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Annual Preview
Sedona Film Festival 2008

Fourteen years after its founding, and four years since Patrick Schweiss (pictured, at right) became its executive director – providing much needed stability, nonstop energy, and a realistic plan for growth – the Sedona International Film Festival and Workshop has become a signature event for lovers of independent film in the Southwest. On the following pages, we’ll preview this year’s event (to be held Feb. 27-March 2, with sneak-peek sessions on Feb. 25-26) with an overview of what’s in store for 2008, including a look at some of the highly anticipated films already scheduled (while the titles previewed were confirmed for the Festival at press time, all remain subject to change); a spotlight on an emerging theme for this year’s event, Women In Film, with a focus on three movies directed by actresses that audiences know best for their work in front of the camera; and a lineup of panels to be led by a special honored guest, Turner Classic Movies’ Robert Osbourne. Finally, to give newcomers a little flavor of the event, we asked some veteran attendees to share a few special memories of festivals past. By Steven Korn with Erika Ayn Finch

What’s new for the Sedona International Film Festival and Workshop in 2008? It’s typically the very first question we ask executive director Patrick Schweiss when we start planning our annual preview, but there was something different about this year compared to the past three – the biggest thing that seems new to us is...that there are no wheels to reinvent this time. In past previews, we’ve chronicled innovations in the ticketing systems; adding days to the screening schedule; introducing the “cast party” concept and the large Festival Pavilion inside a tent in the Harkins parking lot; building relationships with Hollywood’s big players in the independent film world and corporate sponsors; forging relationships with other festivals around the country, endowing cash prizes for worthy films – significant initiatives from year to year. But after four years with Schweiss at the helm, the Festival seems to have figured itself out. In 2008, the broad stroke renovations are done; the infrastructure works.

The closest thing to a major change this year is the format and location of the workshops. In recent years, Red Rock H.S. has hosted a panel discussion on Friday about an area of specialty, like animation or last year’s session on film distribution, followed by breakout hands-on sessions on Saturday. This year, the space at the school is going to be used as a screening location, adding capacity to the theatres at the Harkins Sedona 6. On Friday and Saturday, the Red Rock H.S. auditorium will be used to show a selection of acclaimed international films coming to Sedona thanks to a new alliance with the Global Film Initiative, as well as selections for kids in a new Family Film Series.

Meanwhile, revised workshops will be moved over to the Festival Pavilion, in hopes of encouraging general participation. Plans for this year include a general expansion of the events held in the pavilion, which debuted as a central mingling point for audiences and filmmakers at last year’s festival. There will be a screenwriting workshop there on Thursday. Filmmaker panel discussions and celebrity chats moderated by Robert Osborne, longtime contributor to the show business industry bible The Hollywood Reporter, and primetime host on Turner Classic Movies, are also planned for the space during the weekend (participants and schedules to be announced). Osborne will also moderate an event on Women In Film, a theme of this year’s festival, which includes films directed by actresses Helen Hunt, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Kimberly Williams-Paisley (see sidebar, facing page).

In addition, Osborne will spearhead another programming innovation for the 2008 festival: The inclusion of some classic films of interest to Southwestern audiences. While the event doesn’t officially begin until Wednesday, a long talked-about expansion of the event to a week is finally being realized this year, thanks to three days of events targeted at locals. On Sunday, Feb. 24, the annual fundraiser for the Sedona Arts Festival, “A Night at the Academy Awards,” hosted by Schweiss annually at Hilton Sedona, is being billed as the kickoff event of Film Festival week. (At press time, the Writers’ Guild of America strike that had shut down Hollywood was still under way; how an ongoing labor stoppage might affect the Academy Awards ceremony remained unclear. For up-to-date information on “A Night at the Academy Awards,” see www.sedonaartsfestival.org.) Locals also get a jump on the weekend with sneak preview screenings on Monday and Tuesday, and two evening parties at Reds.

And even before that, the Festival’s Second Tuesday Cinema Series will whet appetites for February’s extended event, continuing its run of high-profile Arizona indie premieres with two screenings (at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.) on Jan. 8 at the Harkins Sedona 6 of The Air I Breathe, featuring an ensemble including Forest Whitaker (winner of the Best Actor Academy Award for The Last King of Scotland), Andy Garcia (the Ocean’s films), and Sarah Michelle Gellar (TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The film – made up of four vignettes, each built around a character that embodies the emotions of happiness, sorrow, pleasure, and love – will debut in New York and Los Angeles three weeks after it’s screened in Sedona.

One clear measure of the Festival’s success over the past few years is the quality of the films it has been able to acquire for the Second Tuesday series. In the past few months, it gave Sedona early looks at such indie sensations and Oscar bait as 3:10 to Yuma, directed by James Mangold and starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale; Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke; The Savages, starring Hoffman and Laura Linney; and Juno, starring Ellen Page (Hard Candy) and Michael Cera (Superbad), directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking) and written by Hollywood’s latest “It” scribe Diablo Cody. •

The Sedona International Film Festival & Workshop takes place Feb. 27-March 2, 2008, with Preview Night sneak-peeks on Feb. 25-26. For tickets and updates, see www.sedonafilmfestival.com.

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