By Dave Montalbano
Burt Young kicked off the 16th Annual Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF) last night with a screening of the critically-acclaimed flick Win Win in West Palm Beach. Master of Ceremonies Tristan Rogers returns to the Boca Raton Hotel & Club poolside for the annual gala. This year, character actor Richard Jenkins will receive the Golden Palm Award for his four decades of work in the movie business.
Recently nominated for an Oscar for his work in The Visitor, Jenkins has worked steadily in both television (Miami Vice, Six Feet Under and movies (Hannah and Her Sisters, Eat, Pray, Love) and has worked steadily for both the Coen and Farrelly Brothers in flicks like Intolerable Cruelty and There’s Something About Mary, respectively.
Friday night’s Silver Screen Splash will also feature the music of Grammy Award-nominated producer and song writer Dennis Lambert. Now a real estate agent in Boca Raton, Lambert’s eclectic music was the soundtrack for people who listened to Top 40 radio from the ‘70s to the ‘80s. Lambert worked with Glenn Campbell, Jefferson Starship, The Four Tops and The Commodores. His most memorable song “One Tin Soldier” was in
the iconic ‘70s flick Billy Jack.
The Living Room Theaters (Florida Atlantic University) is the only venue south of Delray that will be screening festival films. As scattered as this year’s fest is, there are some interesting documentaries and foreign films of interest. Exporting Raymond features the post Everybody Loves Raymond life of producer/writer Phil Rosenthal, who tries to adapt his fictional Long Island family into a Russian sitcom with disastrous, but humorous results.
Shira Piven wrote and directed Fully Loaded, a film about two mothers who try to make sense of a one night stand with a young man, played by Dweezil Zappa. The South Florida premier of Potiche, by writer-director Francois Ozon, reunites Catherine Deneuve with Gérard Depardieu.
Given that PBIFF 16 was considered DOA last year, the core team behind the scenes has managed to keep the festival on life support for another year. Given the historical and cultural standards set in the past, PBIFF deserves the time to right the ship for smoother sailing. Suggestion: show confidence for PBIFF 17 by planning sooner, acknowledge local cinema heroes like Eric the Doorman and schedule the festival back to April.
For more information, visit www.pbifilmfest.org.
