Aruba 2015 Preview: ScreenAnarchy's Top 10 Picks From One Happy Film Festival

THE LOBSTER

The Cannes-winning English language debut from Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos is one of the most buzzed about titles of the year, and one of my most anticipated.

Set in a society where coupledom is mandatory, Colin Farrell stars as a man faced with the task of choosing a mate or else be turned forever more into... a lobster.

This sharp satire of modern romance also stars Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux and Ben Whishaw.

Read Jason Gorber's review

THE DRIFTLESS AREA - Opening Night Film

A metaphsyical fable set in the Midwest, The Driftless Area is the feature debut of Zachary Sluser. Based on Tom Drury's 2006 novel and premiering last spring at Tribeca, if the stacked cast doesn't intrigued you (Anton Yelchin, Zooey Deschanel, Frank Langella and John Hakwes) then its uncanny premise on the nature of the universe and young love mixed with a neo-noir palette just may.

VIAJE - Closing Night Film

Paz Fábrega's Viaje reads pretty familiarly: a boy and girl meet at a party, and run off together that night. But with its naturalistic black and white cinematography and Costa Rican forest setting, this Karlovy Vary selected film looks to be refreshingly unpretentious and tender -- my most anticipated film at AIFF.

THE FINAL GIRLS

Hey, pretty young people, what's that look of shock and awe about? Oh, you're trapped inside a slasher movie? Oh, OK, yeah that sucks. But shush, we're also watching a slasher movie... YOUR slasher movie.

Todd Strauss-Schulson's meta-modern slasher made its big bow back at SXSW and continues to raise the body count with each consecutive screening. Taissa Farmiga, Alia Shawkat, Nina Dobrev and Thomas Middleditch star.

Read Chase Whale's epic SXSW interview with Strauss-Schulson

KNOCK KNOCK

Hey, Keanu, what ya making for dinner? Oh, you aren't making dinner... Say, is someone at the door?

Love him or hate him, Eli Roth teams up Reeves for a little slice of moral horror. Based on the 1977 film Death Games, Knock Knock features two femme fatales preying on poor ol' Keanu, a father and husband who's home alone on a dark and stormy night. Antics most certainly ensue...

SIN ALAS

Ben Chace's Cuba set drama charts the twilight years of Luis (Carlos Padron), whose life ebbs and flows between memories of a past love affair with a ballerina, and the daily hustle and bustle of a Havana on the tides of change.

The first American production shot in Cuba since 1959, it's all captured on Super 16mm by the deft and delighted eye of cinematographer Sean Price Williams (Heaven Knows What, Queen Of Earth).

BATTLEDREAM CHRONICLE

Looks like Ready Player One has already been turned into a movie... except it's animated, in French, and hails as the first animated feature from the Caribbean island of Martinique. This sci-fi adventure set in the year 2100 follows the exploits of a group of virtual reality game players who fight against the fascist state they find themselves enslaved by.

An absolute labor of love from Alain Bidard, and reminiscent of classic Anime and ripe with allusions to Greek mythology, Battledream Chronicle is positioned as a unique and daring watch at AIFF.

VANISHING SAIL

Alwyn Enoe is one of the last master boatbuilders in Lesser Antilles. Once a staple of their communities' survival, Alwyn now faces a modern world with no need for his trade and talent. Alexis Andrew's documentary charts Alwyn's daring three year journey to build one final sailing vessel of such beauty that the seas themselves would weep.

THE GLAMOUR AND THE SQUALOR

Seattle DJ Marco Collins was instrumental in shaping the careers of many 90s rock and electronic acts. But his own story goes much deeper than that.

With insight from the likes of Carrie Brownstein, Ben Gibbard, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, filmmaker Marq Evans explores Collins struggles with addiction, his life as a closeted gay man, and the eventual leadership role he would play in the Music for Marriage Equality organization.

EEL

Journalist and film scholar James Kaelan makes his narrative feature debut with the sleek looking Eel, which explores the extreme measures a filmmaker takes to preserve his cinematic vision. Shot in hypnotic black and white in the desert of California, Eel promises to be a dark, dark trip down the rabbit hole of moviemaking.

What was the impetus for starting the fest five years ago, and how did those early steps to the first year go?

Actually, our industry events director, Rebecca Roos, did a feasibility study roughly twenty years ago to try and start a film festival in Aruba. Having had some personal experience working for sales companies at the Marché du Film at Cannes, she always saw the potential of creating something similar in Aruba.  And why not... it's a sexy little island, the people are warm and welcoming, and like Cannes, Aruba is incredibly diverse. But unfortunately at the time the sponsorship opportunities weren't available.  Things changed in 2009, and this allowed our festival founder, Jonathan Vieira, to embark on a R&D trip to Italy.  Here he would eventually connect with his co-founder Giuseppe Cioccarelli, and the rest of the organizing team (artistic director, programmer, etc. all-Italian) behind AIFF's first three years.

Stepping into year five, what's changed the most and what has remained vital to the core of what was started?

The goal of the film festival between 2010-12 was to make it into a new "destination event" for the island that could fit within a pre-existing calendar of annual events (for example music events, such as the Soul Beach Music Festival).  These events are designed to highlight the island as a destination, boost its tourism and economy, and raise its profile internationally.  This approach continues to makes sense considering our primary sponsor (the Aruba Tourism Authority).  What we have seen since year one, however, is a shift in focus, from an international showcase of high-profile cinema, to more of a competitive festival, where filmmakers from all over the world (no matter what their films' budgets are) have a shot at showing their films on our beautiful island. This also gives the local cinema-goers in Aruba a chance to see films (and meet filmmakers) they would typically not see in the local multiplexes (which are heavily stacked with Hollywood fare).

We will have our largest film program to date this year. Nearly 70 films over 5 days. For our guests, that's a lot of "see and sea", especially if our visiting filmmakers also planning to hit the beaches during their off-time from presenting their films.

We want all of our guests, whether local, regional (Caribbean) or further away from Aruba, to really feel like our festival is going to bat for them. As an indie filmmaker myself, I have come across far too many young festivals that don't quite understand the amount of time and effort (shall we say "blood, sweat, and tears") it takes to do what we do; to put our vision up on the screen. For many of us, we're not just trying to entertain you. We're trying to affect social change, to make a real difference. So we want to go to festivals that truly want to support "us" (and not just use our films to fill a time slot). My point here is, the film festival in Aruba takes its selected films seriously. We are here "for them", we want to help push "their" projects into the international spotlight. And then there's the international press... an often-overlooked (but incredibly important) element of what (to me) makes a good (and worthwhile) film festival. We have a top-notch publicity team working hard to try and ensure that every film will get its due respect.          

Share with us some of the ways you are using the festival to support local/regional filmmaking.

We have competitions for local and regional films. The Aruba Flavor section of the program will feature the island's best short films (made by Arubans in Aruba), and the Caribbean Spotlight Series will highlight some of the Caribbean region's strongest productions. This year we are also having pre-festival workshops (previously, these used to occur during the festival) for anyone interested in learning about acting and film marketing.  Not to mention, the mere existence of our festival has, over the past five years, influenced the output and quality of local films that are produced annually. Each year, more and more Arubans are seeing success at other international film festivals.  We have to believe that is the result of the presence of the AIFF.       

How do you see the fest moving forward?

In keeping with the "destination objective" of the festival, we have decided to plant the seeds for a new regional film market (our pilot project this year). The idea here, long-term (10+ years), is to attract more filmmakers to Aruba to try and have their projects sold here.  And while we have them in Aruba, we will show them a good time. Then maybe they will consider returning to Aruba for next year's film festival as well as possibly on their next vacation.   

Any year round events that you all currently host or are planning for the future?

We're planning to have special screenings year-round (encores of former program selections as well as retrospectives). There is also a possibility of having workshops linked to the festival. Think of it as a long-term program, where we would guide emerging filmmakers from script to screen... they will then have their world premieres in Aruba, and hopefully go on to successful international film festival runs; and possibly even secure a distribution deal (or two).