Thursday, December 21 @ 8pm
Wheeler Opera House
(1 hr 47 min)

WIND RIVER is a thriller that follows a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) who teams up with a local game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past (Jeremy Renner) to investigate the murder of a local girl on a remote Native American reservation in the hopes of solving her mysterious death. Written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, WIND RIVER also stars Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, Julia Jones, Kelsey Asbille, and James Jordan. Winner of numerous international and domestic prizes for performance and direction, notable the Best Director Prize from Un Certain Regard section of 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

Director: Taylor Sheridan

Film courtesy of Acacia Entertainment

For your Consideration: Best Performance, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay

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Thursday, December 22 @ 2pm
Paepcke Auditorium
(1 hr 51 min)

Warm, winning and gloriously alive, Sean Baker’s THE FLORIDA PROJECT is a deeply moving and unforgettably poignant look at childhood. Set on a stretch of highway just outside the imagined utopia of Disney World, THE FLORIDA PROJECT follows six-year-old Moonee and her rebellious mother, Halley, over the course of a single summer. The two live week to week at The Magic Castle, a budget motel managed by Bobby (Willem Dafoe) whose stern exterior hides a deep reservoir of kindness and compassion. With THE FLORIDA PROJECT, Sean Baker gives life and a voice to a community rarely seen on screen. Sean Baker has created a spellbinding and transformative portrait of contemporary lives lived in the margins that are otherwise too easily forgotten. THE FLORIDA PROJECT declares, boldly and proudly, that anywhere can be a Magic Kingdom – it just depends on how you see it. Winner of numerous international and US prizes, including Best Director (Sean Baker) from the New York Film Critics Circle.

Director: Sean Baker

Film courtesy of A24

For your Consideration: Best Performance, Best Director

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Saturday, December 23 @ 5pm
Paepcke Auditorium
(2 hr 1 min)

In the audacious documentary ICARUS, director Bryan Fogel’s bold gambit was this: to investigate doping in sports, Fogel (an amateur bike racer) would dope himself, observe the changes in his performance, and see if he could evade detection. In doing so, he was connected to a renegade Russian scientist, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, a pillar of his country’s “anti-doping” program. Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program. When the truth is more complex than imagined, and accusations of illegalities run to Russia’s highest chains of command, the two realize they hold the power to reveal the biggest international sports scandal in living memory. Exemplifying the special bond between filmmaker and subject, this is a vital portrait of the sacrifice some people will make to stand up for truth. ICARUS places you at the heart of an international game of cat and mouse, where a miscalculation can cost you your life. Winner of both the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize in Documentary, 2017 Sundance Film Festival, among others.

Director: Bryan Fogel

Film courtesy of Netflix

For your consideration: Best Documentary Feature

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Saturday, December 23 @ 8pm
Paepcke Auditorium
(1 hr 51 min)

Academy Award winner Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love) reunites with Academy Award-nominated director Stephen Frears (The Queen), and returns to the role of Queen Victoria, in VICTORIA & ABDUL. The screenplay of Victoria & Abdul is by Academy Award nominee Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), based on journalist Shrabani Basu’s book Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant, which brought to light the long-hidden history of Victoria and Abdul from their own diaries and journals. VICTORIA AND ABDUL tells the extraordinary true story of the amazing and unlikely friendship between Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and a young clerk, Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), who becomes her teacher, her spiritual advisor, and her devoted friend.

In 1887, Abdul travels from India to present a ceremonial medal as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee but surprisingly finds favor with the elderly Queen. The unprecedented and unlikely relationship causes a battle royale within the royal household, pitting the Queen against court and family. VICTORIA & ABDUL  humorously explores questions of race, religion, power, and the farce of Empire through the prism of a highly unusual and deeply moving friendship.

Awarded a Truly Moving Picture Award from 2017 Heartland Film Festival in addition to a Hollywood Award for Best Composer to Thomas Newman.

Director: Stephen Frears

Film courtesy of Focus Features

For your consideration: Best Picture, Best Actress- Judi Dench, Best Adapted Screenplay

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Tuesday, December 26 @ 5pm
Wheeler Opera House
(1 hr 42 min)

Brad has a satisfying career and a comfortable life in suburban Sacramento where he lives with his sweet-natured wife, Melanie (Jenna Fischer), and their musical prodigy son, Troy (Austin Abrams), but it’s not quite what he imagined during his college glory days. Showing Troy around Boston, where Brad went to university, he can’t help comparing his life with those of his four best college friends: a Hollywood bigshot (Mike White), a hedge-fund founder (Luke Wilson), a tech entrepreneur (Jemaine Clement), and a political pundit and bestselling author (Michael Sheen). As he imagines their wealthy, glamorous lives, he wonders if cozy middle-class domesticity is the best he will ever achieve. But when circumstances force him to reconnect with his former friends, Brad begins to question whether he has really failed or if, in some essential ways, their lives are more flawed than they appear. Selected for the prestigious Platform section of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

Director: Mike White

Film courtesy of Annapurna Pictures

For your consideration: Best Original Screenplay, Best Performance, Best Director

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Saturday, December 30 @5pm
Paepcke Auditorium
(1 hr 46 min)

Out of nowhere, Katja’s life falls apart when her husband Nuri and little son Rocco are killed in a bomb attack. Her friends and family try to give her the support she needs, and Katja somehow manages to make it through the funeral. But the mind numbing search for the perpetrators and reasons behind the senseless killing complicate Katja’s painful mourning, opening wounds and doubts. Danilo, a lawyer and Nuri’s best friend, represents Katja in the eventual trial against the two suspects: a young couple from the neo-Nazi scene. The trial pushes Katja to the edge, but there’s simply no alternative for her: she wants justice.  Actress Diane Kruger was awarded the Best Actress Prize at 2017 Cannes Film Festival for her performance as Katja.

DIRECTOR | Fatih Akin

FILM COURTESY OF | Magnolia Pictures / Magnet Releasing

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION | Best Foreign Language Film (Germany)

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