Tom Cruise, Sacha Baron Cohen Confirmed

Roger Durling Announces the Two Stars on His Film Fest
Blog

Official news came through yesterday what we’d been hearing here
at The Indy‘s Film Fest 2007 blog since late last week:
Tom Cruise will be in town to present Will
Smith his Modern Master Award on
Saturday, January 27, at the Arlington Theatre and Sacha Baron
Cohen will be here for a Q&A following a special screening of
his hit film Borat on Friday, January 26, at 1:30 p.m. in
the Lobero Theatre.

The news was announced on Film
Geek Confidential, Roger Durling’s blog that is posted via the
film fest’s website.

In related news, Durling spoke to the Santa Barbara Young Professionals Club
today, Wednesday, January 17, and unveiled his top 10 choices of
films to see during the fest for those who cab ibly handle a
handful. Here they are:

Days of
Glory, from Algeria, about World War II

Golden
Door, from Italy, a Godfather-like saga about
immigration

Avenue
Montaigne, from France, an about a woman waiting tables in
a trendy French neighborhood

The Lives of
Others, from Germany, about Eastern German surveillance

Ahlaam, from
Iraq, about mental ward patients and the start of the current Iraq
war

Dark Blue Almost Black, from Spain, sexy like a Pedro
Almodovar film in which an ex-con asks his younger brother to get
his girlfriend pregnant

Chronicle of
Escape, from Argentina, about the escape of political
prisoners in the 1970s

The
Italian, from Russia, about an orphan seeking her
mother

Amazing
Grace, from America, which is the Centerpiece to the whole
fest and tells the story of an abolitionist in 18th century
England

Beauty in
Trouble, a story about family perserverance from the Czech
Republic, one of the best of the seven Eastern European films in
the fest

So there’s a crib sheet for those wanting the most bang for
their buck. And given that I got to see the Iraqi film last night,
I’d have to confirm that it’s quite a powerful movie, especially
since it was filmed amidst the chaos that is modern Baghdad. The
filmmaker was acutally abducted at one point, but managed to get
free.

That’s all for now, folks!