BAM Announces Lineup for 11th Annual BAMcinemaFest

BAM announces the full lineup for the 11th annual BAMcinemaFest, a platform for both emerging and established filmmakers, running June 12-23. This year's 12-day festival includes 18 NY premieres, one U.S. premiere, and three world premieres. According to Associate Vice President of Film Gina Duncan, "Our goal remains consistent: to present the best American independent cinema being made today. But this is the first year that I've felt the films fit together as a cohesive whole; they are linked by a naturalness, an intimate focus, and boundless creativity. As the larger film conversation continues to focus on record-breaking box offices, it feels defiant to present a program that centers film as art."

The festival begins on Wednesday, June 12 with Opening Night film The Farewell, written and directed by Lulu Wang, and starring comedian Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) in a breakout lead role. Based on Wang's own family history, The Farewell tells the story of a beloved matriarch (Zhao Shuzhen) who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Choosing to hide the bleak information from her, her family, including granddaughter Billi (Awkwafina), schedules an impromptu wedding-reunion back in China, setting the stage for a gently humorous portrait of cultural heritage and familial bonds.

This year's Closing Night selection, the World Premiere of Diana Peralta's De Lo Mio, screens on Saturday, June 22. This story of ride-or-die New York sisters who reunite with their estranged brother in the Dominican Republic following their father's death mines themes of family intimacy and the profound, complicated connections between individuals and families, between homelands and culture.

Kirill Mikhanovsky's Give Me Liberty is this year's Centerpiece Film, a charming, Czechoslovak New Wave-inflected comedy about a young Russian-American driver and other ordinary Americans up against a rigged system; and Hilary Brougher'sSouth Mountain, a Catskills-set story of one woman's (Talia Balsam) season of grief and self-discovery, will be featured as this year's Spotlight Film.

The BAMcinemaFest main slate includes 22 feature films, with three world premieres:De Lo Mio, Jong Ougie Pak's gently poetic Sunrise Sunset (screening with Andrew Hevia's Leave the Bus Through the Broken Window), and Lana Lin's The Cancer Journals Revisited, inspired by Audre Lorde's classic memoir, featuring 27 writers, artists, activists, healthcare advocates, and current and former patients reciting Lorde's manifesto. Other films included in the festival include the US premiere of So Pretty, an intimate study of modern queer love; Rick Alverson's mesmeric psychodrama The Mountain, starring Jeff Goldblum, Denis Lavant, and Udo Kier;Olympic Dreams, the first-ever scripted film shot in an Athlete Village during the Olympics, starring comedian Nick Kroll and former Olympian Alexi Pappas; social media stardom documentary Jawline; Brother to Brother director Rodney Evans' intensely personal documentary Vision Portraits; Michael Tyburski's hushed character study The Sound of Silence, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones; and many more. The festival also includes two short film programs of Narrative and Documentary shorts.

Tickets go on sale to the general public Thursday, May 16 at 10am. BAM members receive early access starting Thursday, May 9 at 10am. To join become a member, please visit BAM.org/join.

Photo Credit: The Farewell (Wang, 2019), image courtesy A24

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