This morning FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival announced its September lineup, which will kick off with Thom Fitzgerald‘s Splinters, a film the director called his “most Atlantic Canadian” in a speech at the press conference. Starring Shelley Thompson and Closet Monster‘s Sofia Banzhaf, the film is an adaptation of Lee-Anne Poole‘s play and is about a sexually fluid young woman returning to rural Nova Scotia for her father’s funeral. Splinters, which will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, opens AIFF on September 13 at the Rebecca Cohn, tickets are available now.
Other local highlights include Andrea Dorfman‘s documentary The Girls of Meru, following the efforts of lawyers trying to bring justice to Kenyan girls who are victims of sexual violence; Jay Dahl‘s Halloween Party, a horror movie about a meme that’s come to life; Hopeless Romantic, an anthology by six Atlantic Canadian directors including Deanne Foley, Megan Wennberg, Latonia Hartery, Stephanie Clattenburg, Martine Blue and Ruth Lawrence; Laura Marie Wayne‘s Love, Scott, a documentary about Scott Jones; and the annual Reel East Coast Shorts Gala.
Amongst the international slate are Jacques Audiard‘s The Sisters Brothers, a western starring John C. Reilly; Anthropocene by Jennifer Baichwal; Rob Stewart‘s final film Sharkwater: Extinction; the anticipated docs Love, Gilda (about Gilda Radner), Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. (about the pop singer) and Matt Tyranauer‘s Studio 54; Panos Cosmatos‘ Mandy, starring Nicolas Cage on a revenge rampage; and Nothing Like a Dame featuring tea and gossip from Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins.
That’s just a slice; find the whole program here with the closing gala still to be announced. A nice new box-office option this year is a day pass—$38 for all you can cram in.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2018.