![\"Logo](\"http:\/\/vqt.nlm.mybluehost.me\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/deadline-hollywood-logo-o-300x39.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The champagne may be flowing at the kickoff for the 27th Annual Sonoma International Film Festival \u2013 for more reasons than one.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s event in California\u2019s wine country will open with the U.S. premiere of Widow Clicquot, directed by Thomas Napper, a narrative feature about the Grande Dame of Champagne. Actress Haley Bennett stars in the titular role of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, \u201cwho against all odds advanced her late husband\u2019s techniques to create the recipe for modern-day champagne.\u201d<\/p>\n
SIFF, running from March 20-24, will showcase 43 narrative features, 16 documentary features, and 48 short films representing more than 25 countries, according to a release.<\/p>\n
The festival\u2019s Centerpiece Film is Wildcat, directed by Ethan Hawke and starring his daughter Maya Hawke as renowned Southern Gothic author Flannery O\u2019Connor. The Closing Night Film is Luc Besson\u2019s crime drama Dogman, starring Caleb Landry Jones. A Closing Night Special Presentation of Pablo Berger\u2019s Robot Dreams, Oscar-nominated for Best Animated Feature, is set for March 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world premiere of Extremely Unique Dynamic directed by Harrison Xu, Ivan Leung, and Katherine Dudas is the Gay-La Spotlight Film,\u201d the festival notes, \u201cwith a party to follow hosted by actor, director, writer, musician John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch).\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Extremely Unique Dynamic’
\nExtremely Unique Dynamic is described as a \u201cdeliriously silly stoner comedy,\u201d about two friends who \u201cdecide to make a movie about making a movie that stars two friends making a movie. When cameras start rolling, secrets and half-truths about their friendship, crushes, sexuality, and every other imaginable insecurity come out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Award-winning actor Beau Bridges will be presented with the SIFF Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring a film and television career that began with 1949\u2019s The Red Pony and continues with six upcoming projects, including the lead role in The Neon Highway, directed by William Wages. Bridges has earned three Primetime Emmy Awards and starred in two Best Picture nominees \u2014 Norma Rae (1979), and The Descendants (2011). As part of the tribute to Bridges, the actor will participate in an on-stage conversation about The Fabulous Baker Boys, following a 35th anniversary screening of the beloved film which co-starred his brother Jeff Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuilding off last year\u2019s festival, the highest attended in the history of SIFF, we are excited to welcome veteran actor Beau Bridges, and provide a showcase for premieres and extraordinary films from notable filmmakers and talent,\u201d said Carl Spence, SIFF artistic director. \u201cThe Sonoma International Film Festival exemplifies why film festivals are essential to introduce appreciative audiences to the best and brightest from around the world. By creating unique, in-person experiences\u2013through our films, parties, special events, and community initiatives\u2013we bring people together; we ask them to look closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ginny Krieger, SIFF\u2019s executive director, commented, \u201cEach year we showcase the cinematic and culinary worlds to Sonoma over five fun-filled days, but it\u2019s in showcasing Sonoma, and this place and our community, to the world that we really shine.\u201d<\/p>\n
As previously announced, Award-winning chef Susan Feniger will be presented with the Culinary Excellence Award at the Bay Area premiere of director Liz Lachman\u2019s documentary Susan Feniger. Forked. That special event will include a multi-course dinner curated by Feniger.<\/p>\n
The SIFF menu, in terms of documentaries, includes Copa 71 (directors Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine), Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (dirs.. Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill), And So It Begins (dir. Ramona S. Diaz), Merchant Ivory (dir. Stephen Soucy), and Food, Inc. 2 (dirs.. Robert Kenner, Melissa Robledo).<\/p>\n
Among the other highlights of the SIFF program is a live taping of the podcast \u201cThe Film That Blew My Mind\u201d co-hosted by John Cooper and Tabitha Jackson, both former directors of the Sundance Film Festival. Their guest will be John Cameron Mitchell.<\/p>\n
Bay Area premieres include Thea Sharrock\u2019s Wicked Little Letters (Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley); Tony Goldwyn\u2019s Ezra (Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Robert De Niro, Vera Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson); Daina O. Pusic\u2019s Tuesday (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Gilles Legardinier\u2019s Mr. Blake At Your Service (John Malkovich, Fanny Ardant); Giorgio Diritti\u2019s Lubo (Franz Rogowski); Bertrand Bonello\u2019s The Beast (L\u00e9a Seydoux, George MacKay); Bob Byington\u2019s Lousy Carter (David Krumholtz, Olivia Thirlby); and the aforementioned Merchant Ivory (Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Vanessa Redgrave, Hugh Grant), among others.<\/p>\n
SIFF\u2019s five-day festival is curated by Artistic Director Carl Spence, senior programmers Amanda Salazar, and Ken Jacobson, and shorts programmer Oscar Arce Naranjo. Full details on the festival program can be found by clicking here.<\/p>\n
View this article at Deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sonoma International Film Festival To Open With \u2018Widow Clicquot,\u2019 Host World Premiere Of \u2018Extremely Unique Dynamic\u2019: The champagne may be flowing at the kickoff for the 27th Annual Sonoma International Film Festival \u2013 for more reasons than one. This year\u2019s event in California\u2019s wine country will open with the U.S. premiere of Widow Clicquot, directed
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deadline","category-heather-yonkers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7785,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783\/revisions\/7785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}