By William Sokolic
The Atlantic City Cinefest returns Dec. 7-8 to the Fannie Hamer Event Center at the Atlantic City campus of Stockton University, 3711 Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic City.
Submissions have been selected and a schedule released for the two-day film festival. The selections include a mix of short and feature length narratives, documentaries, music videos and animation.
The screenings run Saturday, Dec. 7 from 12-8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 8 from 12-6 p.m.
“We usually run the festival in mid-October, but this year we pushed it back to early December, a normally slow time in Atlantic City,” said Bill Sokolic, chairman of the board of trustees. “Different time, but we hope filmgoers will discover interesting movies.”
Like “Weekend at the Agamemnons”, which stars Ginger Grace and Austin Pendleton, or the stunning performance of child actress Hailey Kate Schmidt in “Mr. Sandman”. These are just two of the films that were selected.
Pendleton will also be honored for his decades of work in Hollywood.
Austin Pendleton carries a pedigree that has sustained his career for decades as a character actor. A small, but memorable role was as a public defender in the deep south assigned to the trial of two northern young men accused of murder in the comedy “My Cousin Vinny.”
Playing quirky characters is common for Pendleton. He stars in “Weekend at the Agamemnons” as a retiring professor feted by his two daughters, ex-wife and live-in lover. He will receive the Ursula Ryan Lifesaver award for his long distinguished career.
The Warren Ohio native graduated Yale before joining the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, according to IMDB. His first feature was 1968’s “Petulia,” a minor uncredited role. But that served as the beginning of a career of well over 100 appearances in film and television.
Few knew that Pendleton got the late Philip Seymour Hoffman one of his first acting jobs at a New Jersey theatre company.
And he also received consideration for the role of Fredo in “The Godfather.”
With roots in the theatre, Pendleton received a nomination for a 1981 Tony Award as Best Director for directing Elizabeth Taylor in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes.”
But it’s comedies that define much of Pendleton’s work.
“All the comedies I’ve done have been hard to film,” he says on IMDB. “Film is an anomalous environment for it because you don’t know whether they’re going to laugh or not. So you’re doing this stuff in total silence. Also comedy is hard to master. In theater when you do a comedy, you rehearse for a few weeks, and you begin to feel the rhythm. In film, it’s an arbitrary rhythm usually that has to look like a truthful one to work. I’m not complaining; I’ve been in some of the best comedies ever made. But I have never been on the set for a comedy where you don’t feel like you were in trouble all the time.”
“As a character actor, Austin has impressed me for years. He’s got a unique way of expressing himself on film,” Sokolic said.
Tickets range from $6 for an individual block of films, $15 for a daily pass and $26 for an all-festival pass and are available through FilmFreeway. Visit https://filmfreeway.com/atlanticcitycinefest/tickets to order. Tickets will also be available at the door.
For full schedule and additional information, visit atlanticcitycinefest.org or email any questions to bsaks47@comcast.net
