Here’s why San Jose’s Cinequest film festival is essential. It’s your best opportunity to find a movie unlike any you have seen before. As you mine Cinequest’s deep and varied schedule, you just may stumble onto a revelatory cinematic nugget.
Cinequest opens on March 4 and runs through March 16. I was about to describe Cinequest as an overlooked gem, but since Cinequest has the second largest audience (110,000) of any film event in North America, it ain’t so overlooked. This year’s fest includes 84 World, North American and U.S. Premieres from 43 countries. There will be spotlighted features starring the likes of Brendan Gleeson, Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche, Guy Pearce, Jude Law, Jena Malone, Gabriel Byrne and Ben Kingsley and celebrity appearances by actor Matthew Modine, author Neil Gaiman, Indiewire critic Eric Kohn and Ain’t It Cool News founder Harry Knowles. LA Times critic Kenneth Turan will introduce a special screening of Fruitvale Station.
Although the higher profile films and the personal appearances by celebrities are always popular with Cinequest audiences, the most stunningly singular film experiences are often mined from Cinequest’s international offerings.
Last year’s Cinequest featured three wholly original films: the German dark comedy Oh Boy (the debut from talented writer-director Jan Ole Gerster), the absurdist Czech comedy Polski Film and the offbeat The Dead Man and Being Happy, with its gloriously wacky road trip through the backwaters of Argentina. You just don’t find this stuff elsewhere in the Bay Area.
The San Francisco International Film Festival in late April remains the best place to see the very best indies. This year, the SFIFF entries Before Midnight, Stories We Tell, The Spectacular Now and The Act of Killing all made my list of Best Movies of 2013. Poised in October, the Mill Valley Film Festival excels in booking the prestige films that are opening within a few weeks (this year: Nebraska, 12 Years a Slave, All Is Lost, Dallas Buyers Club, August: Osage County). (Mill Valley also featured a special 2013 presentation of Oh Boy – but Bay Area cinephiles had seen it seven months before at Cinequest.)
Still, among Bay Area film festivals, Cinequest remains our very best chance to see something remarkable and unexpected – something you’ve never seen before. I know there’s an Oh Boy somewhere in this year’s Cinequest schedule. When I find it, I’ll let you know.
Here’s the Cinequest program and ticket information.
Postscript: My recap of the 2013 Cinequest.