What will Orinda soon have in common with Park City, Utah; Telluride, Colorado; and Cannes, France? A film festival! In April Orinda, specifically the historic Orinda Theater, will become home to the California Independent Film Festival. Held in Livermore for the past seven years, Program Director Beau Behan is excited about the festival's move north, closer to Oakland and Walnut Creek and a BART ride from San Francisco. "The city of Orinda has embraced us whole-heartedly," says Behan. "It's a really nice feeling, and the Orinda Theater provides a great venue for the event."
The festival will be held April 22nd through the 25th of 2010 and feature a weekend filled with screenings of new comedies, dramas, animations, documentaries, shorts, and music videos. Submissions to the festival are being accepted now through the end of January. Festival attendees will have the chance to participate in seminars on film topics and question and answer sessions with directors and actors.
Like the Oscars, the festival recognizes a number of the participants with "best awards" such as best picture and best actor, along with honoring an acting luminary with a Lifetime Achievement Award-last year's winner was Dianne Ladd. Although the recipient of the 2010 Lifetime Award is yet to be determined, residents may find themselves dodging paparazzi this spring when the selected Hollywood A-lister makes his or her way to Orinda's semi- rural hills to accept the award.
To celebrate the festival's move to Orinda, the California Independent Film Festival Association has planned a special screening of the Alfred Hitchcock 1963 suspense film The Birds on Friday, September 18th at 7:00 p.m. The movie's star, Tippi Hedren, will be on hand for the screening of the film which tells the story of a small town in the San Francisco Bay area that is besieged by a series of massive bird attacks. Interestingly, it seems that The Birds is undergoing a revival. A remake of the Hitchcock classic is in development and slated to be released in 2011 reportedly starring George Clooney and Naomi Watts.
For more information about the film festival regarding attendance or submissions and to purchase tickets for The Birds screening, go to www.caiff.org or call (925) 277-1355.