GUEST:  FLORIAN EICHINGER  (Writer/Director)  At a family gathering, Markus, an almost 40-year-old doting father, is reminded of his ugly childhood when his 4-year-old son is slightly injured while alone with his grandmother. Writer|Director:  Florian Eichinger Genre:  Drama Running Time:  106 minutes Distributor:  Media Luna Country:  Germany Language:  German w|English Subtitles Rating:  N|R Starring: Andreas Döhler, Jessica Schwarz, Katrin Pollitt, Heiko Pinkowski FESTIVALS: Germany: Filmfest Munich!, Munich International Film Festival, Oldenburg Film Festival, Hamburg Film Festival; Estonia, Tallinn Black Nights; USA:…

When Phil returns home from summer camp he finds that his mother and twin sister, aren't speaking to one another. Unwilling to confront his family during the last of the summer holidays, Phil escapes to hang out with his best friend.  As the school year begins, a new student arrives, the handsome and mysterious Nicholas.  Infatuated, Phil watches his crush and is thrilled when Nicholas returns his feelings. Writer| Director:  Jakob M. Erwa Genre:  Drama Running time:  115 min. Distributor:…

WEST COAST PREMIERE The first film from one of Australia's greatest theater director's, is at once a brilliant re-imagining of Henrik Ibsen's THE WILD DUCK and a startling, absorbing work of art in its own right. Starring Paul Schneider, Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill. After a fifteen-year absence, Christian (Paul Schneider) returns home to rural New South Wales for the marriage of his father, Henry (Geoffrey Rush), the wealthy owner of the local mill that's been the economic bedrock of…

COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Nathan Fabre, a young Catholic teacher, while working on his thesis about French resistance to the Nazis during World War II, discovers a photograph of a prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp whose resemblance to his father is uncanny.  Yet when he mentions this to his father, it is brushed off as a coincidence.  As Nathan digs deeper and learns more, he tries to understand the origin of the violence he finds within himself and those around him.…

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE Mathieu, a Parisian, is 33, but he has never met his father. His late mother always told him that he was the result of a casual encounter. One day, Mathieu receives a call telling him that his father was Canadian, and that he had just passed away. He also discovers that he has two step brothers and decides to go to the funeral in order to meet them. But once in Montreal, he realizes that nobody is aware of his existence or even interested…

Set in Bratislava during the final decade of communism, THE TEACHER examines the abuse of power at a middle school. Zuzana Maurery, named best actress at Karlovy Vary, plays a terrifying instructor who heads the local Communist party and uses her pupils to manipulate their parents for her own personal benefit. Director: Jan Hrebejk Writer: Petr Jarchovský Genre: Comedy|Drama Running time: 102 minutes Distributor: Film Movement Country : Slovakia|Czech Republic Language: Slovak w|English subtitles Rating: N|R Stars: Zuzana Mauréry, Zuzana…

Southern California Premiere Rolling off HIPPOCRATES, doctor-turned-filmmaker Thomas Lilti delves once again into the medical world with THE COUNTRY DOCTOR. The social dramedy stars Francois Cluzet (“Intouchables”, “Tell No One’) as a devoted and revered countryside doctor whose life gets rocked by a middle-age woman who has come from the city hospital to earn her chops. Challenging each other with opposite views on medicine, the pair eventually bond and learn from one another. Writer|Director:  Thomas Lilti Genre:  Comedy | Drama…

U.S. PREMIERE “May 1968: Rolling Stones, bell-bottoms, mini-skirts, sexual revolution, protests against the Vietnam War… While Germany sets off for a new era of freedom, rebellious fourteen-year-old Wolfgang gets sent to Freistatt, a foster home for difficult children.  There he shall be “educated” to become a decent boy.  Wolfgang puts up a determined resistance against the brutal working conditions and the perfidious education methods of the wardens; he doesn’t allow them to get him down.  But for how long can he…

WEST COAST PREMIERE “Max & Leon is the first feature film from the stars of the French TV sensation The Palmashow: the creation of stand-up comedians Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais.  In this epic WW2 comedy—in the vein of La Grande Vadrouille (which was for 40 years the most popular French film in the history of France)—our two heroes, Max and Léon, will try by all means possible to avoid going into battle … which leads the duo into a…

U.S. Premiere   Based on the award-winning series of graphic novels by Camille Jourdy, Julien Rappeneau’s enchanting directorial debut ROSALIE BLUM is a warm, witty and impeccably performed comedy about a random encounter that has unexpected and far-reaching consequences. Thirty-something Vincent Machot (indelibly played by Kyan Khojandi) is a hairdresser, like his father before him.  Life rotates around work, his overbearing mother who lives in the apartment upstairs, and a womanising cousin constantly trying to set him up.  But one morning…

EMPTY SPACE Southern California Premiere   “Tom, an overweight young man, takes refuge at his grandmother's cabin in rural Protection, IL, in an attempt to bury the years of being bullied and feeling rejected.  While in town, he meets a precocious blind girl named Lilly, who shows him how to be accepted and loved.  Tender, funny and dramatic, the film shows characters not often depicted onscreen as leads, in a unique coming of age story.”  …  emptyspacethemovie.com   Director:  James…

 “Movie fans know the work of Harold and Lillian Michelson, even if they don’t recognize the names.  Working largely uncredited in the Hollywood system, storyboard artist Harold and film researcher Lillian left an indelible mark on classics by Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski and many more.  Through an engaging mix of love letters, film clips and candid conversations with Harold and Lillian, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola and others, this deeply engaging documentary…

  Join us for an EXCLUSIVE Q&A screening of Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey at Camelot Theaters! After his ingenious escape from a Turkish prison in 1975, Billy Hayes arrived home to a hero’s welcome, instant celebrity and within a week had a book and movie deal for his story. From the moment it stunned the world at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978, 'Midnight Express' cemented its place in film history as an artistic and financial success,…

Gunnar, a sociologist in his fifties who has written countless self-help books, lives in a beautiful house with Dísa, his wife of thirty years. Despite his expertise, their relationship is on the rocks and their attitude towards one another is becoming increasingly resentful and bitter. Their 25-year-old son and only child, David, comes back from a holiday with a new girlfriend, Sunna. Sunna is pretty, smart, polite and on the face of it, the perfect daughter in law. However, on…

Jan (Jiří Bartoška), a veterinarian, has had enough. The last drop was the death of his father-in-law who, just like him, ran out of strength and patience. Everything in his life, old age and finally even his death, the manner and the place of his grave, had always been decided by the grandmother (Iva Janžurová). She never listened to any of his wishes and desires in good faith that only she knows what is best for him. And so, quite…

Academy Award submission for Best Foreign Language Film: Cuba: ‘The Companion’  NOTE:  Start time is 9:30 AM.  Co-Sponsor with CINEMA DIVERSE 1988, Cuba, those infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS were given free room, board and medical treatment at a beautiful facility called “Los Cocos”. Except for the criminals who shared prison cells, the patients shared apartments with other patients. These apartments were so comfortable that some healthy people wanted to have AIDS so they could live in such…

California Premiere   Three generations of a family have gathered at the matriarch’s (Ghita Nørby) house for the weekend. Terminally ill, she wants them to bid her a final farewell, having decided to end her life come Sunday. Sisters Sanne (Danica Curcic) and Heidi  (Paprika Steen) have accepted her desire to die before her disease worsens, but as the weekend progresses, their mother’s decision becomes increasingly hard to deal with, and old conflicts bubble up. August’s emotional meditation on life,…

Based upon a book and facts, THE TESTAMENT is about Yoel, a meticulous historian, in the midst of a widely covered legal battle with powerful forces in Austria, concerning a brutal massacre of Jews that took place toward the end of WWII in the village of Lendsorf. An influential family of industrialists on whose land the murder took place, is planning to build a real estate project on the very same land. Yoel suspects that their aim is to bury…

  COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE HARMONIA is a modern adaptation of the mythological triangle between the childless Abraham and Sarah and young Hagar. Sarah is the harpist of the Jerusalem Philharmonic; Abraham is its almighty conductor. When Hagar, a young horn player from East Jerusalem joins the Western Side Orchestra, she bonds with Sarah and a unique friendship evolves between the two women. Hagar, feeling Sarah’s pain from not having children, offers to have a baby for her from Abraham, shaking…

Katherine Mitchell wasn’t looking for love a second time, not at her age, and certainly not with the cranky Isaac Shapiro.  Despite the nosy bunch of seniors in the residence where Katherine convalesces after breaking her hip, she and Isaac warm to each other over their shared love of music.   But family problems and unforeseen illness threaten both their blossoming relationship and Katherine’s lifelong dream of going to the opera in Milan. Director:  Leon Marr Starring:  Linda Thorson and Stuart…

COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE DARK FORTUNE is the prize-winning adaptation of Lukas Hartmann’s novel about the aftershocks of a family tragedy.  In the midst of a heated argument their car crashes in a mountain tunnel where four out of five family members are killed, including both parents.  Only the youngest son survives, 8-year-old Yves.  Later that night, psychologist Eliane Hess receives an emergency summons to visit Yves in the hospital.  As she struggles to break the shocking news, the boy's aunt…