FirstLight offers
best 2003 moviesThe Maui event helps
deal with an earlier
Academy Awards date
Leave it to Maui's Barry Rivers to come to the rescue of people who will help decide next year's potential Oscar winners.
Studios, publicists, awards organizers and Academy members are scrambling, trying to deal with the new Academy Awards date: Feb. 29, a month earlier than past Oscar ceremonies.
The earlier date means that many Academy members won't have time to see all the nominated movies (each member usually receives about 60 advance tapes). The films released near year's end will suffer because the members won't be able to see them all. The smaller films that open, like 2001's "Monster's Ball," have the most to lose because they don't get the huge publicity and advertising blitz that greets a film like "The Lord of the Rings."
The new Oscar date has also affected movie release dates, pushing many studios to open films earlier than they would have to allow the films to be seen. Some of these include "Mystic River," "The Station Agent," "The Human Stain," "Kill Bill: Volume 1," "Veronica Guerin," "Beyond Borders," "Sylvia," "Pieces of April," "In the Cut," "Elephant," "Wonderland" and "Shattered Glass."
Studio execs also say that with the compression of the awards season, late-year releases that would have benefited the most from the lucrative box office window between the Oscar nominations and the night of the ceremony have seen potential earnings evaporate.
But since Maui -- and particularly Wailea -- is a favorite holiday locale for the celeb and filmmaker set, Maui Film Festival director Barry Rivers has collected 44 likely Oscar contenders to be shown at his FirstLight event running Dec. 17 through Jan. 1 at the Castle Theatre of the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. (See schedule on Page D6.)
Academy and industry guild members must RSVP either by phone at 808-579-9553 or e-mail firstlight@mauifilmfestival.com. Complimentary admission is also available at the door. Proof of academy and/or guild membership (with a photo ID) must also be presented at the box office to receive complimentary tickets.
The public can attend the screenings for $10 a film ($5 for children under 12 for all PG and PG-13 films) or by using the Maui Film Festival's FirstLight 4-Film VIP FastPass priced at $40. Purchase the FastPass at the MACC's box office or Borders Books & Music in Kahului.
For those who have any gaps to fill in their movie-viewing, this is one way to catch up on the best of what's been shown on the big screen over the past six months. Those who haven't been to the movies at all will find it an easy way to cram in the best of 2003, as well.
The FastPass will allow entry and preferred seating through a special line, as well as allow those who choose to see back-to-back screenings to remain in the theater lobby to ensure seating at additional screenings on a particular day. The FastPass can be used by more than one person, but each of the four admissions on the pass can be used only once.
The regular 5-Film Passport, valid for the MACC's Wednesday film series, will not be valid for FirstLight screenings.
BACK TO TOP |
FirstLight
2003 Maui Film Festival Schedule
Dec. 17
2 p.m. -- "Seabiscuit": Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges star in this true story of an underdog racehorse that lifted America's spirits during the Depression in a challenge to be the undisputed champion of his era. (PG-13)5 p.m. -- "Monsieur Ibrahim": Omar Shariff makes a triumphant return to the screen as a Turkish shopkeeper in Paris who befriends a young Jewish boy. Together they learn that there are far more things that two people of different backgrounds, religious beliefs and ages share than separate them. (R)
7:30 p.m. -- "Mona Lisa Smile": Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles and Maggie Gyllenhaal star in this drama based at a New England college for women where the art instructor (Roberts) learns as much from her students as they do from her. (PG-13)
Dec. 18
2 p.m. -- "Veronica Guerin": Cate Blanchett stars in this Jerry Bruckheimer production of the riveting and true tale of an investigative reporter in England who took on the challenge of exposing local drug lords at the risk of, and eventual loss of, her life. (R)5 p.m. -- "Thirteen": Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed and Jeremy Sisto star in director Catherine Hardwicke's unblinking look at a teenage girl who turns her own and her family's lives upside down when she comes under the influence of a wild child at her junior high school. (R)
7:30 p.m. -- "The Event": Olympia Dukakis and Parker Posey star in this intimate look at how a young man, affected by HIV, and those around him choose their paths to a mutual acceptance of the inevitable in a way that celebrates life. (R)
Dec. 19
2 p.m. -- "The Human Stain": Academy Award winners Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman play a college professor with secrets to hide and the custodian he falls in love with, in this story of hidden passions and the emotional and physical explosions they can bring when acted upon. (R)5 p.m. -- "Love Actually": Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighty and Rowan Atkinson star in this holiday season romantic "dramedy" written and directed by Richard Curtis ("Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Notting Hill"). (R)
7:30 p.m. -- "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King": The final installment in this gloriously designed and groundbreaking series of films, from director Peter Jackson based on the classic Tolkien trilogy. (PG-13)
Dec. 20
2 p.m. -- "Mystic River": Academy Award winner and Maui Film Festival Silversword Award recipient Clint Eastwood directs Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney in the exploration of the impact of a crime over time on three friends and their families. (R)5 p.m. -- "Lost in Translation": Bill Murray and Scarlet Johanssen star in director Sofia Coppola's brilliant exploration of fame, loneliness and the quest for meaning in modern times. Set in contemporary Japan, it's garnered rave reviews from critics nationwide. (R)
7:30 p.m. -- "21 Grams": After death a body loses 21 grams, the weight of five nickels or, supposedly, the soul. From this theory, the director of "Amores Perros," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, leads Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts on an intertwined journey for redemption of three strangers whose lives intersect. (R)
FOCUS
A tragic death unexpectically throws the lives of three people together to confront mortality, love and faith in "21 Grams," showing Dec. 20.
9:30 p.m. -- "City of God": A brilliant, touching and exquisitely directed film from Brazil that explores, through the eyes of a talented photojournalist, the violent street culture of Rio de Janeiro's mean streets and the denizens that call them home. (R)
Dec. 21
2 p.m. -- "The Last Samurai": Tom Cruise plays a 19th-century U.S. Civil War veteran who journeys to Japan as a military advisor, only to be captured and schooled in the ways of a samurai during the era when that way of life is on the wane. Directed by Edward Zwick ("The Siege" and "Glory"). (R)5 p.m. -- "Casa de los Babys": John Sayles directs a sterling cast that stars Daryl Hannah, Maggie Gyllenhall, Marcia Gay Harden, Chita Rivera and others in this heartfelt story of women who travel to Mexico, where they share a home while waiting to adopt a baby. (R)
7:30 p.m. -- "Something's Gotta Give": Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Amanda Peet and Keanu Reeves star in this comedy from director Nancy Meyers ("Baby Boom" and "What Women Want") about an aging Lothario who comes to visit his latest conquest's mother. To their mutual astonishment, they wind up falling in love with each other. (PG-13)
Dec. 22
2 p.m. -- "The Missing": Director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer follow up their success with the Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind" with this supernatural thriller, set on the open plains of the late 19th-century Southwest. Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones and Evan Rachel Wood star in a story about a woman's estranged father who helps rescue her kidnapped daughter. (R)5 p.m. -- "Cold Mountain": Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger star in this story, directed by "The English Patient's" Anthony Minghella and based on Charles Frazier's historic epic novel, about a soldier in the Civil War who walks hundreds of miles across the littered landscape of the South to return to his true love. (Not yet rated at press time)
MIRAMAX
A wounded confederate soldier, played by Jude Law, left, makes a perilous journey to return home to his mountain community and Ada, the sweetheart he left behind, played by Nicole Kidman in "Cold Mountain," screening Dec. 22.
7:30 p.m. -- "House of Sand and Fog": Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connolly star, respectively, as an Iranian immigrant and the dispossessed owner of a beach town bungalow that he buys, who find themselves locked in a lose-lose situation when she decides to try and repossess her home. (R)
Dec. 23
2 p.m. -- "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl": Johnny Depp stars, along with Geoffrey Rush and Keira Knightley, in this cinematic joy ride and special-effects extravaganza based upon the theme park ride at Disneyland. (PG-13)5 p.m. -- "Elephant": Gus Van Sant won this year's Cannes Palme d'Or award for this remarkable film, which dreamily re-creates the events that lead up to a terrible act of violence in a small-town high school. (R)
7:30 p.m. -- "American Splendor": The Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, starring Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis, is based on the life of alternative comic book autobiographer and curmudgeon Harvey Pekar. (R)
Dec. 26
2 p.m. -- "The Agronomist": Jonathan Demme directs this film, shot over many years, about a revered Haitian political activist who took on the powers that be to fight for a better life for the poor of that embattled country. (PG-13)5 p.m. -- "The Cooler": William H. Macy stars as a man whose bad luck gets him work as a "cooler," someone used by casinos to cool off people on a winning streak. But everything changes when Macy's character falls in love and his negative impact on the gamblers at the casino reverses itself. (R)
7:30 p.m. -- "In America": Director Jim Sheridan's ("My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father") semiautobiographical film is the story of an Irish family who moves to the rough Hell's Kitchen section of New York City with their daughters to pursue their dreams. (PG-13)
9:30 p.m. -- "The Triplets of Belleville": The animated sensation, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, is a charming tale of an old woman who, with her faithful dog and a trio of eccentric '30s-era singing sensations, crosses the sea to rescue her grandson from the Tour de France. (PG-13)
Dec. 27
Noon -- "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World": Academy Award winner Russell Crowe stars in this tale of high-seas adventure set during the Napoleonic Wars of the 18th century from director Peter Weir. (PG-13)2 p.m. -- "Capturing the Friedmans": This Sundance Grand Jury Prize documentary winner explores the story behind the child-abuse conviction of a father and son from rural Long Island. (R)
5 p.m. -- "The Station Agent": This three-time Sundance award winner stars Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale in a small and understated comedy about a dwarf that inherits an abandoned railway station in rural New Jersey, a reclusive artist who is grieving the loss of her son and the outgoing operator of a roadside refreshment stand, and how all three are affected by their newfound friendships with one another. (R)
7:30 p.m. -- "Big Fish": Tim Burton's newest film stars Ewan McGregor, Billy Crudup, Steve Buscemi, Allison Lohman, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange and Helena Bonham Carter. Coming from the fertile imagination of one of Hollywood's more singular filmmakers, it's no surprise that it's a stunningly original tale of reconciliation between a father and the son who barely knows him, set against tales about giants, blizzards, a witch and conjoined-twin lounge singers. (Burton is also a Maui Film Festival Silversword Award winner.) (PG-13)
9:30 p.m. -- "The Singing Detective": Robert Downey Jr. returns to the screen in this upside-down musical fantasy about a pulp-fiction writer whose dreams and reality become indistinguishable when he is hospitalized for a strange medical condition. (R)
Dec. 28
Noon -- "Finding Nemo": Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres and Willem Dafoe provide the voice talent in this wonderful, candy-colored animated adventure from Pixar Animation Studios about a father fish's heartwarming search to find his missing fishlet son. (G)
BUENA VISTA PICTURES
"Finding Nemo," a colorful tale of a father fish's search for his missing fishlet son, screens Dec. 28.
2 p.m. -- "The Barbarian Invasions": Canadian director Denys Arcand's film revolves around a reunion of family members separated by both distance and differences, who must learn to overcome them when brought together by a dying patriarch. (R)
5 p.m. -- "Northfork": James Woods and Nick Nolte star in this luminous and ethereal parable that explores the themes of the importance of the preservation of the past and the natural world, in the guise of a story about the proposed flooding of a small town to make room for a dam. (PG-13.)
7:30 p.m. -- "Calendar Girls": Heartwarming "dramedy" starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters that's based on the true story of a women's club from rural England that becomes an international sensation when the calendar they create to raise money for leukemia research becomes a runaway seller around the world, due to their willingness to pose nude. (PG-13)
9:30 p.m. -- "Monster": Charlize Theron plays against type in a film she produced and stars in. It's the true-life story of serial criminal Aileen Wuornos and her passionate lesbian love affair with another socially dysfunctional drifter. (R)
Dec. 29
2 p.m. -- "Osama": Afghanistan's submission to the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Film category, it's the first film produced following the fall of the Taliban. It tells the story of a woman who is not permitted to leave her house without a male family member. But since they've all died in the conflict, she dresses her young daughter as her son so that they can begin to piece a new life together.
MGM / UA
"Osama," which screens Dec. 29, is based on a true story of a family of women who, forbidden from working or even showing their faces in public, disguises their 12-year-old daughter as a boy and sends her to work in a local shop.
5 p.m. -- "Shattered Glass": Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny and Hank Azaria star in this true tale of a magazine reporter who got his editors to print more than three dozen stories that he had created out of his own imagination. (PG-13)
7:30 p.m. -- "Sylvia": Gwyneth Paltrow stars as the late poet Sylvia Plath in this exploration of her tumultuous and tempestuous love affair and marriage to Ted Hughes. (R)
Dec. 30
2 p.m. -- "The Fog of War": Errol Morris' latest idiosyncratic documentary is about former Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara, who talks about his decision-making during the Vietnam War as well as his take on power and its exercise around the world. (PG-13)5 p.m. -- "The Statement": Michael Caine stars in this true story of a Frenchman who served to carry out Hitler's orders during the German occupation of France and who is now hunted down in contemporary Paris. (Not rated)
7:30 p.m. -- "Girl With a Pearl Earring": Scarlett Johanssen stars as a servant girl in the adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel. She coaxes the best work out of Dutch painter Vermeer (Colin Firth) in a perfectly photographed exploration of that time and place. (PG-13)
Jan. 1
Noon -- "Whale Rider": The smash hit from this year's Maui Film Festival returns. This timeless story, set in the Maori culture of New Zealand, is a magical realist fable dealing with female empowerment, respect for the natural world and the rebirth of indigenous culture. It features a remarkable debut performance by Keisha Castle-Hughes. (PG-13)2 p.m. -- "The Story of the Weeping Camel": This is Mongolia's first submission for Oscar considerations. It's set in the vast Gobi Desert and follows a family of camel herders who must contend with a mother camel that rejects her newborn after a difficult delivery. Following an ancient tradition, the family sends two boys to the capital to seek the help of a musician who they believe can entice the camel to abide by her maternal instincts and nurse the newborn. During the rites performed by the musician to reunite the two, the mother camel begins to weep. (Not rated)
5 p.m. -- "Pieces of April": Sundance favorite starring Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson and Derek Luke about a young woman who tries to put together her first Thanksgiving dinner against all odds, where nearly everything goes wrong, while at the same time hosting her African-American boyfriend's family and her own estranged family as well. (PG-13)
7:30 p.m. -- "The Company": One of the feature films at this year's Hawaii International Film Festival, Robert Altman's latest project stars Neve Campbell and features the dancers of the Joffrey Ballet. It's an intense and revealing exploration of a dancer's life at the highest levels of the art. (PG-13)
Click for online
calendars and events.
