10 Films We Want To See At AFI Fest
“Like Father Like Son” (Photo via Fuji Television Network, Inc./Amuse Inc./Gaga Corporation)
The American Film Institute’s AFI Fest returns to Hollywood tonight, opening with a gala screening of Saving Mr. Banks, Disney’s own hagiography of their namesake and the story of how Mary Poppins was made. One week later the whole affair closes with the highly anticipated new Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis. Other major films screening at AFI include Alexander Payne’s Nebraska and Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
While AFI Fest provides us an opportunity to catch these and other forthcoming films just before the Oscar season rush, what makes AFI Fest such a great festival is the abundance of world and independent films that may unfortunately be our only chance to ever catch them on a big screen in Los Angeles. You don’t need another person to tell you to see the new Coen Brothers movie. Here’s a list of ten smaller films that you should go out of your way to catch in the next seven days:
- Charlie Victor Romeo has perhaps the most fascinating premise of all the films at AFI Fest. A project undertaken by New York’s Collective: Unconscious Theater on stage since 1999, Charlie Victor Romeo is a series of dramatizations taken straight from the black box recorders from doomed flights, set entirely within the cockpit. The 3-D projection serves to create a literal sense of scale and depth to such harrowing moments in confined spaces.
All screenings take place at either TCL’s Chinese Theatre, TCL Chinese 6, or the Egyptian Theatre and are, best of all, free.
Carman Tse is a native of Northern California but not one of Those Guys that hates on Los Angeles (despite his affection for the Giants over the Dodgers). When he’s not sharing long-winded thoughts on movies, he’s probably sharing long-winded thoughts on baseball or reading about weird sea creatures.
