Returning for its second year exclusively to Palace Cinema locations, the Emirates British Film Festival is thrilled to announce highlights from its 2014 program.
With a mix of wildly entertaining comedies, cinematic adaptations, first-time features, and award-winning titles, this year’s program will showcase the best and brightest Brit talent with an exceptional program of 16 brand new films plus the top picks of British Sixties cinema in a specially curated section Six from the 60s.
The Festival will kick off with the Australian première of Testament of Youth, an epic coming of age story about love, loss and war based on Vera Brittain’s memoirs of World War I. Direct from its world première at this year’s London Film Festival starring Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina) and Kit Harington (Game of Thrones), Testament of Youth follows a young, intelligent and free-minded woman who after overcoming prejudice, winning a scholarship to Oxford and falling in love with her brother’s close friend goes onto pursue her literary dreams, until the horrors and heartbreak of World War I brings everything to a grinding halt. Testament of Youth is the tale of a women with an unbreakable spirit breathtakingly adapted by director James Kent from one of the most powerful and famous memoirs of the 20th Century.
Contemporary highlights from the 2014 program to include; Mr Turner, which shines the light on British painter J.M.W Turner, one of the most prolific painters of the 19th Century. Picking up two awards at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, including Best Actor for Timothy Spall (Harry Potter); ‘71, the groundbreaking debut feature from Yann Demange that tells a thrilling tale of a young British solider (played by the outstanding Jack O’Connell, Skins) who must find his way to safety through a disorientating, alien and deadly landscape after being accidently abandoned by his unit in the dangerous streets of Northern Ireland following a riot; and What We Did on Our Holiday, the first feature film from the creators of the hit British sitcom Outnumbered. Featuring the hilarious Billy Connolly, the film follows a couple in the midst of a difficult divorce who take their three children on a trip to Scotland for a family reunion.
The Festival will also present the top picks of British Sixties cinema in Six from the 60s, which will include Zulu (1964), the thrilling, action-packed adventure which stars Michael Caine in his first major role; If…(1968) winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival; The Italian Job (1969), a combination of action, humour, and an incontrovertible sense of style, that truly embodies the Swinging ‘60s; Darling (1965), winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress, Julie Christie (Doctor Zhivago), stars in this brilliant work about the result of excess, beauty, fashion and fame; Billy Liar (1963), which helms as one of the most memorable and universally acclaimed films of the ‘60s about one man’s ability to dream big; and finally A Hard Day’s Night (1964), on the 50th Anniversary of its release this will offer audience’s a chance to take a trip back to the lively era of sensational music, marking the true birth of British Beatlemania.
The three week Festival will wrap up with the expertly crafted The Imitation Game, which follows the life of coding pioneer, Alan Turing, a mathematician and computer scientist who, with his team of code-breakers was instrumental in cracking Nazi Germany’s Enigma code during the darkest days of World War 2. This gripping tale adapted from the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma, comes straight from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival where it was exceptionally well received by audiences winning the Grolsch People’s Choice Award. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch (12 Years a Slave), Keira Knightly, Matthew Goode (Stoker), Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Solider Spy) and Allen Leech (Downtown Abbey) the Closing Night film of the 2014 program is not to be missed.
The Festival will take place nationally from November in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane and Byron Bay.
LISTING DETAILS: Emirates British Film Festival presented by Palace Cinemas
MELBOURNE 5 November – 26 November, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Balwyn & Palace Brighton Bay
SYDNEY 6 November – 26 November, Palace Verona & Palace Norton St
ADELAIDE 5 November – 16 November, Palace Nova Eastend
PERTH 5 November – 16 November, Cinema Paradiso
CANBERRA 6 November – 23 November, Palace Electric
BRISBANE 6 November – 16 November, Palace Barracks & Palace Centro
BYRON BAY 6 November – 15 November, Palace Byron Bay
For more information visit: www.britishfilmfestival.com.au