The 36th Annual Starz Denver Film Festival

The 36th Annual Starz Denver Film Festival brings world culture to the screens and audiences in Denver Nov. 6 through Nov. 17. This year all Festival screenings will take place at the Sie FilmCenter, The United Artists Denver Pavilions 15 and Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Festival Box Offices will be at the FilmCenter and the Pavilions. Tickets may also be purchased online at DenverFilm.org.

Red Carpet Events

The Film Festival red carpet events are always a highlight. I recall seeing an unknown film that was supposed to go straight to video, but the filmmaker’s passion rescued it from such a fate: Slumdog Millionaire.

This year kicks off with Opening Night, Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. This year’s featured film is Labor Day, Jason Reitman’s fifth film starring Kate Winslet as a single mom and Josh Brolin as an escaped convict with a full toolbox of domestic skills. Catherine Shoard of The Guardian wrote, “Reitman’s fifth feature appears to bear little resemblance to the four that went before. Thank You For Smoking, Juno, Up In The Air and Young Adult all shared a taste for whip-crack chat and smart cultural reference… this is different… He dares us to care.”

The second red carpet event is Nov. 9, 8 p.m. at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The new film from Alexander Payne, Nebraska, stars Bruce Dern and Will Forte, as well as a gaggle of Hollywood’s most beloved white-haired character actors and many local extras. Shot in black and white, it centers around a cantankerous old man who believes he has won a million dollars, based on a clearly fictitious sweepstakes letter he received in the mail. His son, knowing the letter is a ruse, steps forward to drive him the 800 miles, in hopes of spending quality father/son time. Payne knows how to bring the humanity, with former projects including Sideways and The Descendants. Dern won the Best Actor award at Cannes and many expect him to scoop his first Oscar nomination in 35 years.

Closing Night concludes the red carpet events on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The feature film has not yet been announced.

Gay/Lesbian titles

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (Taiwan)

Optician Weichung is promoted to manager at the family eyeglass store and the shops retiring owner floats blissfully into a blue sky. This is when we realize this is no ordinary rom-com. A family man and father is contemplating having another child with his wife when the homosexual feelings he has long repressed are stirred by new circumstances and won’t be denied. Although Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (yes, based on the classic Shirelles song) is very broad — perhaps too much so for arthouse audiences — it is deeply heartfelt.

In The Name Of (Poland)

A Catholic priest working with troubled teens encounters what most repressed gays fear: advances from a gay person who recognizes you and calls you out. He is able to decline the advances of a young woman, but when he meets Lukasz, a rural youth, his homosexuality becomes burdensome. This film is making waves for its stunning imagery, classic artist concepts of The Christ recreated in this film help to underscore a young priest’s struggle and some of the absurdities of religion.

Vic+Flo Saw a Bear (France)

With the smashing success of TV program Orange is the New Black, lesbian convicts seem to have replaced the tawdry tropes of yesteryear’s “vixens behind bars” pulp films. Vic+Flo are Victoria and Florence, two ex-cons trying to forge a new life in the backwoods of Quebec. They feel under siege as Vic’s probation officer hounds them, and a woman in the neighborhood turns out to be a shadow from Flo’s past. Director Denis Côté’s film captured the 2013 Silver Bear prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.