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I arrived in Memphis a week ago, but it feels like longer. It was a balmy evening like the last breath of summer, and I hadn’t yet met the full realization that Trump could become the President-elect in a matter of days. Making my way back from the opening night screening of The Invaders, a Memphis-produced documentary chronicling the local militant group’s role in the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike and their meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr. right before his assassination, I walked the empty blocks with a homeless vet and long-ago college football star who foreboded the results of […]...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Full Lineup Announcements

– The sixth annual Napa Valley Film Festival (Nvff) has announced its complete line-up, Opening Night and Red Carpet screenings, special events and additional honorees for its Celebrity Tributes. Nvff returns in full force with a five-day festival showcasing the year’s best new independent films in 13 unique screening venues in the Wine Country towns of Napa, Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga, running November 9 – 13.

The Festival will play host to a strong selection of films, including many of this year’s award contenders, like The Weinstein Company’s “Lion,” which will be this year’s Opening Night film, and Open Road Films’ “Bleed for This.” As the perfect bookend to the festival, the independent documentary “Pisco Punch: A Cocktail Comeback Story” will serve as the Closing Night film.

The Indie Memphis Film Festival has announced the full slate of films for the 19th edition of the film festival, which runs from November 1-7. Prichard Smith’s documentary The Invaders will open the festival and Stephen John Ross’s documentary Kallen Esperian: Vissi D’Arte is the Closing Night title. World Premieres include Mike McCarthy’s Destroy Memphis, Kathy Lofton’s I Am A Caregiver, Madsen Minax’s Kairos Dirt & The Errant Vacuum, Flo Gibb’s Mentality: Girls Like Us, and Lakethen Mason’s Verge, with Jennifer Anderson and Vernon Lott’s The Act of Becoming making its U.S. Premiere. Festival favorites include Sophia Takal’s Always Shine, Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, Ira Sachs’ Little Men, David Farrier and […]...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

– Alamo Drafthouse’s Fantastic Fest has unveiled its final wave of programming with a giant-sized round up of the wildest films from across the planet. Opening the announcement and closing out the festival is the triumphant return of Fantastic Fest’s Karaoke King Nacho Vigalondo with his kaiju monster mash-up “Colossal,” starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis. Other standouts include “A Monster Calls,” “Headshot,” “The Lure,” “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” and a special sneak peek at the new “Westworld” series.

The festival will open with “Arrival,” and you can check out other additions to the slate here and here.

The festival runs from September 22 – 29. You can check out more information at the festival’s official website.

– The sixth annual Napa Valley Film Festival...