The Dallas International Film Festival has released its full list of films for the 2014 edition, one that comprises more than 170 features, documentaries, shorts, student films and other events at nine locations during the course of 11 days, April 3-13.
If you wanted to be on the forefront of what people are talking about in film, you could've done a whole lot worse than what DIFF offered in 2013. Last year's festival included two of the five documentaries that would go on to earn Oscar nominations, including the winner, Twenty Feet from Stardom, as well as Mud, the opening salvo in what proved to be a career-defining year for Matthew McConaughey.
Although this year's breakout films have yet to be determined, the 2014 DIFF roster is full of intriguing possibilities. The festival will be the home of 11 world premieres and three North American premieres, giving Dallas audiences a chance to see lots of movies before anybody else.
In addition to the first 10 films already announced, the festival will include such notables as Heaven Is for Real, in which Greg Kinnear plays the father of a boy who claims to have seen heaven in a near-death experience; Child of God, a movie based on a Cormac McCarthy novel and directed by James Franco; The Last of Robin Hood, starring Kevin Kline as Errol Flynn in his final days; and Brothers of the Black List, a documentary detailing a racially charged rape case that led to a landmark civil rights court battle.
Screenings of classic films will include Paris, Texas, celebrating its 30th anniversary; In the Heat of the Night, which won five Oscars but somehow not even a nomination for Sidney Poitier; and Stagecoach, the 1939 film that arguably made John Ford into an iconic director.
The main location for film screenings will be the Angelika Film Center Dallas, although the festival will hold its opening night screening, Words and Pictures, at Dallas City Performance Hall.
Other screening and event venues include Texas Theatre, Klyde Warren Park, Dallas Museum of Art, Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Cinemark West Plano, Hyatt Regency and Crow Collection of Asian Art.
Passes for the full festival are already on sale; individual tickets go on sale starting on Monday, March 17. They can be purchased online or at the Prekindle Box Office at Mockingbird Station.
Heaven is for Real, starring Greg Kinnear, is one of the centerpiece films at the 2014 Dallas International Film Festival.
Cowboys fans were out in full force.Photo by Ashley Gongora
Tailgating is all about the food.Photo by Ashley Gongora
An array of beverages ensured guests had fun all night.Photo by Ashley Gongora
Buffalo shrimp and blue cheese grits from McRae's American Bistro & Cocktails won the best dish of the night.Photo by Ashley Gongora
The silent auction inspired competitive bidding.Photo by Ashley Gongora