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The Maui Film Festival’s 17th annual FirstLight: Academy Screenings on Maui event is heading back to its home at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater in Kahului for three days this month.
Screenings will kick off Sunday and will continue Dec. 26 and 27. Maui Film Festival and FirstLight founder and director Barry Rivers said that although there are fewer days of screenings this year, 18 films will be packed into the lineup.
Included among the films are a significant number of recently announced Golden Globe and Spirit Award nominees. For those unfamiliar, the Spirit Awards are the indie film world’s long-running pre-Academy Awards held annually in an oceanside tent in Santa Monica, Calif.
The films being presented at FirstLight received more than 30 Golden Globe, Spirit Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations this year. Among the titles being presented are “Anomalisa,” “Big Short,” “Where to Invade Next,” “Embrace of the Serpent,” “Spotlight” and “Concussion.” They star talent that includes Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Watts, Meryl Streep and many more.
“Many FirstLight holiday season attendees come from the entertainment industry and both make and love films,” Rivers said. “They know, as do Maui’s film lovers, that big films deserve the big screen, and on Maui that doesn’t get any better than at ‘Maui’s Movie Palace.’ “
Rivers continued, “FirstLight is where Maui meets Maui each holiday season, and in the midst of the busyness of the holiday season, FirstLight provides a chance for our little ‘sea’ community to ‘see’ cinema, inhale, exhale and remember what matters most: compassion, love and tears of sorrow and joy at the state of the world as reflected in the films.”
FirstLight VIP FastPasses are $48 each and include a total of four admissions, to be used as the pass holder chooses. Single tickers are also available for $16 each. All pass and ticket prices include all MACC fees, except for online fees. Admission to FirstLight is also complimentary to most major film industry members and a guest.
Following is a list of films that will be screened Sunday. For a schedule of films that will screen later this month, read next week’s Maui Scene. For more details, visit www.mauifilmfestival.com.
PLAYING SUNDAY
* “LOVE & MERCY” PG-13, 2:01. Biography, drama, music. Screening is at 11 a.m.
John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti star in this inspirational and brilliantly cinematic portrait of Brian Wilson, the mercurial singer, songwriter and leader of the Beach Boys.
* “THE WALK” PG, 2:03. Adventure, biography, drama. Free to children 12 and younger. Screening is at 1 p.m.
Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man, Philippe Petit of France, has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. This is his story. Time Magazine raved: “A visionary high wire act.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars. Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future,” “Forrest Gump”) directs.
* “THE SUMMER OF SANGAILE” Unrated (In Lithuanian with English subtitles.) 1:28. 18 and older only. Drama, romance. Screening is at 3 p.m.
Lithuania’s Oscar submission and winner of the Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Best Director Award, this stunningly easy-on-the-eyes love story, awash with ripe, voluptuous summertime imagery and brimming with ascending adolescent female sexuality, is “an appealingly simple, poetically conceived, teen coming-of-age tale,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter.
* “NOMA: MY PERFECT STORM” Unrated, 1:40. Documentary. Screening is at 5 p.m.
Imagine a visionary chef, Rene Redzepi, whose ingredients are the “alphabet” he uses to “paint” the virtual Renaissance masterworks that are his contribution to global culinary artistry. This feast for foodies and artists takes a creative journey into both Redzepi’s unique mind and modern gourmet cuisine at Noma, named the Best Restaurant in the World in 2014 by Restaurant magazine for the fourth time.
* “THE BIG SHORT” R, 2:10. Biography, drama. Screening is at 7:30 p.m.
Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling star in this big-screen adaptation of Michael Lewis’ (“Moneyball”) best-seller. Variety raved, “Adam McKay’s unique take on a financial-crisis comedy, this one about the global collapse of the economy, turns a dense economics lecture into a hyper-caffeinated postmodern farce.”