Drive In to the Opening Night Films from Method Fest

Don Franken, Founder of The Method Fest Independent Film Festival, a unique event showcasing the art and craft of acting for cinema, today announced the opening night films to be showcased as Drive-In movie experiences atop the Westfield Fashion Square here this Friday, August 21. They are BEAUTIFUL DREAMER, THE JONESTOWN DEFENSE, h0us3 and OUR LADY OF THE NILE. The Method Fest runs 8/21-23 and 8/26-30.

Presented after dark, four features or shorts programs will screen each night of the festival, two simultaneously on separate screens on the west and east parking areas atop Westfield Fashion Square, 14006 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks. Sound will be delivered via car radio. Festival supporters include Stella Artois, Tito's Handmade Vodka, The Valley Economic Alliance, and Defiance Fuel Water. Media Sponsors are Variety and LA Daily News, with supporting audience partners Film Independent and The Malibu Film Society. For more information, showtimes & reservations: filmfreeway.com/TheMethodFestIndependentFilmFestival/tickets

BEAUTIFUL DREAMERa?? - a??Opening Night Film - Bay Area friends in their early 40s navigate life moments together: expecting a surrogate baby, a deep friendship floundering, two mature women deciding to marry, a novelist with crippling writer's block. BEAUTIFUL DREAMER's admirable ensemble explores the messy secrets and complicated nature of parenthood and modern family, all the while testing the boundaries of love and friendship and the bioethics of surrogacy. DIR Amy Glazer. SCR a??Patricia Cotter. CAST a??Wendie Malick, Louis Ozawa, Erin Daniels.a?? (U.S.) World Premiere

THE JONESTOWN DEFENSE- Opening Night Film - A Sarasota businessman's marriage and livelihood - not to mention liver - teeter on the edge of implosion as his best friend tries to bring to the boat a deal they have been working on for a decade, which is about how long star and producer Dennis Ostermaier put into finishing the film, which has since taken on an unimaginable richness. Set in the wake of the Great Recession, Ostermaier's complex performance is photographed against an almost relentlessly cheerful Gulf Coast sunlight. DIR Greg Takoudes. CAST: Ostermaier, Robert Stevens, Amy Seimetz. (U.S.) World Premiere

h0us3 -A group of former computer University colleagues and their partners meet for dinner after several years. During supper, one of them confesses to have decrypted one of the most secret files in the Internet and shares with them an augmented reality application found within. When they all try to alter it, they will unleash conflicts and events with unexpected consequences which will be getting worse by moments (Spain) West Coast premiere

OUR LADY OF THE NILE - An all-girls Catholic school in Rwanda serves as the backdrop for a story about class division, colonialism and economic disparity and the resulting genocide. DIR Atiq Rahimi. SCR Atiq Rahimi. CAST Amanda Mugabezaki, Albina Kirenga, Malaika Uwamahoro. (France) 2020 Berlin Film Festival - Crystal Bear Winner