Opening / Closing Film

Opening Film: The Architect

not in competition
Premiere Night Film and Gala presented by Fiore’s Cottonwood Ristorante Toscana

Thursday, 7 – 11 p.m.
Diana Wortham Theatre
Reception immediately following film

(81 minutes) Starring Anthony Lapaglia in the title role along with Isabella Rossellini and Viola Davis, this film is a harrowing and ultimately human story of two very different families. Leo Waters (Lapaglia) is an idealistic architect and patriarch of an affluent, suburban Chicago family. Tonya Neeley (Davis) is a pragmatic activist who is trying to keep her family together while living in one of the city’s most drug and crime-infested public housing projects. As part of her ongoing campaign to have the projects torn down and decent housing built in its place, Tonya decides that the one signature she needs more than any other on her petition is that of the projects’ original architect, Leo Waters.

Director: Matt Tauber Producer: Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban, Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente, Danny Leiner, Declan Baldwin, Anthony Lapaglia Editor: Tom Mcardle Production Company: Sly Dog Productions Cast: Anthony Lapaglia, Viola Davis, Isabella Rossellini, Hayden Panettiere, Sebastian Stan, Paul James, Serena Reeder

Dirty Dancing

not in competition

Friday, 7 – 9:30 p.m.
Diana Wortham Theatre
Dirty Dancing Party immediately following at The Orange Peel. After-party at 11 p.m. at Wild Wing Cafe. Keep your ticket for admission.

(120 minutes) Baby is becoming a young woman in the summer when she meets Johnny Castle, who teaches dance at a family summer camp and attends wild dance parties during his free time. They become lovers when he teaches her a dance routine so that she can fill in for one of the other dancers, who is recovering from an abortion. As the summer winds down, each must come to grips with responsibility and love and others’ expectations.

Director: Emile Ardolino Producer: Doro Bachrach, Eleanor Bergstein, Mitchell Cannold, Linda Gottlieb, Steven Reuther Editor: Peter C. Frank Cast: Jennifer Gray, Patrick Swayze, Jerry Orbach, Cynthia Rhodes, Jack Weston, Jane Brucker, Kelly Bishop, Lonny Price, Max Cantor

Closing Film: Candy

not in competition
Sunday, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Fine Arts Theatre – lower

(90 minutes) The film, which is the feature helming debut of noted Australian stage director Neil Armfield, is based on the prize-winning novel by Luke Davies and was adapted for the screen by Davies and Armfield. In the film, recent Oscar-nominee Heath Ledger stars as Dan, a charming but reckless young poet who has fallen love with Candy, a beautiful young art student from a comfortable middle-class family who is attracted to the bohemian lifestyle that Dan has long since embraced. In order to get closer to Dan, Candy, whose previous drug use has been casually experimental, starts shooting up. Their passionate relationship then alternates between bursts of ecstatic oblivion and bouts of despair and self-destruction. Hooked as much on heroin as one another, their story becomes a love triangle: a boy, a girl, and a drug.

Director: Neil Armfield Writer: Neil Armfield, Luke Davies Cast features: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush