Michael Caine, Glen Keane, Laura Linney, Gabourey Sidibe, Eric Pleskow, Arthur Benjamin, Bernie Pollack and Lee Papert on the DFS Honors red carpet at Hotel Palomar. (Photo Courtesy of Tamara Voss)
The belief that “everything is bigger in Texas” is debatably engrained in every Texan’s DNA. This conviction is true in relation to Texas hair, serving portions, and – more generally – the state’s surface area on a map of the U.S., but seemingly not much else.
The Dallas International Film Festival proved differently. With this year’s tagline, “Film is bigger in Texas,” DIFF 2012 showed that Texas’ ‘big’ passion for film is only getting bigger.
DIFF 2012 concluded its sixth annual celebration of the love of film on Sunday, April 22, at the home to this year’s festival, the Angelika Theatre in Mockingbird Station. The ten-day-long festival hosted 180 films from 27 different countries and included appearances from industry veterans like costume designer Bernie Pollack and actress Laura Linney.
Anyone with a passion for motion picture was invited to see films he/she wouldn’t otherwise see on the normal theatrical circuit, meet the filmmakers, learn how the projects were made, and overall celebrate film’s past, present and future.
The festival aims to both educate and stimulate its attendees. “We want to inspire future filmmakers while also promoting the city of Dallas,” James Faust, DIFF 2012’s artistic director, said.
Multiple discussion panels were held to give attendees the rare opportunity to hear about the ins and outs of filmmaking from producers, screenwriters, and industry hotshots like this year’s Bernie Pollack, Laura Linney and studio exec Eric Pleskow. Politics and business were this year’s panel focuses with an emphasis on the tumultuous marriage between the creative and the business sides of film, as budgeting issues often disrupt filmography’s creative process.
“Film is the most accessible art form, the most egalitarian,” Faust said. “[Film] is appealing to everyone so we want the festival to appeal to everyone. We do that by screening films from all over the world, classics and neo-classics alike.”
Each year, DIFF honors a country that is believed to embody the passion of film that the festival stands for in the “international spotlight.” Filmmakers from this country are recognized and their films are featured in the festival. This year’s international spotlight was on South Korea.
“The [South Korean] films that we showed this year had great drama scenes, experimental scenes, even horror scenes. It’s a lot like what we do in American films,” Faust said. “The international spotlight is one way to show people that film is universal – sometimes it just happens to be in another language.”
South Korean war film “My Way” (2011) was featured in the festival’s Centerpiece gala, with director Kang Je-gyu – often referred to as the South Korean Spielberg – in attendance.
DIFF administrators encourage filmmakers from different countries to attend the festival and experience the city.
This year’s festival was dedicated to Lee Roy Mitchell – C.E.O. and Chairman of the Board at Cinemark – and wife Tandy to celebrate their time old advocacy of and contributions to the film world.
In addition, Bernie Pollack, Laura Linney and “Precious'” leading lady Gabourey Sidibe were recipients of the DIFF Dallas Star Awards for their prominent roles in shaping and advancing modern cinema.
A multitude of awards and prizes were given to the filmmakers of this year’s paramount pictures, with competitors categorized according to type of film as well as picture’s purpose.
Documentary “The Invisible War” won this year’s esteemed Silver Heart Award, which is given each year to a filmmaker that strives to fight injustices and/or promote positive social change.
The film’s director, Kirby Dick, was awarded $10,000 for his dedication to fighting the epidemic of rape in the military, an issue that the documentary reveals to be too often covered up.
Kira Brekke, Dick’s assistant during the film’s production, was pleasantly surprised by what this year’s DIFF had to offer. “I just went to Sundance – the mecca of all film festivals -in January so I wasn’t expecting much from [DIFF],” Brekke said. “But the discussion panels were fascinating and the lineup of films was great.”
DIFF, although founded recently, is steadily making its way up the film world’s richter scale. DIFF administrators predict over 30,000 people attended this year’s festival, and anticipate attendance to multiply next year.
As the number of festival attendees grows, so does film as a dominant local art form.
“We would like to be considered to be one of the bigger art entities in town. There’s the opera, the theatre…and now we’re the film component,” Faust said. “In fact we’re hoping to break ground on a Dallas film center in the next five years.”
