The Florida Film Festival runs from April 12th - 21st, 2024! The Florida Film Festival is an Oscar qualifying festival, premiering the best in current, independent, and international cinema.
By: Billy Joynt | April 12th, 2024
Now in its 33rd year, The Florida Film Festival is an Oscar qualifying festival, Premiering the best in Current, Independent, and Internatinal Cinema.
Through 10 days of 160+ films and first-class events, film lovers mingle with filmmakers and celebrities over hand-crafted cocktails and a delicious menu at Eden Bar and inside Enzian Theater.
The Florida Film Festival runs from April 12th - 21st, 2024!
See below on the Top films that I am looking forward to viewing. Click Here for Information on Attending the Festival.
TUESDAY
Mankind has always been fascinated with putting a face on the concept of death—something or someone that always happens to be there at the end. Whether it’s a towering skeletal figure dressed in a dark cloak holding a scythe or Robert Redford playing a friendly, wounded policeman at the door in the classic 1962 Twilight Zone episode “Nothing in the Dark,” the Grim Reaper’s appearance throughout history seems limitless. But you ain’t never seen this before! A young teen (Lola Petticrew) is bedridden with an unnamed disease. Her mom (a revelatory Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is in denial, emotionally remote, and in serious financial trouble. Enter an astonishing talking bird—an angel of sorts—determined to help manage the girl’s suffering, and sparking an incredible chain of events that leads mother and daughter on an extraordinary adventure. Daina O. Pusić’s stunning and wildly imaginative debut feature provides a sophisticated blend of horror, tenderness, tragicomedy, fairytale, and philosophical insight so thrilling and powerful that it hits you right in the heart and soul. Sometimes the fantastical is a way of looking more closely at our reality, and it is just when tragedy is knocking that we might discover an unexpected burst of magic.
PARADISE
Ella Patchet, in a standout performance by Patricia Allison of Netflix’s Sex Education, is the fastest gun and sharpest tongue in the town of Paradise, Hawaii. When Ella’s father, the town sheriff, ends up murdered, Ella begins a bloody quest for justice. As she uncovers equal parts corruption and incompetence, it’s only a matter of time until notorious kingpin Lee Paige returns to Paradise to reclaim their former territory. Tate Donovan (The Holdovers, Argo), Bashir Salahuddin (Top Gun: Maverick, Southside) and Tia Carrere (Wayne’s World, True Lies) co-star in director Max Isaacson’s (“Whispers,” FFF 2013) feature directorial debut that’s equal parts riotous comedy, gritty thriller, and neo-western. This wacky splatter-fest is full of fun performances, neon-drenched production design, and plenty of plot twists. If you like your revenge served hot and humid, Paradise is a delightfully savage tale that is sure to satisfy.
THE BEAST
Have you ever experienced déjà vu? Or perhaps you've met someone and immediately felt like you knew them? Could it be that you have met before? In another life. Or that you will meet? In another time/space. The Beast takes us on a century-long journey of obsession, love, and fear, starring the magnetic Léa Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour; Dune: Part Two) as Gabrielle and George MacKay (1917, Captain Fantastic) as Louis. We follow the star-crossed lovers in this ambitious sci-fi epic, first during the 1910 Paris floods, then to visit Los Angeles in 2014, and finally arriving in a near dystopian future of 2044, where AI controls all aspects of human life to the point that its inhabitants periodically purge and erase their emotions, which are seen as threats to society. Foreshadowing humanity's descent into a numbed-out existence—anything not to feel—are you ready to be hypnotized by this vivid cinematic experience? Nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, The Beast will make you question your own connections and the choices you might have made in the past, present, and even future.
LADY PARTS
On the verge of finally breaking into her dream career in Los Angeles, Paige (in a hilariously deadpan performance by Valentina Tammaro) is forced to put everything on hold, move back in with her parents, and undergo a vulvar vestibulectomy, in order to alleviate years of vaginal pain. Paige’s excruciating and hilarious road to recovery makes the health and wellbeing of her lady parts a family affair, as her loving but over-enthusiastic parents learn that saying “vagina” loud and proud is the first step to advocating for women’s health. Based on writer/executive producer Bonnie Gross’s true story, Gross and director Nancy Boyd both pull from their own, horrifically cringe-worthy experiences with vaginal pain and the difficulties women face receiving treatment. Lady Parts is heartfelt, laugh-out-loud funny, and brutally honest, offering audiences a glimpse into an experience many women face, but few talk about, either on or offscreen.
Are there any films you're interested in? Comment them below! Click Here to view the full list of films.
Billy Joynt(Editor) - Billy has seen many movies over the years. He enjoys comedies and anything action, including the summer blockbuster movies. You can follow Billy on Twitter here. Click Here to check out Billy's Articles.
Billy Joynt (Editor) - Billy has seen many movies over the years. He enjoys comedies and anything action, including the summer blockbuster movies. You can follow Billy on Twitter here.