TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE!

Box Office
Pack Place Education, Arts & Science Center
2 South Pack Square
(in the heart of downtown Asheville)
Phone:  (828) 257-4500

Individual Ticket: $8 advance / $9 during festival

Student Ticket: $5

Cinematic Six-Pack: $39
6 screening tickets to 6 different films. Must select films at time of purchase.

Reel Deal: $65
10 screening tickets to 10 different films. Must select films at time of purchase.

SPECIAL EVENTS AND SCREENINGS

PREMIERE NIGHT FILM AND RECEPTION: $40
Thursday, November 12
Fine Arts Theatre / Pack Place, 7 to 11 pm


AN EDUCATION



Features a screening of An Education in Fine Arts Theatre followed by a reception with desserts and cocktails in Pack Place immediately following the film.

It's 1961 in the London suburb of Twickenham, and bright sixteen-year-old Jenny is on the cusp of womanhood, fantasizing about a more sophisticated, refined life while smoking Gauloises cigarettes. Though she feels smothered by her own adolescence, Jenny is an assiduous, cello-playing schoolgirl with a real chance of landing a spot at Oxford University. Her path takes a turn, however, when she meets David, a man who seems to embody her every fantasy.

David soon replaces Jenny's traditional schooling with his own brand of education: art auctions, smoky clubs, classical concerts and late-night dinners with his stylish yet inane friends. Much to Jenny's amazement, David even manages to charm her conservative parents, despite being nearly twice her age. Their romance flourishes, and David whisks Jenny away to Paris for her seventeenth birthday under the pretence of being chaperoned by his “Aunt Helen.”

Upon her return, Jenny is the subject of intense scandal as her headmistress and English teacher accuse her of throwing away her future. Just as Oxford seems within reach, Jenny appears poised to embark on a new, rarefied life.

Director: Lone Scherfig Executive Producers: Nick Hornby, David M. Thompson, James D. Stern, Jamie Laurenson, Wendy Japhet, Douglas E. Hansen Producer: Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey Screenplay: Nick Hornby Cinematographer: John De Borman Editor: Barney Pilling

Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Olivia Williams, Emma Thompson, Carey Mulligan

FOCUS ON LOCAL

FOCUS ON LOCAL Screening: $8 in Advance/$9 at Festival
Friday, November 13
Diana Wortham Theatre, 9 pm

Features screenings of local films and a Q&A with Asheville-based filmmakers

BEER Y’ALL
Beer. Rock & Roll. North Carolina. In July 2008, seven friends assembled from across the state to tour 27 microbreweries and brewpubs from the mountains to the coast in a seatless cargo van. The film follows their nine days of hanging out with brewers, partying at rock shows, and drinking many, many beers as they celebrate friendship, music and a Southern microbrewing explosion. Director/Producer: Curt Arledge

ALISON (Work in Progress)
The story of a 30-something pregnant woman who begins to sense that something is wrong – wrong with her life, her marriage, herself. Told in a non-linear style that shifts in time from present to past and back, the move follows Alison as she tries to make sense of her baby’s impending birth. She abandons her husband moves into a derelict motel, hoping to find some sense of where she’s headed and why she’s been where she’s been. Director/Producer/Editor: Paul Schattel Writers: Paul Schattel & The Alison Cast Director of Photography: Kenneth Wilson II Cast: Lauren Fortuna, David MacDonald, Bryan Marshall, Jessica Bachar, Jessica Tomasin

NEW GENERATION SCREENING: FREE!
Saturday, November 14
Fine Arts Theatre - Lower, 11:30am

Each year, the Asheville Film Festival and the UNCA Department of Mass Communication hold a free one-day filmmaking workshop for middle and high school students called New Generation. Program participants work directly with video production students in the Mass Communications program to produce a short film, which is screened at the Festival. Come support the New Generation of filmmakers!

IT'S A WRAP! (Winners Revealed After Party): $20
Saturday, November 14
Pack Place, 9 to 11 pm

Come join us as we recognize and honor the 2009 Asheville Film Festival winning filmmakers and announce this year’s Audience Award winners. Cocktails and appetizers included in ticket price. It’s not the awards ceremony you’re used to – it’s a party! IT’S A WRAP!

SPECIAL SCREENING: $8 Advance/$9 During Festival
Sunday, November 15
Fine Arts Theatre - Lower, 1 pm

TEARING DOWN THE TENT

A documentary that grants you a backstage pass to America’s largest traveling tent circus, The Cole Brothers Circus. Originating in 1884 under the name “W.W. Cole’s New Colossal Shows,” the circus is currently owned and operated by Cole Brothers veteran John W. Pugh. The film presents the circus through the eyes of Asheville's own Jamie Reel, age 31, as he visits it for the first time. He gets the chance to join the show by working alongside performers and vendors. In the process, we meet a cast of people that have chosen the traveling circus lifestyle. Through this journey, we attempt to discover the real story behind one of America’s most beloved pastimes. Enjoy the show. Director: Michael Knox Producers: Ryan Haggerty, Martin Ramsey Executive Producer: Stephen Ramsey Direcor of Photography: Ryan Haggerty Featuring: Jamie Reel

SPECIAL SCREENING: $8 Advance/$9 During Festival
Sunday, November 15
Fine Arts Theatre – Lower, 4 pm

THAT EVENING SUN



Abner Meecham, an aging Tennessee farmer discarded to a nursing facility by his lawyer son, flees the old folks' home and catches a ride back to his country farm to live out his days in peace. Upon his return, he discovers that his son has leased the farm to Abner's old enemy and his white trash family. Not one to suffer fools or go down easy, Abner moves into the old tenant shack on the property and declares that he won't leave until the farm is returned to his possession. But Lonzo Choat, the new tenant, has no intention to move out or give in to the old man's demands. This sets up a ruthless grudge match between Abner and Choat, each man right in his own eyes, each too stubborn to give an inch. Angered by his son's betrayal, and haunted by recurring dreams of his long-dead wife, Abner sets about his own path toward reclaiming his life. Lines are drawn, threats are made, and the simmering tension under the Southern sun erupts, inevitably, into savagery. Based on the short story “ I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down” by William Gay.

Written for the Screen and Directed by: Scott Teems Produced by: Laura Smith, Terence Berry, Raymond Mckinnon, Walton Goggins Executive Producers: Adrian Jay, Larsen Jay, Raul L. Celaya Co-Producer: Jeanine Rohn Director of Photography: Rodney Taylor, A.S.C. Production Designer: Mara Lepere-Schloop Edited by: Travis Sittard

Cast: Hal Holbrook, Barlow Jacobs, Mia Wasikowska, Carrie Preston, Raymond McKinnon, Barry Corbin, Walton Goggins, Dually, Dixie Carter, Jacob Parkhurst, Anthony Reynolds, Bruce McKinnon

CLOSING NIGHT FILM: $8 in Advance / $9 at Festival
Sunday, November 15
Fine Arts Theatre - Lower, 7pm

PRECIOUS



Based on the novel PUSH: A NOVEL BY SAPPHIRE. A vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write.

Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain, Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.

An Official Selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard, and winner of three awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. The film was also the centerpiece of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received the festival’s 2009 Cadillac People’s Choice Award. It is the only film ever to receive the Audience awards at both Sundance and Toronto and has been selected as the 2009 New York Film Festival Centerpiece.

Directed by: Lee Daniels Screenplay by: Geoffrey Fletcher Based on: Push: A Novel by Sapphire Produced by: Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness Executive Producers: Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Lisa Cortés, Tom Heller Co-Executive Producer: Simone Sheffield Co-Producer: Mark G. Mathis Associate Producer: Asger Hussain Casting by: Billy Hopkins, Jessica Kelly Director of Photography: Andrew Dunn, BSC Editor: Joe Klotz

Cast: Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz, Gabourey Sidibe, Stephanie Andujar, Chyna Layne, Amina Robinson, Xosha Roquemore, Angelic Zambrana, Aunt Dot, Nealla Gordon, Grace Hightower, Barrett Isaiah Mindell, Kimberly Russell, Bill Sage, Susan Taylor

• All tickets are sold through the Pack Place Box Office.  Tickets are not sold at individual venues. 

• Please allow time to purchase tickets and arrive at the screening venue 15 minutes prior to show time.

• Seating is on a first come-first serve basis.  You must arrive 15 minutes before the screening begins.  Please do not leave empty seats in the middle of the row.

• Empty seats will be forfeited five minutes prior to each program.  No late seating allowed.

• Each venue must be cleared after a film screening.  Saving seats between shows is not permitted.

• No children under the age of 6 will be admitted.

• Please be aware that many films may not be suitable for those under the age of 18.  Parental discretion is advised.

• Cameras and recording devices are not permitted.  Please silence all cell phones and pagers.

The Asheville Film Festival is produced by the City of Asheville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department in conjunction with the Asheville Film Festival Committee.
Phone: (828) 259-5800 Fax: (828) 259-5606