2014 Guam filmfest names official selections

HAGATÑA, GUAM—The Guam International Film Festival is scheduled to run its 4th annual fall event starting Sept. 23, 2014, through Sept. 28, 2014, at the Agaña Center Stadium Theatres. For 2014, the festival will showcase over 50 films, including films from 2014 Festival de Cannes, Sundance, Busan, Toronto, SXSW and more.

“This year is unbelievably amazing,” said festival programmer and co-founder Kel Muña. “Along with the best in independent cinema from around the globe, I’m proud to announce that this year we have 11 official selections in the Made in the Marianas category. This is a new GIFF record for local and regional filmmaking in relation to the Marianas.”

This year, the GIFF call for entries brought in over 400 submissions from over 50 countries—the highest yet—exceeding the numbers from GIFF 2013. Among the films to be showcased will be 11 Guam-related films, 21 world premiers, 11 international premieres, 4 U.S. premieres and 15 Pacific-Asia premieres.

Centerpiece and closing night films
GIFF 2014 will feature the award-winning Japanese dramedy Cicada as its centerpiece film.

Directed by Dean Yamada, Cicada is the story of Jumpei, a man who loses sight of his progeny when he finds out he is infertile, but then is given the gift of clairvoyance and begins to see glimpses of the future. These glimpses lead him to a series of cicada shells, which become symbolic of his desire to shed his old self. Though his lineage ends with himself, Jumpei starts anew as a father figure to his sister’s young son. Cicada is the winner of the Grand Jury Prize, Best Narrative Feature – Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

For the festival’s closing night film, GIFF showcases an epic underwater adventure: Revolution brings you some of the most incredible wildlife spectacles ever recorded as audiences are brought face to face with coral reefs in Papua New Guinea to the rainforests in Madagascar as director Rob Stewart reveals that all of our actions are interconnected.

GIFF Visions Master Class
This year’s GIFF Visions master Class will feature Pivot, one of Guam’s top creative firms, for behind-the-scenes insight into the creative ad game and what it takes to succeed in a business that utilizes art with a purpose. Pivot has gained the confidence of many of Guam’s blue-chip companies such as Atkins Kroll Motors, BankPacific, Marianas Finance, Guam Premier Outlets, Market Wholesale Distributors, and Lotte Duty Free, to name a few. Master Class panelists will include Tom Akigami, agency business and producer; Kaz Endo, chief creative evangelist and digital/brand architect; and Eric Tydingco, chief operations officer. The GIFF Visions Master Class will be free and open to the public.

GIFF mobile app
GIFF also announced the return of the GIFF App for iPhones and Android phones sponsored by FestPro. With the app, festival patrons will be able to personalize their own GIFF schedule and read synopses for the featured films and view movie trailers. The app upholds the festival’s green incentive, alongside GIFF’s paperless online submissions.

2014 grand jury
This year, GIFF adds a new member to the Grand Jury Panel, Mariana J., who has spent years immersed in the festival circuit producing the 48 Hour Film Project-Inland Empire festivals, San Diego IndieFest Film Stage in addition to consulting and judging for festivals such as the San Diego Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival and more.

GIFF will also see the return of head juror, Tom Brislin, Ph.D., who is heading the 2014 GIFF Grand Jury Panel and has played a vital role in materializing the festival’s community and educational outreach through his highly attended industry workshops during past GIFF festivals. Alongside Brislin on the panel are Gabrielle Kelley, associate professor of Arts at the New York University, Tisch Asia School of the Arts and co-founder of the International Alliance of Women Cinematographers; and Daniel Ferranti who has studied film at New York University and theater at University of Massachusetts Boston, and is a consultant for Warner Bros. Digital Distribution.

For more information including complete film listing and showtimes, visit the festival website at www.guamfilmfestival.org. (GIFF)