards ceremony following the Closing Night Gala Presentation, Murderball , a documentary about the sport of wheelchair rugby. Murderball won the Audience Award for Best Non-Fiction Film at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
Eight other films round out the Premiers Program, including Brothers , the Audience Award winner for Best in World Cinema at Sundance. Brothers is helmed by Denmark's Susanne Bier. Two films which took home trophies from the 2004 Cannes Film Festival add to the Premiere selections – Grand Prix winner Oldboy , from South Korean director Chan-wook Park, and Special Jury Prize winner Tropical Malady , from Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Additional films from outside the U.S. include: Cronicas , a Mexican / Ecuadorian co-production starring John Leguizamo and Alfred Molina; and the French documentary The Writer of O , which unravels the mystery of the woman behind the risqué novel, The Story of O . There are two Hollywood documentaries in the program: Tell Them Who You Are chronicles the life and career of Haskell Wexler, one of the film world's great cinematographers ( One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ); and The Last Mogul , about the rise and fall of Lew Wasserman, former Universal CEO. Rounding out the Premieres Program is the Midnight Movie – a special presentation of Frank Novak's “lost gem”, Better Housekeeping . The Shooting Gallery purchased this award-winning film after its hugely successful festival run in 2000. Shortly thereafter, they went bankrupt, leaving this Red State fantasia about marital strife, action figures, guns, and lesbians a distribution orphan. All films in the program are making their Indiana or Midwestern Regional Premieres.
Three Indiana features will compete with four other films for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature. Novem is an original classic rock musical from Evansville director, Brad Kimmel. The Innocent is directed by Chicagoan Lauri Feldman, and produced by Indianapolis Michael Husain. Sidney King's Pearl Diver , like Lonesome Jim , is a family drama shot in Goshen, Indiana. The remaining feature films in competition are James Lee's The Beautiful Washing Machine , from Malaysia, Esmael Barari's Dead Heat Under the Shrubs , from Iran , Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer's Plagues & Pleasure on the Salton Sea , from California, and David Belhassen and Asher Hemias' The Ringworm Children , from Israel.
There are several short films of interest, including the Academy Award winner for Best Animated Short, Ryan , from director Chris Landreth. 2 a Day , directed by Rich Miller, was shot in Frankfort and Indianapolis. In Time , was co-directed by former Indiana resident, Adetoro Makinde. Dutch Bird stars David Kelly, SAG Award nominee for Waking Ned Devine . Aaron Ruell, Kip from Napoleon Dynamite directs two short films in this year's festival – Everything's Gone Green and Mary . Joshua Leonard, who played Josh in The Blair Witch Project , directs The Youth in Us , starring Lukas Haas.
In addition to regular festival events, the Indianapolis International Film Festival is proud to announce a school outreach program this year. Assistant Director, Kara Glennon is heading up this initiative. “This represents a unique opportunity for children to learn about other cultures through a medium they already understand,” said Glennon.
Executive Director, Wm. Brian Owens added, “We have grown so much in just one year, it's remarkable even to me. In just our second year, we have at least one film representing every inhabited continent on the globe.”
Passes are available now at the Indianapolis International Film Festival online store ( http://indyfilmfest.org/buy.html ), and will go on sale April 1 at Hollywood Bar & Filmworks. Various passes range in price from $40 to $85. Individual tickets are available beginning April 11, only at Hollywood Bar & Filmworks. All individual tickets are $10. Special ticket packages are available for a discount.
The complete line-up and schedule are available at the festival's website, www.indyfilmfest.org , For more information, email info@indyfilmfest.org , or call (317) 513-9379 between Noon and 7 PM, Monday through Friday.
###