Mar 19, 2019
Festival
Breakout Sundance hit features a striking performance by Awkwafina in this Warm-Hearted Family Comedy
San Francisco, CA – SFFILM announced today that A24’s The Farewell, will be screening at the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival as a special Centerpiece event. A crowd favorite during its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, the film is based on an “actual lie,” as labeled by director and screenwriter Lulu Wang. The Centerpiece event screens on Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 pm at the historic Castro Theatre. Wang is expected to attend the event and participate in a Q&A.
“It’s really gratifying to be able to highlight breakout talent in our Big Night presentations, and there is no doubt that Lulu Wang’s second feature reveals her as a filmmaking force,” said SFFILM’s Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. “Awkwafina’s calibrated performance is sure to impress her current fans and win new ones with its dramatic nuance.”
An ebullient tale that both celebrates and gently satirizes Chinese cultural traditions, The Farewell is impossible to resist for many reasons. Chief among them is the irrepressible Awkwafina (a breakthrough in Crazy Rich Asians, 2018), a broke Asian-American artist off to China to join her family to say goodbye to her dying grandmother. Except no one is willing to tell grandma she is sick – and to complete the ruse they force her male cousin to get married to a bewildered Japanese woman to explain why this zany family is getting back together at all.
One of Variety’s 2019 “10 Directors to Watch” and the recipient of the 2014 Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellowship, China-born, Florida-raised Lulu Wang graduated from Boston College with a degree in Literature and Music before turning to filmmaking. Prior to The Farewell (2019), she made a number of shorts, including Touch (2015), winner of Best Drama at the Asians on Film Festival, and one feature, Posthumous (2014). The Farewell began as a story that Wang wrote and narrated for NPR’s This American Life.
Tickets to Centerpiece: The Farewell are $20 for SFFILM members, $25 for the general public. Box office is open online now at sffilm.org.
For general information visit sffilm.org/festival.
For photos and press materials visit sffilm.org/press.
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2019 San Francisco International Film Festival
The longest-running film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities. The 62nd edition runs April 10–23 at venues across the Bay Area and features nearly 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards with close to $40,000 in cash prizes, and upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests.
SFFILM
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization with a mission to champion the world’s finest films and filmmakers through programs anchored in and inspired by the spirit and values of the San Francisco Bay Area. Presenter of the San Francisco International Film Festival, SFFILM is a year-round organization delivering screenings and events to more than 75,000 film lovers and media education programs to more than 12,000 students and teachers annually. In addition to its public programs, SFFILM supports the careers of independent filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond with grants, residencies, and other creative development services.
For more information visit sffilm.org.
This press release is available online at sffilm.org/press/releases.
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