Lineup for Sarasota's Cine-World Festival announed

   The 24th annual edition of the Sarasota Film Society's
Cine-World Film Festival gets under way Nov. 1. Festival passes go on sale this Friday, Oct. 18 for SFS members and on Oct. 23 for non-members. Individual tickets go on sale Oct. 25.
   The lineup for the 10-day festival includes some obscure but intriguing films, plus some from big-name stars and directors that film buffs have been buzzing about for months.
   Among the highlights are the opening-night documentary "The Armstrong Lie," by award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, chronicling the complicated history of cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Elba

  Other spotlight titles include "August: Osage County,"  starring Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Ewan McGregor; Hirokazu Koreeda's "Like Father, Like Son," "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," starring Idris Elba; "Twice Born," starring Penelope Cruz; and "The Face of Love" starring Ed Harris and Annette Bening. 
   Most screenings will be at Burns Court Cinemas  (506 Burns Lane, Sarasota), and others will be at  Lakewood Ranch Cinemas (10715 Rodeo Drive, Lakewood Ranch).
   All passes and films can be purchased online at www.filmsociety.org or at the theater box office.
   Black Passes, good for 10 films, are $80 for members and $110 for nonmembers. Red passes, good for 20 films, are $150 for members and $210 for nonmembers. Silver Passes, for  40 tickets, are $280 for members and $400 for nonmembers. Single tickets are $9 for members and $12 for non-members.
   Membership to Sarasota Film Society is $30 for one person or $50 for two, so if you're going to buy a black, red or silver pass, it's worth it to become a member first. Membership also entitles patrons to $5 regular movie tickets year-'round at the Burns Court Cinemas and Lakewood Ranch Cinemas. 

   Here's the lineup of films for this year. You can find  more information and buy tickets and passes at https://filmsociety.org.

   
"Face of Love"
Director: Arie Posen
Language: English
Runtime: 92 minutes
   The story of a widow (Annette Bening) who, several years after the loss of her husband Garrett, meets a man (Ed Harris) who looks exactly like her deceased husband. The film is a romantic story filled with humor, surprise, and reflections on the mystery of love surrounding us. 


"Like Father Like Son"
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
Runtime: 120 minutes
   A heartfelt drama that tells the tale of Ryota (Masaharu Fukuyama), a success-driven father who learns that the son he has raised for six years is not his own. A clerical error at the hospital caused him to bring the wrong baby home,  And Ryota is faced with the decision of raising his biological son or the one he has fathered since birth.

"Stranger by the Lake"
Director: Alain Guiraudie
Language: French with English Subtitles Runtime: 92 min.
   In a cruising spot for men, Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive but  lethally dangerous man.

"The Missing Picture"
Director: Rithy Panh

Language: French with English Subtitles
Runtime: 90minutes
Panh uses clay figures, archival footage and narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.

Franco

"As I Lay Dying"
Director: James Franco
Language: English
Runtime: 120 minutes
   Writer/director/star Franco dabbles in experimental filmmaking with this ambitious adaptation of William Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness novel.

"The Broken Circle Breakdown"
Director: Felix Van Groeningen 
Language: Flemish/English with English Subtitles
Runtime: 111 minutes
   A romantic melodrama about passionate young lovers who find their happy future threatened by a tragedy.

"The Truth About Emmanuel"
Director: Francesca Gregorini
Language: English
Runtime: 96 minutes
   A surreal drama in which sensitive teen Emanuel (Kaya Scodelario) begins babysitting the infant of her enigmatic new neighbor Linda (Jessica Biel), who's a dead-ringer for Emanuel's deceased mother.

"The Armstrong Lie"
Director: Alex Gibney
Language: English
Runtime: 123 minutes
   Gibney surveys the rise and fall of American cyclist Lance Armstrong. The director presents the complicated history of the controversial figure.

"August: Osage County"
Director: John Wells
Language: English Runtime: 119 minutes
   The dark, hilarious and  touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name made its Broadway debut in December 2007 and was the winner of five Tony Awards in 2008, including Best Play.

"One Chance"
Director: David Frankel
Language: English Runtime: 103 minutes
   Frankel ("The Devil Wears Prada") teams with screenwriter Justin Zackham ("The Bucket List") to tell the story of an amateur opera singer Paul Potts who went from shop clerk to international superstar after his stunning performance on "Britain's Got Talent."

"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"
Director: Justin Chadwick
Language: English
Runtime: 152 minutes
   An adaptation of the South African leader's autobiography that details his early life, education 27-year imprisonment, and eventual presidency.

"Let the Fire Burn"
Director: Jason Osder
Language: English
Runtime: 88 minutes
   In 1985, Philadelphia police dropped military explosives onto a city row house occupied by the radical group MOVE. Five children and six adults were killed and sixty-one homes were destroyed by the six-alarm blaze. This dramatic tragedy unfolds through an extraordinary visual record previously withheld from the public.

"Go for Sisters"
Director: John Sayles

Olmos

Language: English
Runtime: 123 minutes
   With help from a former detective (Edward James Olmos) and an old friend, a parole officer tries to find her missing son.

"Twice Born"
Director: Sergio Castellitto
Language: Italian with English Subtitles Runtime: 127 minutes
   A romantic war drama about a mother who finds her memories of a tragic romance stirred during a trip to Sarajevo with her teenage son. Stars Penelope Cruz and Emile Hirsch.

"Merecedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America"
Director: Rodrigo H. Vila
Language: Spanish with English Subtitles
Runtime: 90 minutes
   Almost 50 years ago, when she was very young and unknown, Mercedes Sosa broke the mold by drafting, together with other four young artists, the so-called "Manifesto del Nuevo Cancionero" ("The New Songbook Manifesto"). In this autobiography,  she guides us through her life, her successes and failures, her love stories and her suffering. 

"Maidentrip"
Director: Jillian Schlesinger Language: English
Runtime: 82 minutes
   A 14-year-old girl named Laura Dekker set out—camera in hand—on a two-year voyage in pursuit of her dream to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone. In the wake of a year-long battle with Dutch authorities that sparked a global storm of media scrutiny, Laura  finds herself far from land, family and unwanted attention, exploring the world in search of freedom, adventure, and distant dreams of her early youth at sea.

"The Act of Killing"
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Language: Indonesian with English subtitles, English Runtime: 122 minutes
   When the Indonesian government was overthrown in 1965, small-time gangster Anwar Congo and his friends led anti-communist death squads in the mass and murdered murdered more than a million people. Anwar boasts of killing hundreds with his own hands, but he's lived in his country with impunity ever since. When documentary filmmakers approached them to make a film about their role in the genocide, Anwar and his friends eagerly comply—but their idea of being in a movie is not to provide reflective testimony, but to dance their way through musical numbers, twist arms in film noir gangster scenes, and gallop across the prairies as yodeling cowboys.

"Cheap Thrills"
Director: E.L. Katz
Language: English
Runtime: 85 minutes
   A dark comedy about a old friends (Pat Healy and Ethan Embry) whose chance reunion at an inner-city dive bar leads to an encounter with a wealthy couple (David Koechner and Sarah Paxton) who tempt them to participate in a lucrative game of one-upmanship that quickly runs off the rails.
 
"The Final Member"
Directors: Jonah Bekhor, Zach Math
Language: English Runtime: 75 min.
   Thirty miles from the Arctic Circle, in the northern Icelandic town of Husavik, stands the Icelandic Phallological Museum - the world's only Penis museum. Over 40 years, the founder and curator has collected every specimen from every mammal except a human. The film follows the curator's incredible, sublimely comic, often shocking quest to complete his eccentric collection..

"The Last Shepherd"
Director: Marco Bonfanti
Language: Italian with English subtitles
Runtime: 76 minutes
   A journey through the incredible story of Renato Zucchelli, the last traveling shepherd living in a metropolis, who conquered the city with only his sheep and the power of fantasy.

"Mister John"
Directors: Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy
Language: English
Runtime: 95 minute 
   After discovering his wife's infidelities, Gerry leaves London to look after his deceased brother's business and family in Singapore. Discovering a foreign world of opportunity that had not existed before gives Gerry a chance at starting over by slipping into his brother's life - both emotionally and physically.

"The Wait"
Director: M. Blash
 Language: English
Runtime: 96 minutes
   An enigmatic phone call from a psychic catapults a family into a state of suspended belief while waiting for their recently deceased mother to be resurrected.

"Oh Boy"
Director: Jan Ole Gerster
Language: German with English subtitles
Runtime: 83 minutes
   "Oh Boy," which swept the 2013 German Oscar Awards, paints a day in the life of Niko, a 20-something college dropout going nowhere fast. Niko lives for the moment as he drifts through the streets of Berlin, curiously observing everyone around him and oblivious to his growing status as an outsider.

"Generation War"
Director: Philipp Kadelbach 
Language: German with English subtitles
Runtime: Part One --131 minutes, Part Two --148 minutes.
   Billed as a German "Band of Brothers," the blockbuster miniseries Generation War vividly depicts the lives of five young German friends forced to navigate the unconscionable moral compromises of life under Hitler.


"Michael Kohlhaas"
Director: Arnaud des Pallières
Language: French/German with English subtitles 
Runtime: 122 minutes
   In the 16th century, a horse dealer by the name of Michael Kohlhaas leads a happy family life. When a lord treats him unjustly, he raises an army and puts the country to fire and sword in order to have his rights restored.

"The Last Sentence"
Director: Jan Troell
Language: Swedish
Runtime: 126 minutes
   Torgny Segerstedt was one of the leading journalists in Sweden in the 20th century. He fought a one-man battle against Hitler and the Nazi regime until his death in 1945 and  his private life was marked by a world in chaos.

"In Bloom"
Director: Nana Ekvtimshvili and Simon Gross
Language: German/French with English subtitles 
 Runtime: 102 minutes
   Early '90s, in Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country is facing violence, war on the Black Sea coast and vigilante justice. But for two 140year-old girls,  life just unfolds.

"It's All So Quiet"
Director: Nanouk Leopold
Language: Dutch with English subtitles
Runtime: 93 minutes
   Helmer, a single farmer in his 50s, lives with his aged, bedridden father in the Dutch countryside. His working days are marked by the visits of milk collector Johan, a man of his own age for whom Helmer holds a secret fascination.

"Once Upon a Time Veronica"
Director: Marcelo Gomes
Language: Portuguese with English subtitles
Runtime: 91 minutes
   Veronica is fresh out of medical school. It's a crucial time in her life,  filled with doubts and important decisions to be made: tough career choices, her intimate bond with her ailing father, and her active but chaotic love life.

"The Almost Man"
Director: Martin Lund
Language: Norwegian
Runtime: 75 min.
   Uneasy feelings about becoming a father and an adult cause Henrik to act out in hilariously inappropriate ways in this offbeat comedy.

"Salvo"
Directors: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza
Language: Italian with English subtitles
Runtime: 104 minutes
   A hitman for the Sicilian Mafia, Salvo is solitary, cold and ruthless. When he sneaks into a house on an assignment, he discovers Rita, an innocent young blind girl who must stand by powerlessly while her brother is assassinated. An intense exchange between the killer and his witness changes their two lives in an instant.

"2 Autumns, 3 Winters"
Director: Sebastian Betbeder
Language: French with English subtitles
Runtime: 93 min.
   Arman bumps into Amélie on a jogging path and he's dead-set on making a connection. Meanwhile, Arman's best friend Benjamin suffers a stroke, relegating him to the hospital, where he falls for his doting young physical therapist. Over the course of two autumns and three winters, Arman, Amélie and Benjamin share unconventional love stories and lasting memories.


"Ilo Ilo"
Director: Anthony Chen
Language: Mandarin/Tagalog/English with English subtitles
Runtime: 99 minutes
   Set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, "Ilo Ilo" chronicles the day-to-day drama of the Lim family - troublesome grade-schooler Jiale and his overstressed parents, Heck and Leng. They hire Teresa, a Filipino immigrant, as a live-in maid and nanny. An outsider in both the family and Singapore itself, Teresa initially struggles to manage Jiale's antics and find her footing in her new community. The two eventually form a unique bond.

"Cousin Jules"
Director: Dominique Benicheti
Language: French with English subtitles
Runtime: 91 minutes
   A recently recovered and remastered 1972 gem of French cinema, an unusual documentary chronicling five years in the grim, silent life of an elderly French couple. They live in a rural area, and the film follows their daily routine in extraordinary detail. Though the man's wife died during the filming, the filmmakers continued and show him doing his chores alone.

"The Rocket"
Director: Kim Mordaunt
Language: Laotian with English subtitles
Runtime: 92 min.
   A boy who is believed to bring bad luck to everyone around him leads his family and two new friends through Laos to find a new home.

"Touch of Sin"
Director: Jia Zhangka
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Runtime: 125 min.
   This daring, poetic and grand-scale film focuses on four characters, each living in different provinces, who are driven to violent ends.

"Who Is Dayani Cristal"
Director: Marc Silver
Language: English
Runtime: 80 minutes
Deep in the sun-blistered Sonora desert beneath a cicada tree, border police discover a decomposing male body. Lifting a tattered T-shirt, they expose a tattoo that reads “Dayani Cristal.” Who is this person? What brought him here? How did he die? And who—or what—is Dayani Cristal? Silver’s documentary assembles the answers using dramatic sequences with actor Gael García Bernal.

"If You Build It"
Director: Patrick Creadon
Language: English
Runtime: 90 minutes
   The film follows Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller as they teach the fundamentals of design, architecture and construction to a class of high school juniors in rural North Carolina. Faced with rising unemployment rates, a struggling educational system and simmering racial tension the people of Bertie County North Carolina turn to Pilloton, Miller and their students for help. We discover that what the class designs and builds for their hometown has a chance to transform their community for generations to come.
 
"Whitewash"
Director: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Language: English
Runtime: 90 minutes
   A rural Quebec man (Thomas Haden Church) contends with the frustration of losing his job and the sadness of losing his wife during a brutal Canadian winter, and receives a mysterious visitor while struggling to escape a prison of his own making.

"12 O'Clock Boys"
Director: Lotfy Nathan
Language: English
Runtime: 72 min.
   The 12 O'Clock Boys are a notorious urban dirt bike pack in Baltimore. In Lotfy Nathan's wild, dynamic documentary , their stunning antics are envisioned through the eyes of young adolescent Pug - a bright kid obsessed with the riders and willing to do anything to join their ranks.

"Our Irish Cousins"

Director: Mike Houlihan
Language: English  
Runtime: 99 minutes
   Journalist, actor and filmmaker Mike Houlihan travels to Ireland to explore his ancestors' roots and the link between Chicago and the Emerald Isle.