Santa Barbara Film Festival rolls out 2017 lineup

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its upcoming 32nd edition, including its international gala event and opening and closing films, Variety reveals.

Running from Feb. 1-11, the festival will open with the world premiere of the documentary “Charged,” and will close on a period note with Lone Scherfig’s comedy-drama “Their Finest,” which stars Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy.

This year’s festival will offer a wide array of films from over 50 countries, and will feature 51 world premieres and 64 US premieres, along with tributes to the year’s top talent, and panel discussions.

The festival will kick off the festival on Wednesday, Feb. 1, with a screening of “Charged,” a documentary directed by Phillip Baribeau, which chronicles the journey of chef and outdoorsman, Eduardo Garcia and his recovery after being electrocuted by 2,400 volts of electricity, miles from help in the Montana backcountry. Garcia had his hand amputated, lost ribs, muscle mass and nearly his life as a result of the incident.

The documentary is produced by Dennis Aig and Phillip Baribeau along with executive producers Teri Weinberg, Scott Ballew, Doug Ellin, Peter Hochfelder, Constance Schwartz-Morini and Michael Strahan.

Another of the festival’s segments will be an international gala, the centerpiece of which will be the French-Belgian drama “Heal the Living,” directed by Katell Quillévéré and starring Tahar Rahim, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Anne Dorval.

“Their Finest,” a British comedy scheduled for a March 24 release, will close the festival. The movie is set in Britain in 1940 and stars Gemma Arterton as a scriptwriter working on propaganda films who realizes the government sponsored work could use a “woman’s touch.” Together with another writer Buckley (Claflin), the pair set out to make an epic feature film based on the Battle of Dunkirk, starring fading movie star Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy).