As we’re smack dab into Boston Springs A Fethival season right now, I thought it would be time to follow int the footsteps at my brethren at IndieWire and offer up my wishlist for this years’ Independent Film Festival Boston, which is the last of the BSAF festivals, running April 24 – May 1 this year, and who is set to announce their slate on or around April 3.
There are a TON of good films that have been around at festivals for the last few months that haven’t yet made their way to the BSAF circuit that I’m hoping will make an appearance at IFFB, as well as one film that has yet to announce a world premiere that I think would be perfect for this fest. Keep in mind – this is MY personal list; it does NOT guarantee a slot at the fest (in fact, every year there’s inevitably one film I am excited to see that I’m SURE will be among their titles, only to turn out they’re not…). So here we go with my top ten IFFB wishlist!
LOVE ANTOSHA – this loving documentary tribute to the late Anton Yelchin got a long standing ovation when it premiered at Sundance in January. Produced by Drake Doremus, who directed Yelchin in the Sundance-winning “Like Crazy” a few years earlier, and made with the help and cooperation of Yelchin’s parents, this doc is the perfect fit for IFFB, which has played festival host to several of the late actors’ films over the years.
WYRM – One of the sticking points with several of the industry film magazines when it comes to IFFB is their lack of World Premiere films. I suggested to TPTB at the IFFB back in January that this film would be a perfect match for them. Based on a hugely popular short film which had it’s Sundance premiere in 2017, this coming-of-age comedy has cult success a la “Napoleon Dynamite” written all over it, and has an outstanding cast headed up by our 2016 #1 Male Rising Star, “Little Men” co-star Theo Taplitz. I am crossing my fingers we get a shot at the world premiere, but I have to be honest, if it doesn’t show up here, I will be disappointed but not surprised…and I keep thinking Seattle might be the spring fest that might land this expected gem…
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT – The big hit coming out of Sundance this year, this period comedy-drama about a Muslim teenager finding his way through life in Margaret Thatcher’s London guided by the music of Bruce Springsteen got nothing but raves in Park City, and also got one of the biggest deals in history there as well. That much word of mouth might give it an edge when it hits theaters in the summer, and I can’t wait to check it out.
ASK DR RUTH is a documentary portrait chronicling the incredible life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor who became America’s most famous sex therapist. Raved about at Sundance, and having always found her to be funny, caring, charming, and whipsmart, virtually the therapist version of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (although seemingly not that cantankerous, heh heh) I am really hoping for this one…
LITTLE MONSTERS – this favorite in the midnight section of Sundance this year has all kinds of tongues wagging, a deliciously off-the-wall horror comedy about a kindergarten teacher attempting to save her young charges from a horde of flesh eating zombies. With a stellar cast that includes Lupita Nyong’o and Josh Gad, this one has to be a winner all the way around…
DONS OF DISCO – BUFF may have beaten IFFB to the punch this year by landing Slamdance smash hit Happy Face (playing BUFF’s closing night on Sunday), but IFFB has a shot for this documentary focusing on a lipsynching scandal in dance clubs in Italy in the 1980s which pits an American model against a popular Italian disco singer. I have to admit, this one is right up my alley, but I’m not sure who else might take to it…
COLD CASE HAMMERSKJOLD – while I seriously doubt that this conspiracy-minded documentary will change my mind about this incident (Canada’s “Mayday” covered it extensively a couple of years ago, which aired here in the US on the Smithsonian Channel series “Air Disasters“), I’m very interested to see what hypothesis the filmmakers decide to put forth about the death of the UN Secretary General back in 1961.
HONEY BOY – written by actor Shia LeBeouf about his off the wall and often turbulent relationship with his father, the film earned raves for the story and cast at Sundance. Names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent here, and both Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges are said to excel at playing the fiction-not-really version of Shia in this film.
ABE – Noah Schapp follows his “Stranger Things‘ co-stars Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo into realms outside the Upside Down in this dramady about a half-Jewish half-Muslim 12 year old aspiring chef trying to live with the uneasy truce on both sides of his family. It sounds utterly charming and I love foodie dramas so it’s right up my alley…
THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON – Shia LeBeouf again, this time starring in the South By Southwest audience award winner for best narrative film; he plays a small time outlaw who ends up becoming the mentor of a young man with Down syndrome who has fled from the retirement home where he lives to chase his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. The “awwww” scale of this film was off the chart in Austin, and can be real crowd pleaser up here.
So those are my ten top choices for a slot at IFFB. And additionally, there’s one film I’ve been tracking since it shot that isn’t likely to make it to these shores just yet, although Toronto is a possibility after it has finished it’s run at the EuroFestival circuit:
La Ou On Va – I’ve had my eye on this film since it first started shooting due to the presence of rising young French actor Theophile Baquet (“Microbe and Gasoline“). A drama about a young man with cystic fibrosis who goes on a road trip for his 20th birthday with his sister and her friend, this is going to be my kind of film. Everything I have seen Baquet in tells me he is destined to make it big as a worldwide star one day, and I hope we get to see this film on US shores sometime soon.
There are a TON of other films I want to see that have been featured at various festivals, and I’m also sure that there are tons of great films waiting around the corner at IFFB, but I sure hope these are among them. And as noted above, Independent Film Festival Boston will announce their lineup on or around April 3rd!