The full schedule of films for the 2017 Dallas International Film Festival has been released, and it's one that will devote time to honoring film's past as much as its present and future.
Taking place March 30 through April 9 at various locations around Dallas, the 11th edition of the festival will be headlined by a special 50th anniversary screening of Bonnie and Clyde on opening weekend, as well as Centerpiece screenings of Brett Haley’s The Hero and Mark Palansky’s Rememory, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. In all, the festival will feature 122 films from 31 countries, including 75 features and 47 shorts.
The screening of Bonnie and Clyde is part of a festival-long salute to the films of 1967. Other films from that year that will be screened include Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, which will include an appearance by star Katharine Houghton; Camelot; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Cool Hand Luke; David Holzman's Diary; and The Jungle Book.
The Hero stars Sam Elliot as an aging actor who has to wrestle with the conflicting emotions of a cancer diagnosis and a budding relationship with a much younger woman. The film also features Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman, and Katharine Ross. Rememory stars Peter Dinklage as a man using a new technology to mine his memory for a traumatic incident in his past in order to come to terms with it. The cast also includes Martin Donovan, Julia Ormand, and Anton Yelchin in one of his final roles.
Honored this year with the L.M. “Kit” Carson Maverick Award will be writer/director David Gordon Green, who has had several of his films featured at the festival, including Snow in 2004, Joe in 2014, and Manglehorn in 2015. Green will receive the award during the DFS Honors, participate in a special conversation, and screen his 2008 comedy Pineapple Express.
The festival will also have four world premieres, including Craig Elrod’s Mustang Island, about a man’s attempt to woo his girlfriend back after a breakup on New Year’s Eve; Russ Kendall’s documentary Man in the Camo Jacket, about Mike Peters' journey from rock star to advocate for cancer patients around the world; Jameson Brooks’ Bomb City, about a controversial hate crime that takes place in a small, conservative Texas town.; and Micah Barber’s Into the Who Knows!, a family-friendly selection that follows a boy and his best friend, Felix the Fox, as they escape summer camp to embark on a big mystical adventure.
Other notable films include The Lost City of Z, starring Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland, Sienna Miller, and Robert Pattinson; The Promise, starring Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, and Christian Bale; Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, a documentary by Steve James; Whose Streets?, a documentary about how the killing of 18-year-old Mike Brown inspired a social movement; and an outdoor screening of 2016's live action Pete's Dragon.
Venues for festival screenings and other events include Dallas City Performance Hall, Angelika Film Center Dallas, Magnolia Theatre, Main Street Garden, The Highland, SMU Meadows Museum, and Texas Theatre.
Full festival passes are now on sale. Dallas Film Society members can exclusively purchase individual screening tickets, which cost $12 apiece, online at diff2017.dallasfilm.org through Wednesday, March 15. Online ticket sales open to the public on Thursday, March 16. A physical box office, located at 3636 McKinney Ave. Suite 130, in West Village, will open on Monday, March 20.
Bonnie and Clyde will be the opening night film for the 2017 Dallas International Film Festival.
