Shaw Festival Film Series set to get underway

I promised last week I would update the winter film series this weekend, so let's get right to it, as the series starts up again for the ninth year in a row at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Essentially, the film series is divided up into two sub-series: the more popular Feature Films that screen Saturday afternoons at 3 pm and the more esoteric Documentary Films that screen Friday evenings at 6 pm.  All screenings are at the comfortable Festival Theatre, which is an ideal location for a film in order to escape winter's chill for a while.

The Feature Films begin this Saturday afternoon, in fact, with the screening of Golden Globe and Oscar winning filmmaker Susanne Bier's romantic comedy Love Is All You Need, starring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm.  The feature films continue until February 15th of 2014.

The rest of the Feature Film series lines up this way:

December 7 - Unfinished Song
December 14 - Short Term 12
December 12 - The Hunt
December 28 - The Sapphires
January 4 - The Way Way Back
January 11 - Don Jon
January 18 - Blue Jasmine
January 25 - Philomena
February 1 - August:  Osage Country
February 8 - Enough Said
February 15 - Inside Llewyn Davis

You'll notice Philomena in there, which is just opening in theatres now in Niagara, so you can see the series has a nice mix of new and not quite so new to keep you entertained.

The six-film Documentary series kicks off January 3rd at 6 pm with Twenty Feet from Stardom, an American documentary film by veteran documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville.  The film shows us a glimpse into the lives of the unknown backup singers whose voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music.

The rest of the Documentary Film series lines up like this:

January 10 - Casting By
January 17 - We Steal Secrets:  The Story of Wikileaks
January 24 - Scatter May Ashes at Bergdorf's
February 7 - Good Ol' Freda
February 14 - Muscle Shoals

Again, the films are fairly contemporary, and I have found the documentaries to be generally more interesting than the feature films, but that's just my opinion.  Make of it what you will!

New this year is a fundraising event featuring A Royal Affair, the Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated historical drama film directed by Nikolaj Arcel.  The fundraising event benefits the Festival Film Series and is scheduled for February 22nd at 7 pm.  There will be a post-show reception with food and wine available, and will be held in the Macdonald Heaslip Lounge at the Festival Theatre.  Tickets for the film and reception are $ 85; for the film only, just $ 25.

Returning this year will be the enormously popular Gathering Niagara's LunchMarket at the Feature Film Series, which is a great way to extend your film experience at Shaw.  Local food trucks and vendors set up before the Saturday afternoon screenings about 1:30 pm.  This feature is still fairly new to the film series, but has proven to be very popular indeed.  No overpriced popcorn, as far as I can tell, by the way...

The tickets for either series are $ 12 per film, with a Festival Film Pass available for $ 130, and an 8 film "Stocking Stuffer" pass going for $ 88.  You can also purchase a pass to all six documentary films for $ 60.  For tickets to either series as well as individual tickets and of course the fundraising event on February 22nd, call the Shaw box office at 905-468-2172, or log on to www.shawfest.com/films.

You can also access the complete film lineup by going to www.shawfest.com/films or go to the Calendar page of my website at www.finemusic.ca.  You can access film descriptions at tiff.net/filmcircuit.

Both film series have proven to be very popular beyond Niagara-on-the-Lake, so be sure to leave yourself lots of time to get parked and find a good seat, and even hit the food vendors beforehand if you are so inclined.

See you at the movies!

November 29th, 2013.