FilmColumbia, Columbia County's premier annual cultural event, screens the very best upcoming American and international films for ten days in late October. Launched in 1999 as the Crandell Theatre's "little local festival that could," FilmColumbia is now an acclaimed, nationally recognized film event.

FilmColumbia was recently recognized by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the "25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World." Said Tim Molloy, MovieMaker's editor-in-chief, "Obviously a lot of New Yorkers are now discovering the beautiful small communities just a short drive from New York City, and we think they'll be delighted to learn more about FilmColumbia, a fest that blends a gorgeous location, local color (both people and leaves) and Oscar-caliber films, lovingly programmed by a revered team with exquisite taste."

Schedule of Events:

Universal Language
1:00pm
89 min

According to Universal Language, an absurd and tipsy comedy, the two languages spoken in Winnipeg, Canada, the capital city of the prairie province of Manitoba, are Farsi and French. In this, his second deadpan feature, Matthew Rankin plays himself returning home from Montreal to this city where school lessons are taught in Persian and everyone seems happily Iranian rather than Canadian. Universal Language, influenced by Guy Maddin and Abbas Kiarostami, won the Audience Award at Cannes' Directors Fortnight, was a highlight of the New York Film Festival, and is Canada's entry for the International Oscars.

The Kingdom
(La Royaume)
3:00pm
108 mins

The kingdom is Corsica, and in 1995 is a fire with gang warfare. Fifteen-year-old Lesia, living a life untouched by violence, is suddenly delivered to her father, who is not only a fugitive, but a "capo," and most certainly a marked man. Lesia's childish innocence is soon transformed by a very unsentimental education.

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
5:15pm
150 min

On January 17, 1961, Patrice Lumumba, the first president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country only six months old, was assassinated. Johan Grimonprez, a noted Belgian media artist, presents an innovative explanation of this calamity through the rhythms of American jazz musicians sent by Washington to Kinshasa, ostensibly to demonstrate solidarity, but really to conceal the ambiguous role the U.S. played in the coup and protect its interests in Central Africa.

Bird
8:00pm
119 min

Bird is a hybrid — part charming fantasy, part gritty social realism — and always exuberant. Bailey, at 12, lives with her older half-brother, Hunter, and her manic dad, Bug, who is planning to marry. Bailey is not happy about this, but when she meets Bird, a strange fellow who thinks himself an avian, she finds a friend who is tolerant of her anger with her hyper father. Andrea Arnold, one of Britain's leading filmmakers, has fashioned a breathtaking fable. Played Cannes.

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