With Mammoth Film Festival 2023 less than a week away, the festival continues to reveal incredible work being showcased in its 2023 lineup, revealing its opening night premiere announcement and new exciting slate additions.
This year is also a true buyers’ market, with previous festivals resulting in a variety of sales across all genres from features to episodic to documentaries. Mammoth Film Festival’s international status is also growing exponentially, with this year’s array of 80+ film projects representing 21 countries, founded by Tanner Beard and Tomik Mansoori.
The Mammoth Film Festival has announced its opening night film, Padre Pio Starring Shia LaBeouf, a film by Abel Ferrara, marking its North American Festival Premiere debut. The 1h 44m drama follows Roman Catholic Saint Padre Pio in his early years. Co-stars include Asia Argento, Marco Leonardi, Christina Chiriac, and many more incredible Italian actors.
The legendary director will be doing a post-film Q&A on Thursday, March 2nd to kick off the festival at Minaret Cinemas, in Mammoth Lakes, CA. The film was written by Maurizio Braucci and Abel Ferrara.
Ferrara, born in the Bronx, started making amateur films on Super 8 in his teens, before making his debut with violent exploitation films such as Driller Killer and Ms. 45. He developed a cult reputation following these projects, leading to larger budget studio films starring Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, and many other iconic actors. Ferrara loves the grit of filmmaking, continuously shooting directly in the streets of Rome as Tommaso and Zeroes and Ones attest.”
The festival’s closing night film will officially be Dreamer starring Diego Calva, Ari Lopez, Renata Vaca, Afredo Castro, Paulina Gaitan and Jason Patric, inspired by a true story from the Golden Globe-winning producers of Argentina 1985, and executive producer Yalitza Aparicio.
Logline: A Mexican teenager whose dreams of becoming a soccer star are disrupted when his mother dies. He’s smuggled across the border with the promise of a better life but is instead sold to a sweatshop in downtown LA.
Another exciting announcement and world premiere to the features slate is the horror thriller Night Shift, starring Phoebe Tonkin, Lamorne Morris and Patrick Fischler, directed and written by Benjamin China and Paul China and produced by Maurice Fadida.
Logline: While working her first night shift at a remote motel, a woman (Tonkin) begins to suspect that the property is haunted.
Also newly added to the lineup is The Mental State, the Bryan Greenberg, Carly Pope, Alyssa Sutherland and Alison Thornton starring-feature drama, directed by James Camali. This will mark its 2023 festival debut, with the film having already built nice buzz. Logline: In the heart of rural Kentucky, a high school senior and his family struggle to cope with the true identity and intentions of a dangerous town shooter.
REELated:
The Documentary, Citizen Athlete, leads with anticipation in the Actions Sports category, written by Ryan March, directed by Brandt Wille, and starring Olympians and pro athletes Elana Meyers, Hunter Church and Kaillie Humphries of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Bobsled Competition.
Logline: An intimate and inside look to the Women’s US Bobsled team leading up to the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
The documentary Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West has also been added. Logline: A sweeping, immersive journey into the world of wild horses, which illuminates the profound beauty and desperate plight they currently face in the Western United States. Filmmaker Ashley Avis (Disney’s BLACK BEAUTY) and crew go on a multi-year expedition to uncover the truth before wild horses disappear forever.
The documentary category is also highlighted by the world premiere of Michael Madsen’s American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective from director Dominique Milano, featuring Quentin Tarantino, John Travolta, Ron Perlman, Paul Sorvino, Mario Kassar, Angie Everhart, Donald Gladstein, William Baldwin, Chuck Zito, Mike Starr, Robert Forster, Daryl Hannah, Virginia Madsen, Charlie Sheen and many more.
The festival will also showcase a Sneak Peek of Mammoth Media Institute’s first feature, the psycho-thriller Fluxx, currently shooting, starring Shelley Henning and Shiloh Fernandez, written & directed by Brendan Murphy. This is a result of funding raised by The Institute to support independent filmmakers. Festival goers will be the first to see this project, which is still in production.
Short Films are stealing the show at this year’s festival. El Portafolio written and directed by Scottie Cameron, starring Albert Hammond Jr. (The Strokes), Alma Martinez and Juan Carlos Cantu; The Last Bell with Mia Challis, Nancy Berggren, Amanda Melby, Akiko Morrison; Tree of Life with Markie Farnsley, Ashley Newbrough, Ryan Pinkston, Alex Oliver; Lucas Needs An Agent with Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Katie Leclerc, Sherra Lasley, Sasha Clements; The Traveler with Herman Gambhir, Ana Marte, and 10 Year with Dana Melanie, Michelle DeShon, Reina Hardesty, Brett Pierce; plus Better Daze starring Antje Utgaard and Kyle Stefanski, directed by Jon Carlo and produced by Kyle Stefanski and Antoine Robinson.
These films join the already announced stellar opening slate with highly anticipated films such as the crime drama The Engineer based on a factual Israeli story directed by Danny A. Abeckaser, starring Abeckaser and Emile Hirsch, alongside Robert Davi, Omer Hazan, Angel Bonanni, and Kyle Stefanski; Joel David Moore’s Some Other Woman which he directed starring Amanda Crew, Ashley Greene and Tom Felton; the Peter Facinelli starring and directed film On Fire; Rise from Maritte Lee Go and producer Maurice Fadida starring Jimmy Akingbola, Joy Sunday, Peter Mensah, Sasha Morfaw, Sufe Bradshaw and Chike Okonkwo; with MammothFF’s First Time Filmmaker Spotlight is set to highlight actors turned directors Luke Roberts and Justin Matthews who will premiere The Duel starring Dylan Sprouse, Hart Denton and Patrick Warburton.
Tickets are on sale now.
