35th Ghent Film Festival spotlights world cinema and film music

The festive edition will also feature five film music concerts, two exhibitions and the collaboration with Vooruit will be extended under the Almost Cinema banner. With more than 150 guests from all the corners of the world, 131 films from 45 different countries and special attention to the preservation of the worldwide cinematographic heritage, the Ghent Film Festival wants to, more than ever, accentuate the diversity of the world cinema on the festival programme. With this, the festival wants to underscore its long tradition of providing a forum for cinema from all the corners of the world. The 35th edition of the festival pre-opens on 6 October with Vicky Cristina Barcelona by Woody Allen. A day later, the official opening will take place in Kinepolis Ghent, with The Visitor by Tom McCarthy, in the presence of the three leading actors Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira. At the same time the Almost Cinema opens in Vooruit with the screening of the documentary Young@Heart. This year's jury consists of Arne Sierens (author, Belgium), Andreas Dresen (director, Germany), Vibeke Windeløv (producer, Denmark), Simon Ellis (director - winner Prix UIP, GB), Corky Hale-Stoller (Musician, USA) and Philippe Rombi (Composer, France). The prizes will be awarded wednesday 15 October at 12am, City Hall of Ghent. Film music continues to be a specialty of the Ghent Film Festival and that will be celebrated during this festive edition with no fewer than five film music concerts. In the Kuipke on 12 October, the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra (Flemish Radio Orchestra) will present the music of star composer John Williams, who wrote the music for such box-office hits as Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter. That will be followed on 15 October by a concert featuring Oscar winner Gabriel Yared, who for years was the house composer of the late director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, Cold Mountain, The Talented Mr. Ripley). One day later and it will be Clint Mansell's turn. Mansell is the usual composer for cult director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain). The well-known folk group Kadril will present a unique film music concert on 17 October, with their own interpretation of folk music from films including Barry Lyndon, Black Cat White Cat, Walk the Line and Shakespeare in Love. The concert series will conclude with the 8th World Soundtrack Awards featuring music from Tuur Florizoone (Aanrijding in Moscou), Oscar winner Dario Marianelli (Atonement), David Lynch composer Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks, La cité des enfants perdus, Mulholland Drive), and others. From 3 October to 12 April 2009, the Dr. Ghuislain Museum of mental health will host an exhibition, showcasing madness in film and theatre. The festival is supporting the film portion of the exhibition. At the provincial cultural centre Caermersklooster an exhibition on the work of Harold Lloyd will take place from 10 October to 21 December. Granddaughter Sue Lloyd will officially open the exhibition on 9 October and will attend the screening of Safety Last! on 9 October. The Ghent Film Festival and Vooruit are again working together for Almost Cinema, a programme that explores the boundaries between film, music and multi-media art. As usual, film talent is omnipresent. Among others Woody Harrelson, Emmanuelle Béart, Samira Makhmalbaf, Eric Khoo, Walter Salles and Gregory King will introduce their latest film. Producers Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes will receive a Joseph Plateau Honorary Award for their impressive career. In addition to this the whole film music world comes down to Ghent for the 8th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards. Among them, names like David Arnold (James Bond), Shigeru Umebayashi, Trevor Jones and many others. Attention also goes to the Belgian film with the honorary doctorate for Raoul Servais, and the Belgian premières of Unspoken (Fien Troch), Vinyan (Fabrice du Welz) and Elève Libre (Joachim Lafosse). Closing film of this 35th edition of the festival is The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. After Venice, Ghent will be the first festival screening the film. The complete programme can be found online as of today. Online ticket sales commence on 25 September and on Saturday 27 September 2008 at the advance ticket sales points at Vooruit and Fnac Gent. On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the festival, the first 35,000 online film tickets will be sold for just 5 euro! www.fnac.be - 0900 00 600 (€ 0,45/min) en Teleticket: www.teleticketservice.com. For more information: www.filmfestival.be - info@filmfestival.be - 09 242 80 60