The St. Louis International Film Festival is turning 35, and this year’s festival, which runs from November 5-15, is a celebration of the spirit of independent film.
This year’s festival theme is “The Declaration of Independents,” which Emmett Williams, Cinema St. Louis’ director of festival curation and education, says underscores the independent spirit that has been central to the festival’s ethos since it started in 1992. The festival programming slate features 226 films, including 127 short films, playing across nine different venues.
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“Once the schedule is released, I hope people really dig into all of the films,” Williams says. “There are so many films that might not be on people’s radar that they should really know about.”
Kicking things off a bit early this year, SLIFF will be hosting “Independent Since ’92: A Most Excellent 35th Anniversary Celebration” on October 22 at Par Lounge, featuring guest of honor Alex Winter, who will receive the SLIFF35 Independence Award. Winter is not only an accomplished actor (the Bill & Ted films, The Lost Boys), but also a celebrated filmmaker with St. Louis roots, having spent much of his childhood here.
“We’ve always talked about having a gala to really celebrate how amazing this festival is, and Alex has been a friend of Cinema St. Louis for a long time,” Williams says. “I’ll get to sit down with him for an in-depth conversation about independent film. He’s seen all sides of it, from Bill & Ted to his own independent work, so we’re going to dig into that.”
Celebrating 35 years is a huge milestone for a festival like SLIFF, and Williams is excited by how well the festival has kept its independent spirit intact since the beginning.
“St. Louis needed something like this 35 years ago, and just like the independent spirit that film has, [the founders] just made it happen,” Williams says. “Hopefully that sort of spirit carries on through the films that people will be seeing during its 35th year.”
The festival will start in earnest two weeks later on Thursday, November 5, with an opening night screening of director Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine. The film stars Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich as CIA agents dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, where the two must reckon with their past deeds and uncertain futures. While McDonagh and Rockwell both saw critical acclaim for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Malkovich’s performance is one of the frontrunners for the Best Actor Oscar after receiving Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.
Other major festival films on the programming slate include Tender Loving Care, likely the final film from esteemed British director Mike Leigh (plus a program of Leigh’s shorts); Behemoth!, the long-awaited next film from Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy; Elsinore, which sees Andrew Scott playing actor Ian Charleson in his storied run performing Hamlet at the National Theater while seriously ill with AIDS; and I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly’s retelling of Sylvester Stallone’s journey to make the film Rocky. Some additional programs of note Williams highlighted include a pair of films from the True/False Film Fest (Seized and The Great Experiment) making their St. Louis premiere and a repertory program highlighting independent films from 1992, SLIFF’s first year, which includes Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust.
The closing night film on November 15 will be Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, which stars Julianne Moore as a housewife who joins a community theater production that takes on a life of its own when the director, played by Paul Giamatti, casts her in a bit role that she approaches with method intensity.
With all of that in mind, here are some more films to keep on your radar at this year’s festival:
Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has been on a hot streak with his most recent films, including the Oscar-nominated Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which screened at SLIFF in 2021. His latest film, All of a Sudden, is poised to continue that streak after premiering to much acclaim at Cannes this summer. The film follows the director of an elder-care facility in the Paris suburbs whose life and perspective is transformed when she crosses paths with a terminally ill Japanese playwright. All of a Sudden will screen at the Chase Park Plaza Cinema on November 6.
Set in the tea highlands of Kenya, Kikuyu Land is a documentary that follows one man’s claim to family land that puts him at odds with a multinational corporation, unearthing deep webs of historical erasure and buried family secrets along the way. Oscillating between stories of legal struggle and lived history, bringing in investigations from a news reporter and the life of a tea worker, the film goes a long way toward showing the past’s lasting effect on the present and the future. Kikuyu Land will be screening at the Julia Davis Library on November 8.
Another film making waves on the festival circuit this year, director Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva follows a group of French high schoolers on a class trip to the ruins of Pompeii, where they reckon with the anxiety and exhilaration of their impending graduation. The film premiered at Cannes, where it took home the Grand Prize for Critics Week. With this in mind, La Gradiva feels like a must for anyone looking to be on the cutting edge of international film. La Gradiva will screen at Webster University’s Webster Hall’s Winifred Moore Auditorium on November 8.
Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu
Bob Odenkirk and David Cross first rose to fame in the ‘90s as the duo behind the alt-comedy hit Mr. Show and to this day continue to be friends and collaborators. This friendship is put to the test in director Michael Lahaie’s documentary as the two comedy legends prepare for and take on a grueling hike up Machu Picchu in Peru. The result is a portrait both candid and absurdly funny as the two reflect on their careers in show business, their decades-long partnership, and the fragility of life. Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu will screen at the Hi-Pointe Theatre on November 11.
If you made it out to Hysteria Fest back in July, chances are you’ve heard about local horror actress-turned-director Jackie Kelly’s Hag. But in case you missed it, you’ve got another chance to catch it as part of the SLIFF After Dark program. The film stars Kelly as a jaded sex worker reckoning with turning 30 and struggling to make ends meet, which slowly drives her insane as she spirals down a dark and self-destructive path. The film is not only a showcase of Kelly’s talents in front of and behind the camera, but also highlights the many other talented St. Louis folks who helped bring this film to life. Hag will screen at the Hi-Pointe Theatre on November 14.
One more buzzy film to prioritize is writer-director Jordan Firstman’s debut feature, Club Kid, in which Firstman stars as a hard-partying club promoter whose life is turned on its side when he finds out about a 10-year-old son he never knew he had. This touching and heartwarming film has won over critics and audiences alike on the festival circuit this year, and it will no doubt make a splash when it plays at SLIFF. Club Kid will screen at the Hi-Pointe Theatre on November 14.
For more information about where to purchase tickets and passes, and to see the full SLIFF lineup, visit cinemastlouis.org.
