Festival to present a record-breaking 180 films, 25 world premieres, and 65 Los Angeles premieres, with two programming blocs dedicated to animation.
BURBANK, CA -- The Burbank International Film Festival has announced official program selections for the 9th Annual edition of the festival set for Wednesday, September 6th, through Sunday, September 10th, 2017.
More than 180 feature and short films representing 60 countries will be presented during the five-day event, along with artist tributes, panels, and festivities. Afterparties, red carpet, receptions, and networking opportunities will occur throughout Burbank, Media Capital of the World, with all of the screenings taking place at the AMC Burbank 16 in Downtown Burbank.
Representative categories include independent full-length films, shorts, special event movies, comedy, drama, student filmmakers, sci-fi, faith-based, animation, foreign language, and documentary films.
“With more than 60 countries represented, and 25 world premieres, the festival has grown significantly in the U.S. and we are continuing to form new international relationships every year” stated Jeff Rector, president and festival director. “From Hong Kong, to New Zealand, to South Africa, 20 percent of film submissions were from abroad this year, and the quality of work continues to be extraordinary.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Emmy Award-winning actress Veronica Cartwright for her career spanning six decades in the film and television industry. The Awareness Award will be given to actress Tippi Hedren for her work as an animal rights activist. The Garry Marshall Spirit Award will be presented to NBC Weathercaster and comedian Fritz Coleman for his philanthropic work and dedication to the community. Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning makeup artist Michael Westmore will be honored for his lifetime career in the field of makeup for film and television, as well as to recognize the Westmore family’s 100-year anniversary in the entertainment industry.
The festival will include two dedicated blocs of animated shorts screening on September 9:
BLOCK 1 – September 9, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Theater 8
Couboi Faykand and the Wild West
Director: Diego Raf Diaz
Synopsis: A teenage cowboy named Couboi Faykand takes his child sidekick to a Western bar. When two outlaws arrive, Couboi Faykand challenges them to a showdown. Couboi wins with his trusty whip, and the sheriff gives him some reward money.
Wishing Box
Director: Lizzie Zhang
Synopsis: After years sailing, the pirate Derek and his sidekick monkey finally found a treasure box, and this box is a magic box can make your wishes come true.
Green Light
Director: Seongmin Kim
Synopsis: Green Light is a story about a girl and a robot soldier thrown into the worst situation brought up by the misuse of highly-advanced science technology, trying to restore the land it used to be.
Arpeggio
Director: Adriana Uriguen Garcia
Synopsis: Father and son are inseparable until adolescence threatens their special bond. Both will have to decide how willing they are to keep their relationship from falling apart.
Hope
Director: Michael Scherrer
Synopsis: Hope tells the story of a little boy, who is condemned to spend the time he has left in a prisoners’ camp. The memories of his mother are the only thing keeping him alive.
A Boy and His Beast
Director: Calley Macdonald
Synopsis: A young boy must stop a creature that is terrorizing the countryside in 18th century France. But is it possible that he may be to blame for the beast?
The Killer Buzz
Director: Barry Jackson
Synopsis: The flies compete for the love of a ladybug until things reach cataclysmic proportions.
Immersion
Director: Connor Bland
Synopsis: Set in the not-so-distant future, a gamer’s mind gets lost inside a unique virtual reality involving a western standoff and a baseball pitch.
BLOCK 2 – September 9, 1-2 p.m., Theater 11
Below 0
Director: Itai Hagage
Synopsis: A meteorologist who narrates his experience in the Arctic through a voice recording; and how his life is linked physically and spiritually to nature.
Post No Bills
Director: Robin Hays
Synopsis: On an urban city wall plastered with posters, Noodle Boy must make his way through a series of obstacles and challenges in order to save his crush, Miss Fortune, from the city’s clean up crew.
Stars
Director: Han Zhang
Synopsis: Grandpa and grandson street sellers sell stars in a town near the shore. One night, they run out of the stars…
Digital Romance
Director: Michael Helmuth Hansen
Synopsis: When the computer game “Brutal Bullet” becomes infected by a destructive virus, its hero Kane Skullhead is the key to activating the antivirus. This begins a chase of life and death, which will eventually reach beyond his own world and have him collide with the world of a beautiful ballerina.
Bosatsu – Year of the Dragon
Director: Siddharth Ahluwalia
Synopsis: Fugen Bosatsu has the Bodhisattva status is one of the 8 deities of Buddha, protecting the Dragon and the Snake. He enters Jake’s dreams to guide him towards his true identity. Jake, born in the Year of the Dragon often gets visions from his past. He doesn’t know what they are but somehow feels they are real. He remembers nothing from his past and just seeks answers to his visions.
Rabbit Blood
Director: Yagmur Altan
Synopsis: Just an ordinary day at an old mysterious Turkish country house where its residents have an extraordinary way of brewing tea.
Hanging
Director: Nick LeDonne
Synopsis: An abstracted animated documentary based off of Nick LeDonne’s personal struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts after a near attempted hanging in November 2014. His feelings of depression are personified through a dark luring fog and a loving mother desperately trying to keep her son alive.
T-Bird
Director: Jae Kitinoja
Synopsis: Noticing a barrier that cannot be breached, a small sketch in a notebook struggles to free its bound wings and learn to fly.
Adija
Director: Apollonia Thomaier
Synopsis: A young girl in the Bronx finds escape from an unhappy family life through her graffiti art.
Tickets, festival passes, and more can be purchased at: www.burbankfilmfest.org.
Source: Burbank International Film Festival
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
