SUN & STARS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL To Premiere 12 Films By Or About Women

The Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival will return for its third season with screenings at the Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (Jan. 23-Jan. 30, 2025) and EVO Entertainment Delray Marketplace (Jan. 31-Feb. 2, 2025). Nearly half of the more than two-dozen world-class movies from all over the world were either directed by women or are female focused.

“Representing one-third of the Sun & Stars 27-film program, we have nine films directed by women. In the earliest days of the silent movies, women were directors, writers, editors, and of course actors. As the infant art rapidly developed into a lucrative industry worldwide, women working in roles behind the camera were largely edged out as misogyny reigned, a situation that is now slowly reversing,” says Barbara Scharres, SASIFF Artistic Director. “The blockbuster status of contemporary films including Barbie has underlined the fact that given the opportunity, women filmmakers bring new ideas and big talent to the table—and make money doing it.”

“Women directors have what it takes. Come to the Sun & Stars International Film Festival and see for yourself,” she adds.

For example, Italian actress Paola Cortellesi leveraged the power of her fame to write, direct, and star in THERE'S STILL TOMORROW, Italy's biggest box office hit in many years. WILD DIAMOND by Agathe Riedinger competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, where HOLY COW by Louise Courvoisier won the Youth Prize. A critic pronounced SASIFF's closing night film THE FRENCH ITALIAN by American independent director Rachel Wolther “the funniest New York movie in years.”

The dozen women-centric films that will be shown during the upcoming Sun & Stars International Film Festival are:

BROKEN DOLLS

(Documentary / Jewish, 2023, South Florida Premiere. Directed by Tracy Whipple and Gilles Bovon. USA, 82-minutes)

A mother's obscured past become a daughter's call to action in reconstructing a history altered  by the Holocaust. In 1939, a mysterious benefactor enables a seven-year-old Jewish girl and her mother to escape Nazi Germany on a ship for Shanghai, where they face deprivation and an uncertain future. In the Jewish Ghetto of the international Chinese city, the child spends a decade reinventing herself. Decades later, now herself a mother with an established life in Florida, she comes full circle, seeking to lay claim to her past.  In the complex quest to reclaim her German citizenship, the discovery of a shocking secret adds a new perspective to her life story.

Note: Co-Director Tracy Whipple will be present for audience discussion.

EVO Entertainment Delray Marketplace

Sunday, February 2, 1 pm

DAYS OF HAPPINESS

(Les Jours Heureaux)

(Drama / LGBTQ+, 2023, Palm Beach County Premiere. Directed by Chloe Robichaud. Canada, 118-minutes – In French with English subtitles)

The privileged world of classical music is the setting for drama on and off the concert stage as a young rising star conductor played by Sophie Desmarais makes a misstep that may put her dream of a prestigious new job in peril. A controversial program for the final concert of her residency triggers a fraught confrontation with her personal demons, including her relationships with her controlling father/manager and her lesbian lover.   Desmarais was coached by conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kensho Watanabe, and Nicolas Ellis to master her conducting movements. The film's soaring music includes pieces by Mozart, Schoenberg, and Mahler. “An effective (and affecting) drama that boasts a spellbinding performance at its core”—Reel Film Reviews

The Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center

Friday, January 24, 1 pm

FIRST CASE

(Drama, 2023, Florida Premiere. Directed by Victoria Musiedlak.  France, 98-minutes – In French with English subtitles)

This is a thrillingly tangled web of ethical dilemmas and necessary lies, all held together by the glue of eroticism and the dark lure of the forbidden.  Nora, a newly minted lawyer straight out of law school, is assigned to defend a 19-year-old accused of kidnapping and murder.  Running interference with the brutally aggressive cop who is handling the interrogation, she soon finds herself as frighteningly stranded in unknown territory as the boy she is representing.  Nora's vulnerability leaves her wide open to the bold sexual advances of her nemesis, who sees her inexperience as his advantage. “Never a dull moment, and certainly no easy answers in this stunning first feature”—Filmuforia. 

EVO Entertainment Delray Marketplace

Friday, January 31, 1 pm

THE FRENCH ITALIAN

(Comedy, 2024, Florida Premiere. Directed by Rachel Wolther. USA, 92-minutes)

The Closing Night Film of SASIFF 2025. A white lie about a plate of cookies is the first tipoff to the flexible ethics of 30-something Manhattan hipsters Valerie (Catherine Cohen) and Doug (Aristotle Athari). Trouble brews in the haven of their Upper West Side rent-controlled apartment when horrendous noise from below begin to punctuate their days. Rather than confronting the couple downstairs, the pair plan to trap their neighbor's actress girlfriend with a complex revenge scheme involving auditions and rehearsals for a non-existent play.  Spinning a comic clash of New York types and lifestyles, director/co-writer Wolther escalates the action to the tipping point of a fake opening night, where Emmy-nominated comedian Ikechukwu Ufomadu manages to steal the show in a tour de force performance. Co-starring Chloe Cherry. “The funniest New York movie in years”—The Daily Beast.

Actor Ikechukwu "Ike" Ufomadu will be present for audience discussion.

EVO Entertainment Delray Marketplace

Sunday, February 2, 7 pm

THE GLORY Of LIFE

(Die Herrlichkeit Des Lebens)

(Historical Drama, 2024, North Palm Beach County Premiere. Directed by Judith Kaufmann and Georg Maas.  Germany/Austria, 98-minutes – In German with English subtitles)

A tender love story with Franz Kafka at the center would seem to run counter to the popular image of the author of such deeply paranoid works as The Metamorphosis and The Trial as a solitary, alienated man. For the filmmakers of THE GLORY OF LIFE, that is precisely the point as this bittersweet tragic tale unfolds the loving and life-affirming relationship between 40-year-old Kafka, already in poor health with tuberculosis, and Dora Diamant, the young children's caregiver he meets in 1923. From the early days of their passionate attraction through a forced separation and a final reuniting in wintry Berlin, love, faith and humor come to the fore with a lightness that puts Kafka's personal story in a new perspective. Co-starring Sabin Tabrea and Henriette Confurius.

The Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center

Saturday, January 25, 7 pm

HOLY COW

(Vingt Dieux)

(Drama/Comedy, 2024, Florida Premiere. Directed by Louise Courvoisier.  France, 90-minutes – In French with English subtitles)

Winner of the Youth Prize at the 2024 Cannes International Film Festival, HOLY COW is a rough and ready coming of age film with a foodie angle, set in the Jura region of France, renowned for its famed Comté cheese and hearty cuisine. Totone (Clément Faveau), a rude red-haired rascal, is forced by a tragedy to become guardian of his little sister and the failing family farm.  The making and maturation of the cheese serves as an apt metaphor for the trajectory of the story and its zesty romance.  A competition for best Comté cheese is a crafty strategy for giving viewers a fascinating glimpse of a little-known aspect of French country culture. “A joyful, earthy coming-of-age film about one of the most important things in life good food”—Filmuforia.

EVO Entertainment Delray Marketplace

Saturday, February 1, 7 pm

HOUSEWIFE OF THE YEAR

(Documentary, 2024, Florida Premiere. Directed by Cierán Cassidy.  Ireland, 77-minutes)

Winner of Best Irish Feature Documentary at the 2024 Galway Film Fleadh.  From 1968 to 1995, Irish television annually featured the “Housewife of the Year” contest in which mostly-middle-aged mothers of many children competed for the crown and sash and the grand prize of a gas range after demonstrating their skill in household arts including preparing a simple meal. Scenes from the show's history range from humorously kitsch to shockingly sad, revealing a life with parameters strictly proscribed by society and the Catholic church, and in which motherhood was not optional.  The film's present-day encounters with surviving winners revive mixed memories while delving into once-forbidden subjects including virginity and marriage, unwed motherhood, contraception and husbands wedded to the pub.

The Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center

Saturday, January 25, 1 pm

JULIE KEEPS QUIET

(Drama, 2024, Florida Premiere. Directed by Leonardo Van Dijl.  Belgium/Sweden, 100-minutes – In Dutch and French with English subtitles)

The official Belgian submission for 2025 Oscar consideration, in this coming-of-age film a scandal rocks an elite tennis academy where a popular coach is suspended under suspicion of sexually grooming his teen proteges. News of the suicide of one of them breaks and all eyes are on Julie, the young rising star long perceived to be his favorite. While not primarily a sports film, the vigorous and beautifully shot match sequences provide an apt metaphor for a conflict that plays out wrenchingly in Julie's head. First-time actress and real-life tennis champ Tessa Van den Broeck turns in a remarkable performance as the talented but isolated young woman struggling with conflicting loyalties and a guilty secret as her future hangs in the balance. Co-starring Pierre Gervais. “A riveting psychological drama, slow burn intensity”—The Hollywood Reporter 

The Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center

Sunday, January 26, 4 pm

LIZA: A TRULY TERRIFIC AND ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY

(Documentary / 2024, Florida Premiere. Directed by Bruce David Klein. USA, 104-minutes)

The Opening Night Screening of The Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival©, presented by MorseLife.

One film is barely enough to encompass all the facets of the glittery life and career of Liza Minnelli, but director Klein pulls it off with many a humorously bossy aside from the Oscar-winning Cabaret star herself. This portrait puts the emphasis on a lifetime of meaningful relationships with mentors including Kay Thompson, Bob Fosse, and Halston as young Liza emerges from the shadow of her famous father, film director Vincente Minnelli, and her legendary mother Judy Garland to become one of the most extraordinary artists of our time.  Appearances by friends and collaborators include Mia Farrow, Chita Rivera, Ben Vereen, George Hamilton, and with running commentary by musician Michael Feinstein pulling it all together with his usual flair. “A gorgeous portrait of a legendary showbiz survivor, warmly celebratory but also unquestionably authentic”—The Hollywood Reporter

Note: Director Bruce David Klein will appear and answer questions at the Festival's Opening Night screening.

The Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center

Thursday, January 23, 7:30 pm

THERE'S STILL TOMORROW

(Comedy/Drama, 2023, Florida Premiere. Directed by Paola Cortellesi.  Italy, 118-minutes – In Italian with English subtitles)

Shot in black-and-white with a look that mimics the style of Italian Neorealism by Cortellisi, a multitalented popular star who cast herself as a longsuffering working-class wife and mother in mid-1940s Rome. This dark comedy riffs on the stereotypical image of a family under the thumb of a tyrannical father and irascible grandfather, with domestic violence staged for rueful laughs, but the wife just may have the last laugh when she receives a mysterious letter that holds the earth-shaking promise of change.  Special Jury Award, Audience Award, 2024 Rome Film Festival. “With some nail-biting suspense…this is storytelling with terrific confidence and panache”—The Guardian.

EVO Entertainment Delray Marketplace

Friday, January 31, 7 pm

TROLL STORM

(Documentary / Jewish, 2023, Palm Beach County Premiere. Directed by Eunice Law. USA, 83-minutes)

A Montana realtor's win in a groundbreaking First Amendment court case that struck a blow to white supremacy and neo-Nazism is charted in this searing documentary. Tanya Gersh, a wife, mom, and successful businesswoman, becomes the target of a smear campaign initially launched by a neighbor. Outsider far-right extremists jump into the act, sensing an opportunity for grandstanding their antisemitic agenda. Gersh's contact information and location is released nationally in a hate publication, resulting in a cyber storm of death threats and harassment that cause the family to fear for their safety.  Steeled by a knowledge of history and a sense of solidarity with Holocaust survivors, Gersh digs in and chooses to fight back.

Note: Tanya Gersh will be present for audience discussion.

EVO Entertainment Delray Marketplace

Wednesday, January 29, 7 pm)

WILD DIAMOND

(Diamant Brut)

(Drama, 2024, Palm Beach County Premiere. Directed by Agathe Riedinger. France, 103-minutes – In French with English subtitles)

Selected to compete for the Palm d'Or in the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, WILD DIAMOND represents a daring new generation of go-for-broke French female directors. Liane (Malou Khébizi), a working-class teen in the south of France, lives for social media and aspires to Kardashian glitz styled from tawdry shoplifted booty. Although her online persona is brash and cartoonishly sexy, Liane is paradoxically an innocent, never more so than when she is led on by the scout for a TV reality show in search of new talent. Writer/director Riedinger poignantly creates a unique portrait of a wannabe influencer hungry for the endless fame of the internet. “A startling bold and true French drama.. the audience feels blessed by the arrival of a filmmaker this accomplished”—Variety. 

The Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center

Tuesday, January 28, 4 pm

For more information about the SASIFF or to purchase tickets, please visit www.sasiff.org.

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