Here’s a sneak peek at the lineup for this year’s Asheville Film Festival, featuring movies like Darren Aronofsky‘s The Wrestler, Danny Boyle‘s Slumdog Millionaire and the full-length animated work Sita Sings the Blues.
The festival will take place Nov. 6 to 9.
From director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream), the festival’s opening-night movie, The Wrestler, features Mickey Rourke as washed-up pro wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson.
Slumdog Millionaire, the festival’s closing-night movie, comes from director Danny Boyle, of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later fame. It tells the story of how a poor Indian teen becomes a contestant on the Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, all in an effort to prove his love for his girlfriend.
Nina Paley‘s animated feature Sita Sings the Blues juxtaposes the ancient Indian epic of the Ramayana with a modern love story, set to Annette Hanshaw’s 1920s jazz vocals.
More information about the films and festival special events to come. Tickets will go on sale later this week.
— David Forbes, staff writer
Any way you look at it, opening the festival with a new picture by Darren Aronofsky is a pretty big coup. Closing it with Danny Boyle’s new film is an even bigger one!