Great film festivals connect us to worlds, immersing us in cultures, perspectives, thoughts and ways of life. The Silicon Valley connects the world through technology, opening information and communication between friends and strangers. March 4 - 16, 2014, Cinequest Film Festival will connect Silicon Valley audiences and innovators with youth, media and global artists through a spectacular array of 300+ events, premieres and forums designed to foster innovation, creativity and ultimately empowerment.
What's New
- Maverick Innovator Awards: Cinequest Film Festival 2014 continues the powerful integration of creativity and innovation, honoring major innovators who have advanced our abilities to communicate and connect through media. Martin "Marty" Cooper, "Father of the cell phone," and actor, filmmaker and technologist Matthew Modine receive the inaugural awards.
- Media Legacy Award: It's time to turn the spotlight on those who have had a powerful impact on the lives of artists. The award recognizes the pivotal role journalists play in connecting audiences to films, providing life blood to filmmakers and their work. Inaugural recipients include Eric Kohn of Indiewire (March 4, 7 p.m.), Harry Knowles, founder of Ain't It Cool News (March 6, 7:15 p.m.) and Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times (March 8, 3 p.m.).
- Picture The Possibilities: Global youth present movies and their vision for a better tomorrow to leaders and audiences. See the impact here and review the PTP press release for more details.
Highlights
- Maverick Award Events: Recipients include famed author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman, Christopher Meloni, Matthew Modine, and the "Father of the cell phone" Marty Cooper. Honoring those who create from a place of bold and personal vision, Cinequest will bring their work and thoughts to the stage. Past guest recipients include Harrison Ford, J.J. Abrams, Kevin Spacey, William H. Macy, Gus Van Sant, Spike Lee, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sir Ian McKellen, Edward James Olmos, Alec Baldwin and Sir Ben Kingsley.
- Opening Night Screening and Celebration March 4, 7p.m., California Theatre: Cinequest opens in grand fashion with the uproarious comedy, The Grand Seduction, from director Don McKellar (Last Night) and screenwriter Michael Dowse (Goon), starring a brilliant cast that includes Brendan Gleeson ("Mad-Eye" Moody from the Harry Potter films), Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), and Liane Balaban (Supernatural). Award presentations to Martin Cooper (Maverick Innovator) and Eric Kohn (Media Legacy) precede the screening. Celebrating the theme of "Connect," the party continues into the morning at The Glass House.
- Closing Night Screening and Celebration March 16, 6 p.m., California Theatre: Cinequest 2014 culminates with dynamic energy, excitement and celebration. Join writer/director Joel Surnow (24, The Kennedys) and star Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU, True Blood) for a spectacular World Premiere screening of Small Time, also starring Dean Norris (Breaking Bad, Under the Dome), Devon Bostick (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Bridget Moynahan (Blue Bloods), Kevin Nealon (Weeds, SNL), Garcelle Beauvais (Flight), Xander Berkeley (Taken) and Amaury Nolasco (Transformers ). A fun and celebratory party concludes the night at adjacent venues The Farmers Union and La Piñata.
- Premieres, Countries and Star Performances: 84 World, North American and U.S. Premieres from 43 countries include performances by:
- Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2), Paul Adelstein (Scandal), Connie Nielsen (Nymphomaniac), Kathy Baker (Saving Mr. Banks) and Minnie Driver (Ella Enchanted) in Return to Zero
- Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) in Hunting Elephants
- Jude Law (The Holiday, Cold Mountain), Richard E. Grant (Dracula) and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) in Dom Hemingway
- Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy), John Cusack (Being John Malkovich) and Kerry Bishé (Argo) in Grand Piano
- Sean Penn (Milk) in The Human Experiment
- Bryan Greenberg (Friends with Benefits), Linda Lavin (Alice), Harris Yulin (Training Day), Emmanuelle Chriqui (Entourage) and Kathleen Rose Perkins (Episodes, Enough Said) in A Short History of Decay
- David Arquette (Scream) and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) in Sold
- Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects) and Emmanuelle Devos (Coco Before Chanel) in Just a Sigh
- Clive Owen (Children of Men) and Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) in Words and Pictures
- Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) and Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) in Masterpiece: Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns
- Jena Malone (The Hunger Games) and Ben Whishaw (Skyfall) in Teenage
- Ben Kingsley (Ghandi), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Romeo and Juliet), James Le Gros (Justified) and Katie Chang (The Bling Ring) in A Birder's Guide to Everything
- Helen Shaver (The Color of Money) and Gabrielle Miller (Sisters & Brothers) in Down River
- Guy Pearce (Memento), Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) and Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) in Breathe In
- Hugo Weaving (The Matrix), Aaron Pedersen (City Homicide) and Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) in Mystery Road
- Ken Wantanabe (Last Samurai, Letters from Iwo Jima) in Unforgiven
- Mark Famiglietti (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) and Beck Bennett (SNL) in Acting Like Adults
- Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon), C. Thomas Howell (Spiderman) and Andrew Lawrence (Bones) in Confessions of a Womanizer
- Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars) in Friended to Death
- Eric Roberts (The Dark Night, The Expendables) in Eternity: The Movie
- Ashlynn Yennie (The Human Centipede) in The Divorce Party
- Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams, and Zachary Booth (Damages) in Never
- Adelaide Kane (CW's hit show Reign) in Blood Punch
- Writers Celebration March 9, 9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., San Jose Repertory Theater: Neil Gaiman conversation (Maverick Spirit Award) and documentary on Frank Miller's career inspire the writer in all of us.
- Cinequest Grown Parties: Fostering its theme of "Connect", Cinequest produces all of its celebrations and parties internally and with community partners. Daily Soirees from 5 p.m. - 7 p.m., nightly Meetups from 9:30 p.m. onward and the four-block proximity of Cinequest's state-of-the-art venues facilitate the spectacular connection of visiting artists, innovators, executives and film lovers.
CINEQUEST AT A GLANCE
Ticket, event and schedule information:
- Complete lineup and schedule at www.cinequest.org.
- Tickets and passes may be purchased by phone (408) 295-FEST (3378) or online.
- Sophisticated Tablet, Droid, and iPhone applications at www.cinequest.org/mobile-home or simply by logging onto www.cinequest.org via your mobile device.
- Press releases and media information available at www.cinequest.org/news-media
CQFF Partners: Applied Materials (NYSE: AMAT), City of San Jose, Barco, Kaiser Permanente, Knight Foundation, Harmonic (NYSE: HLIT), Synaptics (NYSE: SYNA), Comcast-Xfinity (NYSE: CMCSK), NBC Bay Area, KGO 810, KFOG 97.7, Cisco (NYSE: CSCO), Dolby (NYSE: DLB), Stella Artois (NYSE: BUD), Tito's Handmade Vodka, iON, Adobe (NYSE: ADBE), eBay Foundation (NYSE: EBAY), Macy's (NYSE: M), Seagate (NYSE: STX), United Airlines (NYSE: UAL), PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP), VTA, Liquid Agency and Agile.