In Texas, Angelikans are gearing up for an incredible month of film festivals.

Our April begins with the 5th Annual Dallas International Film Festival, running 4/1 – 4/7 at the Angelika Dallas. Over the past four years, DIFF has featured the finest in U.S. and international cinema including some 475 films representing over 50 countries in total with over $260,000 in awards presented. This year’s highlights include the FilmMatters discussion series at the Festival Lounge downtown, numerous Q&As with talent and filmmakers, presentation of the Star Award to Ann-Margaret and a special screening of BYE BYE BIRDIE, and many world premieres and red carpet events. Some of the more notable screenings taking place at the Angelika:

Friday 4/1 @ 4:30PM (Dallas)
BYE BYE BIRDIE

Friday 4/1 @ 7:00PM (Dallas)
THE LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE

Sunday 4/3 @ 2:15PM (Dallas)
SALVATION BOULEVARD

Monday 4/4 @ 7:00PM (Dallas
WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE – red carpet event

Wednesday 4/6 @ 7:30PM (Dallas)
ARTHUR – red carpet event

Thursday 4/7 @ 7:30 (Dallas)
BEAUTIFUL BOY – red carpet event

Friday 4/8 @ 7:00 (Plano)
MAMAS AND PAPAS

Friday 4/8 @ 7:30 (Plano)
IRONCLAD

Friday 4/8 @ 10:00 (Plano)
13 ASSASSINS

Saturday 4/9 @ 8:00 (Plano)
COOPER AND THE CASTLE HILLS GANG

Sunday 4/10 @ 7:30 (Plano)
SALVATION BOULEVARD

Kicking off Wednesday 4/27 is the 41st Annual USA Film Festival. USAFF is dedicated to year-long programming with monthly member screenings, TexFest community showcase, KidFilm Festival, Dallas’ only official Oscar party, and quality features and shorts during their annual spring festival. Check back for updates on the spring festival program!

Join us opening weekend at the Angelika New York for one of the very special Q&As with Academy Award nominated director Julian Schnabel, taking place following the Friday and Saturday evening shows.

 

The acclaimed director will be visiting the Angelika for the opening of MIRAL, an emotionally charged portrait of the lives of four women in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. This film marks Schnabel’s first narrative features since 2007’s impressive THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, which earned the director an Academy Award nomination in addition to a slew of critics’ associations and film festival awards.

Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to see an important and moving film – and hear from the director about his artistic process, the film’s production, and working with emerging actress Freida Pinto.

Q&A’s WILL BE HELD:

Friday, March 25 following the 8:00PM show

Saturday, March 26 following the 5:45PM show

Sunday, March 27 following the 5:45PM show

ABOUT MIRAL: 

Academy Award nominee Julian Schnabel (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) directs Willem Defoe, Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave, and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE sensation Fredia Pinto in this stirring, politically-minded drama. Inspired and written by the Palestinian-born, Western-based TV journalist Rula Jebreal, MIRAL chronicles the story of four women whose lives intertwine in the starkly human search for justice, hope and reconciliation amid a world overshadowed by conflict, rage and war.

The gang from BROTHERHOOD – Lou Taylor Pucci, Trevor Morgan, Jon Foster, and director Will Canon – stopped by the Angelika last week to talk about independent filmmaking, fraternity pranks, and and why the tagline for the movie could’ve been “BROTHERHOOD, Like Going to a Water Park Without All the Pee”…

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival, BROTHERHOOD is about a college freshman who finds himself blindfolded in the back of a van dealing with the fact that he has to rob a convenience store as the final step of his initiation into the Sigma Zeta Chi fraternity. Filmed on location in Arlington, Texas, this well crafted and superbly acted indie shows how a college fraternity initiation can go horribly wrong. BROTHERHOOD is now playing at the Angelika Dallas – tickets are available online at www.AngelikaFilmCenter.com 

We had an outstanding preview screening of EVEN THE RAIN on Tuesday – but if you missed that, now’s your chance to catch Gael Garcia Bernal’s latest starring role.The film opens today at the Angelika with a full schedule.Watch the trailer below or head over toIMDB.com for an exclusive clip, then purchase tickets online for this moving, critically acclaimed film.

“One of the most urgent and certainly among the most beautifully shot documentaries to hit the big screen in recent memory” – Manohla Dargis, NY Times 

THE LAST LIONS, an incredible documentary from award-winning filmmaking duo Dereck & Beverly Joubert, opens today at the Angelika New York and The Paris Theatre.Narrated by Oscar Winner Jeremy Irons, THE LAST LIONS tells the real-life story of an ostracized lioness and her two cubs fighting for survival in Botswanaâ??s Okavango Delta, one of the last regions where lions can live in the wild. Faced with dwindling land and pressures from the hunting of lions, the lionessâ??s struggle to escape to safety on Duba Island is deftly captured by the Jouberts. Taking into account that big cats are at the very top of the food chain, their rapidly approaching extinction will cause a complete ecosystem collapse unless we take action. Through gorgeous panorama and a touching back story, THE LAST LIONS brings to light the importance of protecting these beautiful creatures, the last lions of our planet under moral and government mandate.JOIN US THIS WEEKEND FOR A SPECIAL Q&A WITH DERECK & BEVERLY JOUBERT:Friday 2/18 following the 7:20PM show at the AngelikaSaturday 2/19 following the 7:20PM show at the Paris

Dallas’ Adam Conway sat down with Channing Tatum to discuss his experience filming THE EAGLE, Academy Award winning Director Kevin MacDonald’s (ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER) Roman Empire epic.

THE EAGLE is now playing – see www.ConsolidatedTheatres.com or www.ReadingCinemasUS.com for showtime and ticket information.

EVEN THE RAIN, Spain’s critically acclaimed entry to the Academy Awards, opens this Friday 2/18 at the Angelika New York – but Angelika Blog readers have a chance to win tickets to an advance screening tomorrow!

 

ABOUT THE FILM:

This powerful story, starring Oscar-winning actors Gael García Bernal (BABEL, AMORES PERROS) and Luis Toscar (TAKE MY EYES) follows two men whose journey to Bolivia to make a film about Christopher Columbus lands them at opposite ends of a moral and political battle that not only hinders the shoot, but also spurs a violent civil war over basic human rights.  

THE SCREENING:

TUESDAY, 2/15 @ 7:00p AT THE VILLAGE EAST CINEMA

HOW TO WIN TICKETS:

1. Follow @CityCinemasNYC or @AngelikaNewYork

2. Retweet our post, “Win tickets for you+guest to sneak preview of EVEN THE RAIN set during #water uprising in Bolivia. At the Village East 2/15″

3. Check your inbox tomorrow – we’ll let you know if you’re on the list!

Friday 2/4 through Thursday 2/10, see international sensation HOME for FREE at the Village East.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s first feature film makes its US premiere this weekend. Arthus-Bertrand’s aerial photography is renowned for its sweeping views of Earth’s most impressive landscapes. He explains his unique environmental perspective and self-taught art in a New York Times article:

â??No one is an environmentalist by birth,â? he said, â??It is only your path, your life, your travels that awaken you.â?Mr. Arthus-Bertrand first found inspiration in a small, solitary experience, when three decades ago he painstakingly observed a family of lions in Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.â??The lions taught me photography,â? Mr. Arthus-Bertrand said. â??They taught me patience and the sense of beauty, a beauty that penetrates you.â?A former actor with no higher education, Mr. Arthus-Bertrand described himself as a â??violent child,â? attending 15 different schools as a boy. He discovered aerial photography working as a hot-air balloon pilot in Kenya. From the air, he explained, you see the world differently, and borders disappear.For years he shot photos for the Paris-Dakar rally, Club Med catalogs and various clients in Morocco. In 1992 he stumbled across the notion of â??sustainable developmentâ? in an article in the newspaper Le Monde, and that serendipitous moment changed his life.â??I didnâ??t know what it was,â? he said, â??but started looking into concepts such as fair trade and ozone layer.â?His work on â??Earth From Aboveâ? made him an environmentalist, he said. Over eight years, he photographed about 160 countries and read dozens of books on environmental issues. Few publications were willing to publish his work at first. He sold prints to pay for his flights and mortgaged his apartment to finance the book.â??Earth From Aboveâ? has come to be viewed in France as the bible of aerial photography and has spawned similar books like â??Paris From the Airâ? and â??New York From the Air.â? For Mr. Arthus-Bertrand, the experience has been â??like winning the lottery.â?

(Full article here)Reserve your FREE tickets online now at www.VillageEastCinema.com – use Fandango promo code NYCHOME.Bringing a large group? Contact Andrew Smoker at 212.871.6839 to make arrangements for 10 or more.

Our sister theatre Village East Cinema will be screening internationally renowned photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand‘s phenomenal documentary film HOME beginning February 4th for FREE! HOME is a must see film bearing witness to the Earth’s incomparable beauty and disquieting vulnerability…

Do not miss the US theatrical premiere of Yann Arthus-Bertrandâ??s HOME, a feast for the eyes and a soulful and thought provoking voyage. Internationally renowned photographer and environmentalist, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, has made the first film ever using exclusively aerial footage. Through visually stunning footage from over fifty countries and narration by Glenn Close, Yann Arthus-Bertrand takes us on a spectacular cinematic journey in which we share his sense of awe about our planet. HOME brilliantly brings to light humanityâ??s threats to the ecological balance of our planet and focuses us on what we can do to protect it.

Reserve your FREE Tickets at VillageEastCinema.com or at the Village East Cinema Box Office!

Because Yann Arthus-Bertrand conceived HOME as a gift to the public and an ecological call to action, HOME will screen exclusively at the Village East Cinema for FREE for one week only. Invite your friends, family, classmates and colleagues to share in this breathtaking experience. For group reservations of 10 or more, please contact Andrew Smoker at 212-871-6839 or Andrew.Smoker@readingrdi.com.

Follow Village East Cinema at @CityCinemasNYC and HOME’s official Twitter account @Home_TheMovie for updates and special promotions leading up to opening night! Don’t miss out on this exciting event!

View the Trailer below:

BLUE VALENTINE is one of 2010’s most controversial and highly-anticipated films, showcasing two Oscar worthy performances by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. Director Derek Cianfrance will be stopping by the Angelika to discuss his 12 year journey making this Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize nominated film. Don’t miss this very special engagement.

We interviewed Michelle Williams earlier this month in case you missed it!

Derek Cianfrance will be hosting a Q&A following the 7:45PM show on Wednesday, December 29th and introducing the 10:35PM show.

Purchase your tickets now!