HIFF 2013: Day 5 Highlights

It’s hard to believe today is the final day of HIFF 2013. But there are still plenty of movies to see, including the four award-winning films: a doc and a narrative from both the Golden Starfish Awards (voted on by the jury) and the Audience Awards. Whatever you choose, you’re sure to pick a winner!

Reminder: if the ticketing site says “Sold Out,” keep in mind that patient filmgoers on rush lines are having excellent luck getting into films they want to see. Good luck!

Our fabulous jury will announce their selections for Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary Feature at this morning’s Golden Starfish Awards ceremony. Get your tickets now!

All throughout the Festival, festival-goers have been voting for their favorite films. This morning, all will be revealed, leading into encore screenings of the films the audience has chosen as the Best Narrative and Best Feature. Get your tickets now to the films that rose to the top at HIFF 2013!

>> Tickets for Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
>> Tickets for Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature

Encore screening just added! Set in the 1970s, Free Ride stars Academy Award® winner Anna Paquin (The Piano, HBO’s True Blood) as a single mother who moves to Florida with her daughters in search of a better life, but gets pulled into the high-stakes drug-trade business. Paquin’s dynamic star turn and a vivid supporting cast, including Cam Gigandet and The Sopranos’ Drea De Matteo, help make Free Ride an unforgettable trip.

Audiences yesterday were riveted by the behind-the-scenes intrigue of the Brizzolara Family Foundation Award-winning film Plot For Peace. Learn the true story behind Nelson Mandela’s release from a South African prison during the 1980s. You’ll be amazed that this story has never been told before. A must-see!

When renowned photojournalist Elizabeth L. Gilbert returns to the Rift Valley in Africa to visit the tribes she photographed just a decade earlier, she bears witness to the changes wrought on the region. After her book is published, she hires a crew from Nairobi to assist her in screening a cinema slideshow to tribes-people, like the Masai, in their remote villages. Matt Goldman’s first feature captures the reunions, the dramas, and ultimately the triumph of this remarkable journey.

Based on Jonathan Franzen‘s New Yorker article about the poaching of migratory birds in southern Europe. These globetrotting songbirds are considered culinary delicacies and reap big bucks on the black market, yet many species are endangered and some face extinction. Director and co-director Douglas and Roger Kass skillfully translate the spirit of Franzen’s words onto the screen and deservedly win this year’s Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless AwardInterview with the filmmaker.

We are very pleased to continue our partnership with New York Women In Film and Television for our tenth annual showcase of outstanding achievements by female filmmakers. The short films showcased include EvaOne Last Hug…Ben: In the Mind’s Eye#SlutwalkNYC, and Diner en Blanc.

After one of the worst earthquakes to hit New Zealand, the people of Christchurch took a different approach to rebuilding their city. They studied how their city could serve humans better. They studied car culture, bike lanes, and pedestrian walkways. They studied the work of Jan Gehl, the Danish architect who for 40 years has been analyzing the symbiosis of cities and their inhabitants. Director Andreas Dalsgaard takes us around the world.

The smart aleck Niko drifts through his twenties content to let life (and responsibilities) chug on by. But over the course of a single day, the cosmic balance shifts, imperceptibly at first, and a series of unfortunate and surprising encounters snowball into what could only be described as an existential crisis. Jan Ole Gerster’s hilarious and brilliant first feature swept the 2013 German Oscars, and rightfully so.

Bob Birdnow is a curious candidate for a motivational speaker. Balding, crippled, and past middle-aged. He does have something no one else has though: a remarkable tale of human survival and the transcendence of self. When asked by his old friend to speak at a conference, he avoids the subject, opting for a more traditional speech. However, when forced off the script and desperate, Birdnow takes the audience on an outré, radical, and unforgettable journey.

Most people only dream about becoming a superstar, but against all odds one man from Wales did just that. One Chance is the inspirational true story of Paul Potts, a shy, bullied shop assistant by day and an amateur opera singer by night. After being chosen by Simon Cowell for Britain’s Got Talent and wowing audiences worldwide, Paul went on to win the show and the hearts of millions. Fresh from celebrating his Tony Award-winning run in One Man, Two GuvnorsJames Corden stars.