The Hamptons

The Hamptons International Film (HIFF) announced today that the East Coast Premiere of BOY ERASED will close out the 26th edition, screening as the Closing Night film on Monday, October 8th. Directed by Joel Edgerton, the film examines a young boy’s story when his parents send him to a healing refuge to cure his “homosexual” disease, starring Academy Award®-nominated actor Lucas Hedges, Academy Award®-winning actors Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe, and Golden Globe®-nominated actor Edgerton himself. Based on the memoir by Garrard Conley, the film previously screened at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival and the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Conley is scheduled to attend the festival.

HIFF will continues its tradition of recognizing emerging talent by announcing this year’s “Breakthrough Artists.” The festival will honor actors Kayli Carter (PRIVATE LIFE), Cory Michael Smith (1985), and Amandla Stenberg (THE HATE U GIVE), who will all be in attendance at the festival. Since 2002, for the last seventeen years, HIFF has honored distinguished talent in early stages of their careers, including award-winning actors Emily Blunt, Brie Larson, Adam Driver, Jessica Chastain, Mahershala Ali, Riz Ahmed, Alicia Vikander, Lupita Nyong’o, Emma Stone, Elisabeth Moss, Rooney Mara, Oscar Isaac, and more.

“We are delighted to continue our tradition of recognizing ‘Breakthrough Artists,’ with three remarkable actors with burgeoning talent,” said Anne Chaisson, Executive Director of the Hamptons International Film Festival. “We are thrilled that BOY ERASED is our closing film. Garrard Conley’s best-selling, autobiographical novel reveals the necessity of getting rid of programs whose mission is to change the identity of its subjects. Made with a stellar, acclaimed cast, the film is a great representation of book to film adaptations.”

The World Premiere of the upcoming documentary THE PANAMA PAPERS will screen during the festival. Directed by Alex Winter (DEEP WEB, DOWNLOADED), who will be in attendance at the festival, and produced by Glen Zipper (UNDEFEATED), Laura Poitras (CITIZENFOUR), and Robert Friedman (UNDER AFRICAN SKIES), the film examines the historic release of over 11 million documents and those who were implicated around the world, exposing corruption as never seen before. The film is narrated by Elijah Wood. Winter will be in attendance at the festival.

The festival also announced the lineup in the Spotlight category, highlighting some of the fall’s most anticipated titles, from war dramas to timely novel adaptations about race. The slate includes the U.S. Premiere of BEN IS BACK, directed by Peter Hedges and starring Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts; TO DUST, directed by Shawn Snyder, starring Matthew Broderick, and produced by Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer; the East Coast Premiere of EVERYBODY KNOWS, directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz; the East Coast Premiere of GREEN BOOK, directed by Peter Farrelly; THE HATE U GIVE, directed by George Tillman Jr. and starring Amandla Stenberg, K.J. Apa, and Anthony Mackie; the East Coast Premiere of A PRIVATE WAR, directed by Matthew Heineman and starring Rosamund Pike and Jamie Dornan; the East Coast Premiere of THE PUBLIC, directed by Emilio Estevez; and WILDLIFE, starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Camp and directed by Paul Dano. The festival previously announced Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA and Rupert Everett’s THE HAPPY PRINCE in the Spotlight section. Bob Balaban, Bill Camp, Jamie Dornan, Emilio Estevez, Peter Hedges, Matthew Heineman, Matthew Broderick, Alessandro Nivola, Rosamund Pike, George Tillman Jr., and Dolly Wells are set to attend the festival.

“As always, offering a diverse array of films, storylines, and artists remains a priority for fulfilling all the varied interests of our audiences,” said David Nugent, Artistic Director of the Hamptons International Film Festival. “We are also thrilled to have so many of the talented individuals join us for this year’s festival to discuss their provocative new films and share their insights into the creative process.”

The festival previously announced that HIFF 2013 Lab participant Sara Colangelo’s THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, will serve as the festival’s opening night film. The Saturday Centerpiece film will be Damien Chazelle’s FIRST MAN, starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy.

Passes and packages for the 2018 festival are now on sale. The full online film guide will be available on Monday, September 17th, and individual tickets will go on sale on Monday, September 24th. Additional announcements will be made soon.

CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Sponsored by Silvercup Studios
BOY ERASED
East Coast Premiere
Director: Joel Edgerton
As the son of a Baptist pastor growing up middle-class in the Arkansas suburbs, Jared (Academy Award® nominee Lucas Hedges) seems to be the model son of a loving family. Excelling in school and in a committed relationship, Jared’s heavily conditioned image is shattered when a friend outs him to his community, leading his parents (Academy Award® winners Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe) to send him to Refuge, a church program that aims to reinforce gender roles and heal those with the “disease” of homosexuality. Based on Garrard Conley’s memoir of the same name, director and co-star Joel Edgerton delivers a refreshingly empathetic take on the difficulty of retaining a sense of one’s self in a circumstance that aims to erase it.

World Premiere Documentary
THE PANAMA PAPERS
World Premiere
Director: Alex Winter
Leaked by an anonymous source to journalists in 2015, The Panama Papers were an explosive collection of 11.5 million documents, exposing the use of secretive offshore companies to enable widespread tax evasion and money laundering. Largely viewed as the largest data leak in history, the release of the Papers had wide-reaching implications, incriminating 12 current or former world leaders, 128 politicians or public officials, and various celebrities and public figures (among others). In his expansive documentary, director Alex Winter speaks to the journalists who worked to ensure the release, and examines how it reshaped our understanding of corruption amidst the highest forms of government, along with the ongoing effects on global inequality.

SPOTLIGHT SECTION Sponsored by Audi

BEN IS BACK
U.S. Premiere
Director: Peter Hedges
On Christmas Eve, the Burns family is stunned by the unexpected arrival of their son Ben (Academy Award® nominee Lucas Hedges), returning home for the first time after entering rehab for opioid addiction. His mother, Holly (Academy Award® winner Julia Roberts), is quick to eagerly welcome her son in, while the rest of the family are more skeptical of the reasons for his surprise return. As Ben is torn between proving his sobriety and falling into his old ways, Roberts perfectly portrays a mother struggling with her own warring instincts in this affecting look at one family’s struggle with a national epidemic.

TO DUST
Director: Shawn Snyder
Shmuel (Geza Rohrig, last seen at HIFF with 2015’s SON OF SAUL), a Hasidic cantor living in upstate New York, is unable to cope with the untimely death of his wife. Struggling to find religious solace in the face of tremendous grief and plagued by nightmares about his wife’s decaying body, Shmuel looks to Albert (Matthew Broderick), a community college biology professor, to teach him more about the decomposition process facing her. In director Shawn Snyder’s darkly comic first feature, the two form an unlikely bond via clandestine biological experiments, despite the blasphemous consequences.

EVERYBODY KNOWS
East Coast Premiere
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Transplanting his trademark psychological drama from his native Iran to the foothills of Spain, two-time Academy Award®-winning director Asghar Farhadi (THE PAST [HIFF 2014], THE SALESMAN [HIFF 2017]) returns with a story of secrets and intrigue in Spanish wine country. Returning to her childhood home to celebrate a family wedding, Laura (Penélope Cruz) finds long-simmering tensions coming to the surface when her daughter suddenly disappears amidst a power outage, with her distanced family and ex (Javier Bardem) the most likely suspects. Beautifully realized and constantly engrossing, Farhadi has crafted another masterful thriller with a deep ensemble cast of Spanish legends, led by Bardem, Cruz, and Bárbara Lennie.

GREEN BOOK
East Coast Premiere
Director: Peter Farrelly
It’s 1962 America, and impeccably stylish jazz musician Don Shirley (Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali) needs to hire a bodyguard to get him safely from venue to venue on his upcoming Southern tour. Enter Tony “Lip” Valelonga (Viggo Mortensen): a loud-mouthed Italian-American bouncer who’s quicker to enter a situation fists first if it means coming out on top. Together, the unlikely pair set out on a road trip through the American South, using the Negro Motorist Green Book as a guide to find welcoming lodging; along the way, they forge a surprising camaraderie in this heartwarming and comedic true story.

THE HAPPY PRINCE
Director: Rupert Everett
In the final three years of his life (1897-1900), Oscar Wilde finds himself adrift. Coming off the heels of his trial for indecency and subsequent imprisonment, Wilde lives out his last days in exile, moving between a small group of enduring friends (Colin Firth, Edwin Thomas) under assumed names and torn between whether to go back to his ex-lover (Colin Morgan) or estranged wife (Emily Watson). Written, directed by, and starring Rupert Everett as the ailing Wilde, THE HAPPY PRINCE is at once a moving evocation of the literary genius’ final act and a stirring paean to the brilliant wit that endured to his last moments.

THE HATE U GIVE
Director: George Tillman Jr.
As a way to escape the limited options of the streets she grew up on, sixteen-year-old black teenager Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is torn between two lives: one at school amidst her predominantly rich, upper-class white classmates, and another within her working-class neighborhood. But Starr’s dual life is torn apart when a reunion with a childhood sweetheart ends in tragedy at the hands of a local police officer, forcing her to take a side amidst a swelling of protests in the local community. Adapting Angie Thomas’s award-winning novel to the big screen with the same sense of urgency that shot it to the top of the bestsellers list, THE HATE U GIVE is a stirring look at one teenager’s personal awakening.

A PRIVATE WAR
East Coast Premiere
Director: Matthew Heineman
In an industry defined by those willing to place themselves in the midst of tremendous danger, photojournalist Marie Colvin (Academy-Award® nominee Rosamund Pike) distinguished herself as one of the world’s most celebrated war correspondents. In his feature narrative debut, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman (CARTEL LAND, CITY OF GHOSTS) pays tribute to Colvin’s extraordinary life both on and off the battlefield. Portrayed with rebellious conviction by Pike, and aided by a supporting cast including Jamie Dornan and Stanley Tucci, A PRIVATE WAR is a thrilling look at one individual’s devotion to bringing a voice to the voiceless.

THE PUBLIC
East Coast Premiere
Director: Emilio Estevez
As the day’s activities wind down and library workers Stuart (Emilio Estevez) and Myra (Jena Malone) prepare to close for the day, a group of homeless patrons decide to stage an act of rebellion when they refuse to leave the building to find somewhere to sleep in the wintry night. Soon the scene outside becomes a carnival of riot gear-wearing officers and local news reporters, leading to a standoff between the city’s have’s and have-not’s. Aided by a deep supporting cast, including Jeffrey Wright, Michael K. Williams, and Alec Baldwin, writer, director, and star Emilio Estevez continues to showcase his skills as a gifted multi-hyphenate force with his latest ode to the struggles of the disenfranchised.

ROMA
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Inspired by the early 1970s Mexico City of his childhood, celebrated auteur Alfonso Cuarón (GRAVITY, CHILDREN OF MEN, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) returns with this semi-autobiographical look at a middle-class family making a life for itself within a time of political turbulence and patriarchal rule. Filmed on a giant canvas in 65mm and utilizing stunningly detailed black and white photography, ROMA recreates the world of his past with cinematic grandeur and vibrancy. Acting as his own cinematographer and working with a remarkable cast of largely unknown actors, Cuarón places the viewer in the middle of a world alive with the anxious energy of the period, while paying respect to the individuals who would help to shape his life.

WILDLIFE
Director: Paul Dano
In 1960s Montana, Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds his family at yet another crossroads when he loses his job at the local golf course. With a wildfire raging in the surrounding mountains, Jerry decides to join a group of firefighters and leaves his wife Jeannette (Carey Mulligan) and teenage son (Ed Oxenbould) on their own in their small town, where both begin to question the stability of the life they’ve known for so long. With this astonishingly well-realized directorial debut, Paul Dano reveals himself to be a director of considerable emotional depth in this melancholic look at the steady decline of the nuclear family, anchored by Mulligan’s towering central performance.