In today’s film news roundup, free screenings of “The Hate U Give” are announced, the Napa Valley Film Festival is opening with “The Green Book,” and Jason Blum receives an award from the Israel Film Festival.
FREE SCREENINGS
Twentieth Century Fox Film and AMC Theatres are offering free screenings of “The Hate U Give” for young people in nine metro areas on Oct. 6.
The screenings will take place at 11 a.m. local time in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Students and youth-serving organizations are encouraged to register for the free screenings.
Fox said it kicks off a campaign to bring up to 50 showings to communities and invited schools, community groups, and nonprofit organizations. Individuals interested in supporting screenings for classrooms around the country can contribute, with 21st Century Fox matching donations up to $25,000.
The movie stars Amandla Stenberg as a high school student switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend at the hands of a police officer.
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The film will be shown at 34 theaters beginning Oct. 5 and go wide on Oct. 19.
FILM FESTIVALS
The Napa Valley Film Festival will kick off with its Sneak Preview Night on Nov. 6, featuring a special presentation of Columbia Pictures’ “The Front Runner,” starring Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, J.K. Simmons, and Alfred Molina.
Sony is releasing the movie, the story of Senator Gary Hart’s presidential campaign in 1988, which was derailed after he was caught in a scandalous love affair.
The festival’s official opening night film on Nov. 7 is Participant Media and DreamWorks Pictures’ “Green Book,” directed by Peter Farrelly and starring Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, and Linda Cardellini. Mortensen plays a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood hired to drive Ali’s black world-class pianist on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, where they must rely on “The Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans.
Closing the festival on Nov. 11 is HBO Films’ “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind.” Directed by Marina Zenovich, the documentary gives an intimate look into the life and work of Williams.
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Jason Blum, founder of Blumhouse Productions, and Israeli director/screenwriter Avi Nesher will be honored on Nov. 6 at the opening of the 32nd Israel Film Festival.
The honors will be presented at the Steve Tisch Cinema Center at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, followed by the Opening Night West Coast Gala Premiere screening of Nesher’s new film, “The Other Story.”
The festival will run through Nov. 20 with screenings of over 40 narrative films, documentaries, and television series, as well as short films, at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills and the Laemmle Town Center 5 Theatre in Encino.
Blum’s credits include “Get Out,” “Split,” “Whiplash,” the “Purge” and “Paranormal Activity” franchises, “BlacKkKlansman,” and the upcoming films “Halloween,” “Glass,” and Jordan Peele’s “Us.” He will receive the festival’s achievement in film and TV award. Nesher will receive the cinematic achievement award.
AFM SPEAKERS
The American Film Market has unveiled speakers for its conferences, roundtables, workshops, and spotlight events alongside the AFM’s marketplace and industry screenings on Oct. 31 – Nov. 7 in Santa Monica.
More than 150 speakers will participate in more 40 sessions including producers Caryn Capotosto, Cassian Elwes, Basil Iwanyk, Khaliah Neal, Ben Stillman, Gary Michael Walters, and Janet Yang; executives Lisa Gutberlet, Alison Thompson, Janet Brown, Jeffrey Greenstein, Krista Wegener, John Orlando, Ryan Suffern, Paul Broucek, and Kirsten Schaffer.
The conference series will kick off with a discussion by Jean Prewitt, president/CEO of the Independent Film and Television Alliance, with Charles Rivkin, Chairman/CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America.