The 15th Annual RiverRun International Film Festival
Mark your calendars for the 15th annual RiverRun International Film Festival, April 12-21, 2013. This year's festival will screen 143 films, which includes 66 features and 77 shorts from 35 countries..
On April 12, for the first time, the Festival will open with not one, but two films. The first, BLANCANIEVES, is a twist on the Snow White fairy tale set in 1920s Seville and centered on a female bullfighter. The second opening night film is CASTING BY about the history and importance of casting directors in Hollywood. The Festival will close on April 21 with Winston-Salem native Ramin Bahrani’s AT ANY PRICE, a film that chronicles a family farm threatened by an unexpected crisis, further testing the relationship between a father (Dennis Quaid) and his rebellious son (Zac Efron). In between, the Festival will feature a wide variety of features, documentaries, shorts and animation in competition sections, as well as many films in non-competition sidebars. Additionally, UNCSA alum Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud) will receive RiverRun’s 2013 Emerging Master Award following a screening of MUD on April 21.
Included in the non-competition lineup this year is a Spotlight on Ingmar Bergman, a mini retrospective of the legendary Swedish director’s work featuring four of his most important films. The Bergman focus will also be augmented by the documentary LIV & INGMAR, which screens in the Focus section and chronicles the longtime friendship and artistic collaboration between Bergman and actress Liv Ullmann. Additional sidebars include a new section titled From the Archives, this year featuring classic films from Alfred Hitchcock, Terry Zwigoff and Orson Welles. Additionally, RiverRun’s third year of Altered States: New Directions in American Cinema will feature new works by young American filmmakers, including films from UNCSA alumni Chad Hartigan (THIS IS MARTIN BONNER) and Zach Clark (WHITE REINDEER).
Held annually each spring, RiverRun screens a wide variety of feature-length and short films from all genres, and also presents a broad range of special events, including high-profile regional premieres of significant films, celebrity tributes, family matinees and classic retrospectives as well as a mixture of panel discussions and parties. Filmmakers and guests travel from Germany, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada and across North America to share their films, passions and stories with our audiences.
New to this year's festival is Patriocracy is a 90-minute documentary that explores bi-partisanship in America, featuring journalists and politicians that seek to answer the question, 'Are politics getting worse?' Click here to see how some students were able to get a sneak peak.
Comparable in size and scope to the well-regarded film festivals in Nashville, Atlanta and Boston, RiverRun is a general audience festival that draws attendees from throughout the South and offers an eclectic program from film studios, independent distributors and first-time filmmakers. As the Festival has obtained national and international recognition, RiverRun has attracted substantial press and increased levels of attendance. RiverRun issued more than 13,500 tickets in 2010, marking an increase of 10% in admission.
One of RiverRun's greatest assets is the collection of industry guests we bring to Winston-Salem each year, to attend the Festival's events and share their passion with the filmgoers attending screenings. RiverRun has two awards that are given each year to honor filmmakers.
To see the sneak peak this year's films click on the video below.
Winston-Salem Light Project Joins River Run for Downtown Exibition
The Winston-Salem Light Project is pleased to announce their partnership with the 2013 River Run International Film Festival. Lighting students from the School of Design and Production at UNC School of the Arts are presenting a lighting installation celebrating the opening of this year’s festival. The fascinating project is located on the 300 Block of 4th Street, between Cherry and Marshall Streets. Utilizing innovative and creative techniques, the block transforms into a unique urban environment for patrons and the public in and around the hub of the film festival’s activities. You can view the installation each night at sundown until the closing night Friday, April 19.
The Winston-Salem Light Project is a project of the Lighting Department in the School of Design and Production at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Winston-Salem Light Project produces unique annual week-long installations with light using downtown Winston-Salem as the canvas. For more information, go to www.lightproject.org.
