Kenneth Branagh, Adrien Brody, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga, Mike Mills among star-studded lineup of 2021 SCAD Savannah Film Festival special guests

Clockwise from top left: Kenneth Branagh, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga, Adrien Brody, Dylan Penn, Aunjanue Ellis, Simon Rex, Odessa Young, Mike Mills, Harry Gregson-Williams, Sandy Powell, Clifton Collins Jr.

The 2021 SCAD Savannah Film Festival marks not only the 10-year anniversary of Reel Georgia, it also marks a return to form for the premiere fall film festival. After a limited 2020 event that was largely virtual, the red carpet is once again set to take over Broughton Street outside the famed Trustees Theatre.

Oscar winners and nominees are in great supply this year, with Kenneth Branagh, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga, Adrien Brody, Sandy Powell, Mike Mills, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller all set to make appearances. Other stars set to appear and receive honors include Aunjanue Ellis, Harry Gregson-Williams, Dylan Penn, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Simon Rex, Odessa Young and Clifton Collins Jr.

Reel Georgia to Relaunch Fall 2021

In the fall of 2011, I attended my first ever Savannah Film Festival. I didn't have press credentials—in fact, I hardly even knew how to get them. Instead, I spent what little money I had to get a hotel room for one night and bought tickets to a few films and waitlisted a fourth film. I had the time of my life. While I had already started work on Reel Georgia before then, I feel like the 2011 Savannah Film Festival is actually where Reel Georgia came to life. 

By 2016, Reel Georgia had grown to a team of almost a dozen contributors and full coverage of Georgia's film industry and film festival circuit. In January of 2017, Georgia Entertainment News purchased Reel Georgia and gave us a new home. Time, work, displacement and various other factors took a toll and after a couple of years, there just wasn't much going on around these parts.

As Reel Georgia looks towards turning 10 years old next month, we are relaunching! Look out for a new website and a new look. Thank you for a decade of readership and support!

"American Pastoral" Review (***)

Ewan McGregor and Jennifer Connelly star in "American Pastoral."

Ewan McGregor made a bold choice in his directorial debut with "American Pastoral." Phillip Roth is easily one of the best American authors of the past 25 years. His work is beastly. McGregor attempted to tame the beast. "American Pastoral" is simply a convoluted story about a man, his family and America during the tumultuous Vietnam era—and then some.

"Lion" Review (***½)

Editor's note: I've been begging Alexandra James to write for Reel Georgia for months and months. Recently, Alex joined the team down at the Savannah Film Festival for a few days and I was able to coax her into finally writing a review. I think you'll find that both the writer and her work are equally as charismatic and approachable as they are thorough and accomplished. I am thrilled to add Alex to the Reel crew. -CM

Dev Patel stars in "Lion."

Familiar themes of displacement, familial dysfunction, a desire for resolve, and great cast performances all help Garth Davis’ debut feature film, "Lion," evoke all the feels at all the right times. "Lion" is a poignant drama that takes viewers on a laborious personal journey that, fortunately, lands in inspiration and the aforementioned resolve. Though the film successfully plays on its viewers’ emotions, it does have its shortcomings in other areas. Are these shortcomings so prominent that they distract from the truly remarkable story that the film is based on? Nah. But they are shortcomings that keep this good film from reaching the status of excellency that it seems right on the cusp of.

"Loving" Review (****½)

'Tell the judge I love my wife.' Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga star in "Loving."

Jeff Nichols shows a solemn, moving picture of Richard and Mildred Loving’s life together. Richard and Mildred Loving lived in Virginia in the 1950s. They loved each other immensely. They married in Washington D.C. shortly after discovering they were expecting a child.

Despite the marriage license—a binding legal document—cops entered their home in the middle of the night and put the Lovings in jail. Mildred spent five nights in jail; she was eight months pregnant. The law enforcement in their small country town prosecuted the Lovings because at the time, interracial marriages were against the law in Virginia. The judge forced them out of Virginia for the next 25 years, against the threat of a prison sentence.

"Tower" Review (***½)

"Tower" mixes animation with archival footage.

"Tower" follows the tragic story of the 1966 University of Texas at Austin sniper shooting. This documentary brilliantly juxtaposes live action film, radio archives, and animations to parallel the narration of both survivors and witnesses to the event.

One thing I had difficulty remembering was how unheard of school shootings were at the time. It's almost an unsettling blast from the past into just a relevant presence, but one important aspect of this film is that it does not 'glorify' the killer. "Tower" truly focuses on the heroes and survivors, while honoring the victims.

"Arrival" Review (****½)

Amy Adams stars in "Arrival."

Denis Villeneuve, one of our most consistent filmmakers, has crafted one of the best sci-fi movies of the decade with "Arrival." A slow-burn, intellectual approach keeps the story front and center—and what a story it is.

Amy Adams plays Louise Banks, a linguist whose skillset becomes invaluable when mysterious spacecrafts land around the world—twelve different ones to be exact. Hovering quietly above random locations across the globe, humanity has to make the next move. Do we attack? What do they want? Why are there twelve? These questions are only the beginning of the mystery that falls into the hands of Louise and her physicist partner Ian (Jeremy Renner).

Pablo Larraín's "Jackie" to Open Up Savannah Film Festival

Natalie Portman stars in "Jackie."

Pablo Larraín's highly-buzzed Jackie Kennedy Onassis biopic, "Jackie," is slated to open the 19th annual Savannah Film Festival on Saturday, October 20, 2016.

"Jackie" recently had its world premiere at TIFF, where it was bought by Fox Searchlight. The arthouse distributor is set to provide the film with a robust awards campaign, with Natalie Portman's lead performance sure to receive the most attention.

"Jasmine" Review - Macon Film Festival (***)

Jason Tobin stars in "Jasmine."

First-time director Dax Phelan crafts a tense but often meandering mystery in "Jasmine." Phelan is more than capable of setting the tone for the increasingly unsettling thriller but the story lacks complexity.

Jason Tobin plays Leonard To, a grieving widower whose wife was murdered the previous year. Leonard is in pain. Walking the streets of Hong Kong at night, he is very much alone and very much in his own head. With blurred lights in the distance and bustling streets, the city is a character of its own. Hong Kong—and Phelan’s ability to capture it—lends a lot to the film. Tobin is fantastic as the miserable, confused and angry Leonard. His wife’s murder is still unsolved and while the police seem to have given up, the lack of closure haunts him.

"Room" Review (****½)

Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson shine in "Room."

"Room" opens with Ma (played by Brie Larson, "Short Term 12,") and Jack (Jacob Tremblay) in the midst of their morning routine. The shots are close and color-muted. The frame is both sharp and unfocused, creating this disorienting, claustrophobic sensation within the viewer. From the very beginning we know that something is wrong, a feeling that I attribute entirely to Stephen Rennick's score and Danny Cohen's cinematography. Ma and Jack stretch; Jack runs back and forth; he takes his vitamins; they eat breakfast. We see bits of the room: a small bed, a bathtub, a toilet, a wardrobe.

“Miss You Already” Review (***)

Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette star in "Miss You Already."

At first glance, or, more accurately, first trailer, “Miss You Already” had me hooked. I was so eager to watch this weepie, mumblecore-esque kind of movie. I wanted to watch a film that orbited solely around the friendship between two women, to watch a film where hurt and cancer and love and death weren’t sensationalized. If you were looking for something similar to what I described above, I’m sorry to say, I don’t think that “Miss You Already” is your movie. Though it’s not what I expected, nor what I wanted, it’s hard not to admire director Catherine Hardwicke’s (“Twilight,” “Plush”) lack of fear. She’s entirely unafraid of the uncertainty, sentimentality, and emotional weight of a movie as heavy as the Titanic.

"Best of Enemies" Review (****½)

William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal in "Best of Enemies."

For our illumination, enlightenment, and consideration, Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon give us “Best of Enemies;" a superb examination of William F. Buckley, Jr., Gore Vidal, and how ABC pitted them against each other in order to save the network from impending doom. Through ten televised debates circling the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968, Buckley and Vidal devolved from intellectuals into petty rivals, and a road to our current normalization of morally-void cutthroat political commentary was paved.

With this at its center, the film poses what I learned wasn’t an unintentional question through a Q&A with the filmmakers:

At what cost did ABC succeed? Was it worth it? 

Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette" Opens Up the 2015 Savannah Film Festival (***)

We chat about how Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep got involved and how she fell in love with Georgia after just a few hours in Savannah.

Each year, the Savannah Film Festival marks the unofficial anniversary of Reel Georgia. While it was launched a few months earlier in 2011, it wasn't until I booked it down to Savannah for two days in October that this website really started to post frequent, original content about Georgia films, Georgia festivals and the global industry from a Georgia perspective.

This year, my dedicated co-editor Lucy Doughty and eloquent contributor Jessica Hinckle join me here and together, there isn't a moment we will miss. Eighteen years in, SAVFF is at a peak artistically and commercially. Stars attending this year include Olivia Wilde, Alexander Skarsgard, Saoirse Ronan, Alfie Allen, Meg Ryan and Elizabeth Olsen. Tons of filmmaking talent is also attending—something the festival has obviously been spotlighting more in recent years, as the SCAD filmmaking programs continue to grow in popularity.

Among this year's attending filmmakers are director Sarah Gavron and producer Alison Owen of opening night film "Suffragette." I sat down with Gavron at the Trustees Theater ahead of the premiere, asking first and foremost what she thought of Georgia.

"I love it," she said. This is not just her first time in Savannah, it's her first time in the state at all. "I wandered around for two hours. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was; it was very visual."

"The Wolfpack" Review (****)

"The Wolfpack:" Mukunda, Bhagavan, Govinda, Narayana, Jagadisa,
and Krsna Angulo.

Almost five years ago, five tall, dark, and slender full-suited boys in sunglasses ran past Crystal Moselle on First Avenue in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

"I had a hunch there was something going on there. So I chased after them," said Moselle, Director and Producer of "The Wolfpack" during the Q&A after its Savannah Film Festival screening on October 24th. "They asked what I do, and I told them I was a filmmaker, which made them really excited. They'd only been out for about a week."

"Frame by Frame" Review (*****)

Farzana Wahidy in the documentary "Frame by Frame."

“Frame by Frame” is an elegant and symphonic documentary tribute to the empathy and integrity of the photojournalist, and it might be the most impactful documentary of my generation.

In a country once ruled by a regime that criminalized photography for half a decade, directors Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli weave together the ground-breaking work of four photojournalists capturing the aftermath of a post-Taliban Afghanistan.

What to See at the 2015 Savannah Film Festival

The Savannah Film Festival has a special place in my heart because it was my coverage of the 2011 Savannah Film Festival that really launched Reel Georgia back four years ago. This will be my fifth time attending, and I'm happy that Lucy and Jessica will also be in Georgia's first city with me to cover the 18th annual event.

Opening night selection "Suffragette" and closing night selection "I Saw the Light" prove that Savannah has become a significant stop on the fall festival run. "Brooklyn," "Room," "Spotlight," "Truth" and "Youth" are just a few of the Oscar-bait titles screening at this years festival. A host of lesser profile prestige films, foreign titles and true indies dot the lineup. This really promises to be a great year.

We've highlighted over 30 films for you to check out at this year's festival. I know, that's an outrageous number of films to see in just eight days, but don't blame me—blame Savannah for upping their game!

Meg Ryan, Olivia Wilde, Elizabeth Olsen among expected guests at 2015 Savannah Film Festival

Four of the 2015 Savannah Film Festival's special guests clockwise from top left:
Meg Ryan, Elizabeth Olsen, Saoirse Ronan, Olivia Wilde.

As the Savannah Film Festival gets closer to turning 20-years-old (this year will be the 18th festival), it is pivoting itself as an important stop on the national festival circuit in terms of programming but also as a continually celebrity-friendly festival. Just in the last few years, I've enjoyed attending alongside stars like Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons, John Goodman, Jane Seymour, Alec Baldwin, Matt Bomer, Gena Rowlands, Lily Tomlin and Miles Teller.

This year, honored guests include Meg Ryan, Olivia Wilde and Alfie Allen. Elizabeth Olsen, Saoirse Ronan, Riley Keough and Tab Hunter are also expected to attend.

2015 Savannah Film Festival to Kick-off with Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette"

Directed by Sarah Gavron and written by Abi Morgan, "Suffragette" has been chosen to open the 2015 Savannah Film Festival on October 24th.

Gavron and Morgan previously worked in the same capacity together on "Brick Lane." Morgan also penned "Shame," "The Iron Lady" and "The Invisible Woman," which screened at the 2013 Savannah Film Festival (and was one of that year's best selections). "Suffragette" stars Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Press, Anne-Marie Duff, Romola Garai, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw and Meryl Streep.

"Wildlike" Review (***)

Ella Purnell and Bruce Greenwood star in "Wildlike."

Frank Hall Green’s quiet, low-budget drama, "Wildlike," is a modest story of an unlikely kinship between a young and volatile Mackenzie (Ella Purnell) and an experienced and haggard Rene (Bruce Greenwood). Mackenzie, still reeling from the loss of her father, is forced to stay with her uncle, played by the doe-eyed Brian Geraghty, at his home in Alaska. We quickly learn he’s a creep and he’s abusive, and that’s all we know and really all we need to know. She leaves, and rightfully so, and that propels the rest of the film into action.

Review: "Cartel Land" (***½)

Meth lab in Michoacán, Mexico

"Breaking Bad" meets "The Hurt Locker" in "Cartel Land," Director Matthew Heineman's investigative documentary about two vigilante forces and their common enemy: the Mexican drug cartels. Stateside we have Tim "Nailer" Foley, head of the Arizona Border Recon, armed and ready to stop the drug war from crossing the border into Altar Valley. In Michoacán, Mexico, Dr. Jose "El Doctor" Mireles leads the Autodefensas—a citizen militia determined to dethrone the Knight Templars, a ruthless cartel that terrorizes the community.