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INAUGURAL JACKSON HOLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL,
IN COLLABORATION WITH THE
HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, TO TAKE PLACE
DECEMBER 8 - 10, 2023
Festival to Open With Brendan Walsh’s I’LL BE RIGHT
THERE
Cord Jefferson’s AMERICAN FICTION to Screen as
Centerpiece Film
Eight Screenings to be Hosted Over the Three-Day
Event
Jackson, WY
- The Jackson Hole International Film Festival (JHIFF)
announced today, in collaboration with Hamptons
International Film Festival (HIFF), a three-day
event that will take place from December 8-10, 2023
in Jackson, Wyoming.
Founded by local Jackson Hole resident Stuart Suna,
who is also a founder of HIFF, the festival
celebrates the art and science of cinema and shares
the power of film in educating, engaging, and
inspiring the community. The three-day festival will
program eight films, including narrative and
documentary feature films from around the globe, and
a peek at some of this year's Oscar hopefuls. The
films are all selected by Hamptons International
Film Festival Artistic Director David Nugent.
The inaugural festival will open on Friday, December
8 with Brendan Walsh’s I’LL
BE RIGHT THERE,
which hosted its World Premiere at HIFF earlier this
year. The film, starring Edie Falco, Jeannie Berlin,
Kayli Carter, Charlie Tahan, and Bradley Whitford,
and executive produced by Falco and Jesse Eisenberg,
is a heartfelt comedy about a family falling apart
and one mother’s role in bringing it all together.
Walsh is scheduled to attend the festival with the
film.
“A film festival is a great way to stimulate
artistic imagination and contribute to the culture
of the community. I can’t think of a better way to
start this now annual event than with Brendan
Walsh’s moving I’LL BE RIGHT THERE” said Suna,
Founder and Chair of Jackson Hole International Film
Festival and Co-Founder and Chair Emeritus of
Hamptons International Film Festival.
On Saturday, December 9, the festival will host a
screening of Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut AMERICAN
FICTION as
its Centerpiece presentation. Set to be released by
Amazon MGM Studios later this year, the film stars
Jeffrey Wright as Monk, a frustrated novelist who’s
fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black”
entertainment that relies on tired and offensive
tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to
write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book
that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the
madness he claims to disdain. AMERICAN FICTION
premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film
Festival, where it won the festival’s People's
Choice Award.
Over the course of the three-day event, the festival
will also host screenings of Jean Shim’s A
GREAT DIVIDE,
following the Lee family as they leave the Bay Area
for a fresh start in the rural expanses of Wyoming,
only to encounter hostility and xenophobia in their
new community; Irene Taylor’s TREES
AND OTHER ENTANGLEMENTS,
an HBO Documentary Films release that tells a
contemporary tale of our connection to the natural
world and to one another; J. A. Bayona’s SOCIETY
OF THE SNOW,
a Netflix release retelling the true story of
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which in 1972
crashed in the heart of the Andes and trapped a team
of rugby players in one of the most hostile and
inaccessible environments on the planet; Tran Anh
Hung’s THE
TASTE OF THINGS,
distributed by IFC Films and following Dodin
Bouffant, a chef living with his personal cook and
lover Eugénie in France in 1889; Patricia E.
Gillespie’s THEY
CALLED HIM MOSTLY HARMLESS,
a Max Original in which a mystery unravels when an
unidentified hiker is found deceased in the Florida
wilderness; and Finn Taylor’s AVENUE
OF THE GIANTS,
which tells the true story of Herbert Heller, a
74-year-old man carrying a traumatic secret who
befriends an isolated teenager in an emotional story
of multigenerational healing.
“We are thrilled to partner with the Jackson Hole
International Film Festival on their inaugural
festival. The expansion of the HamptonsFilm
footprint partnering with a like-minded resort
community has been a dream for many years,” said
Anne Chaisson, Executive Director of the Hamptons
International Film Festival.
“As we embark on our inaugural three-day event, our
hope is to celebrate the art and science of cinema,
while also exploring the magic of storytelling as a
powerful tool to expand world views,” says Marni
Walsh, Executive Director of the Jackson Hole
International Film Festival. “We are grateful to our
partnership with HIFF in making it possible to share
some of this year’s most anticipated projects with
our audiences.”
Along with Chair Stuart Suna, the Jackson Hole
International Film Festival Board will also include
Academy Award®-winning
filmmaker Jimmy Chin, as well as Emmy Award®-nominated
cinematographer Danny Moder.
Films will be screened at The National Museum of
Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY. JHIFF will kick off
Friday, December 8th, with a daytime and opening
night film, followed by three films each on
Saturday, December 9th and Sunday, December 10th. In
addition to screenings, the festival will also
include Q&A sessions with filmmakers and networking
events.
Festival passes and tickets are on sale now and are
available for purchase at JHIFF.org.
2023 Jackson Hole International Film Festival
Lineup:
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8
I’LL BE RIGHT THERE
Opening Night Film
dir. Brendan Walsh (USA), 2023
Emmy Award® winner Edie Falco (The
Sopranos, Nurse Jackie)
delivers an affecting performance as Wanda, a woman
who barely has time for herself, not that she would
know what to do with it anyway. Her very pregnant
daughter (Kayli Carter, Mrs..
America)
wants a wedding, which her ex-husband (Emmy Award®
winner Bradley Whitford) is flaking on paying for.
Her mother (Jeannie Berlin) thinks she's dying. Her
son (Charlie Tahan, Ozark)
is going into either rehab or the army. And her
boyfriend (Michael Rapaport) doesn't excite her, but
neither does her new girlfriend (Sepideh Moafi).
I’LL BE RIGHT THERE is a heartfelt comedy about a
family falling apart and one mother’s role in
bringing it all together.
A GREAT DIVIDE
dir. Jean Shim (USA), 2023
A Korean American family, the Lees, leave the Bay
Area for a fresh start in the rural expanses of
Wyoming,
only to encounter hostility and xenophobia in their
new community. The small town’s local kingpin sets
in motion a plot to oust the Lees that puts teenaged
Benjamin (Emerson Min), his visiting best friend
Ellie (Miya Cech) and his parents Isaac and Jenna
(Ken Jeong, Jae Suh Park) in dire jeopardy. The key
to their salvation may lie with Grandma Shim (MeeWha
Alana Lee), who seeks to impart a vital lesson to
her beloved grandson before it's too late. A GREAT
DIVIDE recently won Best Feature at 2023 Silicon
Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival. Ken Jeong and
Jae Suh Park won People’s Choice Best Performance at
2023 Vancouver Asian Film Festival.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9
AMERICAN FICTION
Centerpiece Film
dir. Cord Jefferson (USA), 2023
AMERICAN FICTION is Cord Jefferson's hilarious
directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s
obsession
with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes.
Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist
who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from
“Black” entertainment that relies on tired and
offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a
pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his
own, a book that propels him to the heart of
hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
SOCIETY OF THE SNOW
dir. J.A. Bayona (Spain), 2023
In 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which had
been chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile, crashed
in the heart of the Andes. Only 29 of its 45
passengers survived the accident. Trapped in one of
the most hostile and inaccessible environments on
the planet, they have to resort to extreme measures
to stay alive. A Netflix release.
TREES & OTHER ENTANGLEMENTS
dir. Irene Taylor (USA), 2023
The entangled lives of people and trees they love
grow into a contemporary tale of time, our
connection to the natural world and to one another.
A young boy stolen and hidden amongst trees; an
artist refining American bonsai; a photographer who
artfully observes trees and a man who steadfastly
plants them; family trees and stolen trees – their
stories unfold as an arboreal, and deeply human,
thriller. An HBO Documentary Film release.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10
AVENUE OF THE GIANTS
dir. Finn Taylor (USA), 2023
Herbert Heller (Stephen Lang, AVATAR) carries a
traumatic secret: now the beloved owner of a toy
store in Northern California, Herbert is a Holocaust
survivor. The Nazis forced him into the Auschwitz-Birkenau
concentration camp at age 12, but he managed to
escape and kept the secret from everyone—including
his own children—for 60 years. When Herbert is
diagnosed with a terminal illness, he befriends
Abbey (Elsie Fisher, EIGHTH GRADE), an isolated
teenager whose own struggles inspire him to open up.
Based on a true story, AVENUE OF THE GIANTS is a
tender depiction of an intergenerational friendship
that offers the unlikely pair a path toward healing.
THE TASTE OF THINGS
dir. Tran Anh Hung (France), 2023
Set against the deliciously vibrant backdrop of 1889
France, THE TASTE OF THINGS follows the life of
Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel, THE PIANO TEACHER),
a brilliant chef living with his personal cook and
lover Eugénie (Academy Award® winner Juliette
Binoche). When Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin, he
decides to do something he has never done before:
cook for her. Winner of the Best Director Award at
Cannes, Tran Anh Hung tells the story of a couple
tied together by gastronomy and love, immersing
audiences in a romantic, sumptuous visual feast in
this celebration of the way food brings us together.
An IFC Films Release.
THEY CALLED HIM MOSTLY HARMLESS
dir. Patricia E. Gillespie (USA), 2024
When the emaciated body of an unidentified hiker is
found in the Florida wilderness next to plenty of
cash and food, mystified authorities release a
sketch that sparks internet fascination, leading to
a viral 2020 article in WIRED. Multiple hikers call
in claiming to have met the man on trails from
Florida to Appalachia, but there's one problem: he
never told them his name. It would take two years,
thousands of devoted internet sleuths, and a miracle
of science to identify him—and that’s only the
beginning of the story. True crime veteran and HIFF
alum Patricia E. Gillespie (THE FIRE THAT TOOK HER)
returns with a character-centric reimagining of a
classic genre. A Max release.
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ABOUT THE JACKSON HOLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Jackson Hole International Film Festival (JHIFF), a
non-profit arts organization, is a hub that connects
the community with screenings of some of the year’s
best offerings in contemporary cinema, spanning
genres from narrative to documentary films. Founded
by Stuart Suna, former owner of Silvercup Studios
and Chair Emeritus of Hamtpons International Film
Festival, JHIFF aims to share the power of film to
educate, engage, and inspire our community by
showcasing world-class films from various genres and
inviting the people who create them for stimulating
conversations. JHIFF will provide innovative and
accessible educational film programs for all ages.
ABOUT HAMPTONSFILM
HamptonsFilm, home of the Hamptons International
Film Festival (HIFF) was founded in 1992 to
celebrate the art of film and to introduce a unique
and varied spectrum of international films and
filmmakers to our audiences. A non-profit
organization with year-round screenings of global
narrative and documentary films, an annual
Screenwriters Lab, a summer documentary showcase,
and extensive educational initiatives, HamptonsFilm
offers programs that enlighten, educate, and provide
invaluable exposure for filmmakers, while also
providing the East End of Long Island with an
educational and cultural experience that enriches
the lives of its citizens and contributes to the
local economy. HIFF, celebrating its 31st year, is
an annual premiere film event in New York State, and
an intimate showcase of some of the year's best
offerings in contemporary cinema from around the
world. Awarding prizes to filmmakers in cash and
goods and services of over $130,000, each year, with
over $5 million awarded in competition funds and
services over the decades, our program continues to
play an important role during awards season. For
more information, please visit hamptonsfilmfest.org.
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