Running May 23rd to May 27th, the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival enters its 4th year with a stellar line-up of narrative features, docs, and shorts.
The eclectic programming mix and the pristine mountain setting makes the perfect combination for a Memorial Weekend celebration, and a great way to start the summer for film lovers.
This will be our 3rd year in attendance, and each year brings exciting film surprises that we just haven’t seen anywhere else, as well as some festival-circuit favorites, and an always-fresh tribute to a filmmaker or filmmaking talent. Programming director Paul Sbrizzi notes “MLFF focuses on films that have powerful, innovative artistic voices.”
It’s not too late to plan a trip north, and with Damsel opening the fest and Love, Gilda closing it, there are plenty of reasons to make the drive. Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska star in David and Nathan Zellner’s comedy-laced homage to classic Westerns in Damsel; the moving Gilda Radner doc takes a moving and intimate look at the beloved comedienne in a film by Lisa D’Apolito.
Other standouts look to be a black comedy about love, Birds Without Feathers, in it’s west coast premiere; The Queen of Hollywood Boulevard, a dramatic thriller about a proud LA strip club owner’s spiral into violence; docs such as Crime + Punishment, exploring illegal quota practices in the NYPD, and Minding the Gap, a poignant look at three skateboarding friends among so many other films on tap. Foreign features such as Spain’s mind-bending Barren and Empty the Sea, an international premiere; and the dark but hilarious Norwegian Vidar the Vampire are also a part of the line-up. With exciting out-of-competition Spotlight films, a wide-ranging collection of short films including docs, animation, and narrative, not to mention the presentation of the fest’s annual Sierra Spirit Award to actress Melissa Leo, (below) there is a lot for film lovers to be excited about this year.
As fest director Shira Dubrovner explains “In four short years, we’ve already begun to establish MLFF as a must-attend festival.” And we would agree.
For more information, visit MLFF’s website for a complete schedule.
