Sedona International Film Festival Announces 25th Anniversary Lineup

More than 165 films - from Oscar-nominated documentaries to narrative features, narrative short films, documentary short films and animated shorts - will highlight the 25thanniversary Sedona International Film Festival, Feb. 23-March 3.

All-Access and priority passes are now available at www.sedonafilmfestival.org. Holders will be able to select films beginning at 9 a.m. on Feb. 4. Ten- and 20-ticket pass holders can select films beginning Feb. 11. Individual tickets go on sale to the general public on Feb. 18.

"Just saying the words, '25thanniversary,' stops us in our tracks," said Executive Director Pat Schweiss. "Looking back, it's been an incredible run. Looking ahead, the best is yet to come."

The Festival's three film selection committees screened more than 1400 submissions from around the world.

Among the new films selected for screening this year are To Dust (starring Matthew Broderick), The Chaperone (starring Elizabeth McGovern and Blythe Danner), Non-Fiction (starring Juliette Binoche), Tell It To the Bees (starring Anna Paquin), Promise at Dawn (starring Charlotte Gainsbourg) and the outrageous comedy, The Bill Murray Stories.

Period. End of Sentence, a nominee for an Academy Award for documentaries about a group of women in a rural village outside Delhi, India fighting against the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation, is among the films to be screened. So, too is the Oscar short-listed documentary Crime + Punishment about a group of brave NYPD officers who risk it all to expose the truth about illegal quota practices in police departments.

"We've been planning for our Silver Anniversary Festival for more than a year, and the excitement is palpable," Schweiss said. "With everything we've got planned, it will be a week filled with great entertainment, great films and great memories."

The Sedona International Film Festival began in 1994 as an off-season project of the Sedona Cultural Park, originally intended as a fund-raising vehicle to get the park built. When the park closed in 2003, that group of forward-thinkers created a separate nonprofit so the festival could continue.

The largest single event of the year in Sedona, hundreds of volunteers and dozens of businesses have thrown their support behind the festival.

Special guests expected this year include Ed Asner, whose film Ed Asner: On Stage and Off, will be screened, Richard Dreyfuss, Diane Ladd, Mackenzie Phillips and Depak Choprah, with more to be announced.

A look at a few of the films selected for the Festival includes:

Documentaries

• The Bill Murrary Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man. Americans recount their random and unexpected encounters with actor Bill Murray.

• Bathtubs Over Broadway (with David Letterman, Martin Short, Chita Rivera, more): A Late Night comedy writer stumbles upon a hilarious, hidden world of entertainment and finds an unexpected connection to his fellow man.

• The Biggest Little Farm: Documentarian John Chester and his wife Molly work to develop a sustainable farm on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles.

• Crime + Punishment: A group of brave NYPD officers risk it all to expose the truth about illegal quota practices in police departments.

Narratives

• The Chaperone, (screenplay by Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame): In the early 1920s, a Kansas woman (McGovern) finds her life forever changed when she accompanies a young dancer on her fame-seeking journey to New York City.

• Hotel Mumbai (with Armie Hammer and Dev Patel; closing-night film): The true story of the Taj Hotel terrorist attack in Mumbai. Hotel staff risk their lives to keep everyone safe as people make unthinkable sacrifices to protect themselves and their families.

• Tell it to the Bees: In 1950s small town Britain, a doctor develops a relationship with her young patient's mother.

• To Dust: Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor in Upstate New York, distraught by the untimely death of his wife, struggles to find religious solace while secretly obsessing over how her body will decay. As a clandestine partnership develops with Albert (Broderick), a local community college biology professor, the two embark on a darkly comic and increasingly literal undertaking into the underworld.

Films will run all day beginning Saturday, Feb. 23 at the Mary D. Fisher Theater, 2030 W. Highway 89A, the Sedona Performing Arts Center at Sedona Red Rock High School, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road and Sedona Harkins 6, 2081 W. Highway 89A.

Platinum All-Access Passes are $1,250; Gold Priority Passes are $550; 20-ticket packages are $255; and 10-ticket packages are $130. Full-time students can get the 10-ticket package for $100.

Priority Pass holders will be able to select the films they want to see beginning at 9 a.m. on Feb. 4. 10- and 20-ticket pass holders can select films beginning at 9 a.m. on Feb. 11. Individual film tickets go on sale to the general public on Feb. 18.

Sedona International Film Festival memberships also are available beginning at $75 for a basic membership. Family memberships for up to four family members living in the same household are $150. Additional membership packages include Cinematographer ($300), Screenwriter ($620), Producer ($1,400), Director ($2,500), Auteur ($5,000), Marquee ($10,000), Executive Producer ($15,000), Indie Angel ($25,000) and Film Star ($50,000). Benefits are commensurate with membership-fee levels. Full information is available on the website.

Packages, other than for full-time students, are available at www.sedonafilmfestival.org or through the Festival Box office at (928) 282-1177. Student packages must be purchased through the Box Office and student ID's are required. For more information, visit www.sedonafilmfestival.org.

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