Dallas International Film Festival – April 14th to 24th, 2016

The Tenth Annual Dallas International Film Festival will take place this year from April 14th to 24th. If you’ve never been before, visit the event website’s “How to Fest” page and explore the rest of the site for full details. Basically, you can view the festival guide to determine which films you want to see and which other events you’d like to attend, then buy a pass, ticket, or voucher and go have fun! Passes, tickets, and vouchers are available for sale online, at Mockingbird Station, and at the film venues themselves on the day(s) of the screenings. The main movie-watching venues are the Angelika at Mockingbird Station, Alamo Drafthouse on S. Lamar, and Klyde Warren Park.

Let’s take a quick look at what’s on offer this year. The Texas Competition features films that either were shot in or relate to Texas. Some of the best bets here might be Until Proven Innocent, a documentary about the high-profile case of Hannah Overton, a Texas mother wrongfully convicted of killing her four year old adopted son, and Tower, a film that combines archival footage with animation to tell the story of the 1966 University of Texas shooting. From the World Cinema category, you might watch Demimonde, a tale of class conflict and female jealousy from Hungary, or Ma Ma, a flick starring Penelope Cruz as a mother diagnosed with breast cancer. You could also check out River, a film about an American doctor abroad who intervenes in stopping a sexual assault and who’s then implicated in the murder of the perpetrator, or Viva, a film about a young man on the drag scene in Havana whose existence collides with that of his estranged, abusive father, just returned into his life. Other film categories at the festival include Talk Shows and Conversations, Shorts, Midnight Specials, Latino Films, Family Friendly, Documentaries, Award Winners, and so on. All genres are represented, from action and adventure to romance and from comedy to sci-fi. The selections are beautiful, innovative, and socially relevant. The festival website makes it easy to browse, read synopses and watch trailers, and find out when any given film is going to be shown.

The Dallas International Film Festival is historically and culturally significant to our fair city because it has brought 95 world premiers and 31 US premiers to Dallas, has shown 804 high quality feature films and 883 shorts, has hosted more than 1,500 filmmakers, and has awarded more than $740,000 in prizes. It continues to contribute to the rich and vibrant arts scene we all know and love.

For complete details on this year’s festival, please visit diff2016.dallasfilm.org.