Starring Syracuse: Film festival celebrates tenth anniversary, premieres ‘Adult World’
Photo courtesy of Mike Massurin
The annual Syracuse International Film Festival will be held at multiple locations, including The Landmark Theater and Palace Theater. Several directors, producers and composers have been invited to speak about their projects and screen some of their films.
Movie buffs in Central New York won’t have to travel to Cannes or Toronto to get a taste of an international film festival because this weekend, Syracuse has its very own.
FilmInSyracuse is hosting its 10th annual Syracuse International Film Festival, and according to the festival’s manager, Rebeccah Pope, they’re going all out for the celebration.
“We usually accept submissions to the festival and hold competitions where we judge all of the submitted films, but for our 10th anniversary, we wanted to do something special,” Pope said. “The staff of FilmInSyracuse decided to consolidate and extend invites to filmmakers that we specifically wanted to attend the festival.”
In honor of the festival’s 10th anniversary, event coordinators scheduled multiple movie screenings, guest speakers and special events that will last all weekend, up until the closing party on Sunday night.
Special guests will include Jim Morris, the executive vice president of Pixar, composer Patrick Doyle (“Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire” and “Thor”) and Joel Schumacher, who will be receiving the festival’s Sophia Lifelong Achievement Award. Schumacher is a renowned director, whose work includes “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Cousins,” “Batman Forever” and “Phone Booth.” To celebrate Schumacher’s career, there will be a screening of his 1993 hit movie “Falling Down” at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Palace Theater. Tickets are $15 each or $25 for two.
Horror movie fans won’t want to miss the Heroes of Horror FilmTalk at 9:45 p.m. on Friday at the Palace Theater, hosted by SU alumnus Joe Lynch and fellow horror producer Adam Green. The two will showcase their horror movie portfolios, and the event will conclude with screenings of Lynch’s “Wrong Turn 2: Dead End,” Green’s “Frozen” and their collaborative project — a TV series titled “Holliston.”
Students on a budget can still enjoy the festival by attending the Peace & Social Justice event, hosted at Le Moyne College on Sunday at noon. It’s free for SU students and will showcase films from George Gittoes, who is known for his work in documenting social turmoil around the world.
The festival will wrap up on Sunday night at the Landmark Theater with the Syracuse premiere of “Adult World,” which was filmed in Syracuse last year. The film stars John Cusack, Emma Roberts and Armando Riesco, and follows a recent college graduate (Roberts) who has high hopes of becoming a famous poet but ends up working in an adult book store.
“Adult World” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. But the Syracuse premiere is in many ways just as important: The film is produced by Syracuse native Justin Nappi and was shot in Syracuse.
The premiere starts at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Landmark Theater. There are 200 free student tickets available for the “Adult World” premiere, courtesy of Justin Nappi’s family. Students interested in attending can contact Rebeccah Pope at beccahp@syrfilm.com. For a schedule of the festival’s events, visit www.FilmInSyracuse.com.
Published on October 2, 2013 at 11:06 pm
Contact Tom: tsharkey@syr.edu
