12th Annual Savannah Film Festival Gala and Special Guests

Savannah, GA—The 12th annual Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, will take place from Saturday, October 31-Saturday, November 7.

Films to receive special gala screenings will include Jean-Marc Vallée’s “The Young Victoria”; Oren Moverman’s “The Messenger,” with Moverman and stars Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster in attendance; Grant Heslov’s “The Men Who Stare at Goats”; Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces”; Lone Sherfig’s “An Education”; the United States premieres of James Ivory’s “The City of Your Final Destination,” with Ivory in attendance, and Nick Moran’s “Telstar,” with Moran and star Con O’Neill in attendance; Jodie Markell’s “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond” (from a screenplay by Tennessee Williams); Cannes Palme d’Or winner Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon”; and Lee Daniels’ “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” winner of the Grand-Jury Prize at Sundance and the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Daniels and star Gabourey Sidibe will be in attendance.

Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson (“Pieces of April,” “Vicki Cristina Barcelona”) will receive an Outstanding Achievement in Cinema Award after a screening of Woody Allen’s “Whatever Works”. Emmy and Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson (“Cheers,” “The People vs. Larry Flynt”) and Ben Foster (“3:10 to Yuma”) will also receive Outstanding Achievement in Cinema Awards prior to their screening of “The Messenger.” Emmy Rossum (“The Phantom of the Opera”) will receive the Young Hollywood Award prior to a screening of her film “Dare,” and Jeremy Renner will receive the Spotlight Award for his performance in “The Hurt Locker,” which will also screen at the festival. Scott Caan (“Ocean’s 11”), the writer and star of “Mercy,” one of the festival’s competition films, also will attend.

Past festival guests and honorees include Peter O’Toole, Michael Douglas, Jane Fonda, Sidney Lumet, Kathleen Turner, Norman Jewison, Tommy Lee Jones, John Waters, David Benioff, John Sayles, Brett Ratner, Charlie Rose, George Segal, James Franco, James Ivory, Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, Peter Bart, Army Archerd, Roger Ebert, Terrence Malick, Sydney Pollack, the Redgrave siblings—Vanessa, Lynn and Corin—Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Malcolm McDowell and Milos Forman, among others.

In addition to the special screenings, the festival will showcase 22 professional films (features, documentaries, shorts and animation) and 12 student films in competition. The jurors for the competition are actress Patti D’Arbanville (“Rescue Me”), actress/producer Rita Gam, writer/director Ingrid Rockefeller, writer/director Michael Sucsy (Emmy-Award winning “Grey Gardens”) and writer/director David Twohy (“Pitch Black”).

For more information on the festival and a complete schedule of events, visit www.scad.edu/filmfest