Hamptons Film Festival Announces First Of Festival's 2019 Offerings

The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) has announced that “Just Mercy” will open the 2019 festival with its East Coast Premiere on Thursday, October 10, at Guild Hall. A powerful and thought-provoking true story, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, “Just Mercy” follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice as he fights a legal system stacked against him and his clients at every turn. The film also stars Jamie Foxx, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Karan Kendrick and Brie Larson.

“Ford v Ferrari” has been selected as the festival’s Saturday Centerpiece film. Directed by James Mangold, the film is based on the remarkable true story of the visionary American car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and the fearless British driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale), who together battled corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.

In celebration of one of this year’s most talked about performances for her role in Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency,” the festival will honor Alfre Woodard with a special “A Conversation With...” featuring the Emmy Award winner, Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress in-person for a career spanning discussion. In “Clemency,” an official selection of the festival, Woodard plays prison warden Bernadine Williams, who is dealing with the emotional strain of carrying out death row executions.

In addition, four films will have world premieres — Treva Wurmfeld’s “Conscience Point,” a documentation of the Shinnecock Nation and their ongoing fight for recognition of their ancestral rights in Southampton, which will premiere in Views from Long Island section; Ben Steele’s “In Memoriam,” an intimate and powerful look at the human cost of the country’s mass shooting epidemic and Mark Landsman’s “Scandalous,” an expansive and probing look into the true story of The National Enquirer, both of which will premiere in the World Documentary Cinema section; and Anthony Baxter’s “Flint,” a documentary about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, that brought a national spotlight to issues of economic depression and water treatment across the country, which will screen in the festival’s Air, Land & Sea section.

“We are honored to have Alfre Woodard at this year’s festival and look forward to a captivating and engaging conversation, with her as well as our Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Brian De Palma,” said Anne Chaisson, Executive Director of the Hamptons International Film Festival.

“Each of these films tell a unique, thrilling story and we are excited to share them with our passionate audiences out east, with a truly remarkable lineup of some of the year’s most anticipated films, events and world premiere screenings,” said David Nugent, Artistic Director of the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Passes and packages for the 2019 festival will go on sale September 5, and individual tickets will go on sale on October 1. The 27th annual Hamptons International Film Festival will run October 10 to 14. For more information visit hamptonsfilmfest.org.