If you’re looking to make the Calgary International Film Festival’s 20th anniversary event that much more special, who you gonna call?
Well, apparently Jason Reitman.
The festival announced on Friday that the Canadian filmmaker behind Juno and who is in town filming the newest Ghostbuster franchise entry will appear at a special In Conversation event with CTV’s Tara Nelson. It will follow a screening of Reitman’s acclaimed 2009 George Clooney vehicle Up In the Air.
The Sept. 21 talk and showing at Cineplex Eau Claire are just two of the many additions Calgary Film has made to its celebratory 2019 fest, which runs Sept. 18 to 29 at various locations around the city.
Also announced were a couple of gala screenings, including the first-time Centrepiece Gala, which will feature the Alberta premiere of the documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band. The film about the iconic Canadian artist, from director Daniel Roher and executive producers Martin Scorsese, Brian Glazer and Ron Howard, will kick off the Music On Screen series with a showing on Sept. 25 at Studio Bell.
The second closing night gala has also been revealed — a screening of the new Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name starring Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Chris Rock, Keegan Michael Key and Craig Robinson. The Globe Cinema showing of the film joins Atom Egoyan’s Guest of Honour, which stars David Thewlis and Luke Wilson, to wrap things up in style, launching a block party on 8th Ave. S.W. from 5th to 6th St. — at venues Paper St., Junction Stage + Bar, The Derrick, and State & Main — with pop-ups, custom cocktails, music and more.
Also announced was the fact that Egoyan will be one of the many guests in attendance at the festival, along with: actor Don McKellar, star of Calgary filmmaker Gary Burns’ Waydowntown, which will have its own special screening with the director and others attending; director Francois Girard will be at the Opening Gala with his film The Song of Names at the Jack Singer Concert Hall; and Semi Chellas, another local filmmaker, will host a Q&A after her film American Woman.
There were other films announced for this year’s Calgary Film including: director Rhys Ernst’s Adam, which was the winner of the Grand Jury Award for Best Direction at LA Outfest, and is a “coming-of-age comedy following Adam, as he spends the summer in his sister’s NYC lesbian and trans scene, encountering love, friendship and hard truths”; and One Day In the Life of Noah Piugattuk from Zacharias Kunuk, which is “set in 1961 (and) follows a nomadic Inuit hunter and his band as they face pressure from a Canadian government official to move to permanent housing, assimilate their children into settler society, and give up their traditional way of life.”
For a full list films and events for the Calgary International Film Festival, and to purchase tickets please go to calgaryfilm.com.
