What a world class film festival!
The feature film Daydream Hotel* by Tony Perri premiered at Coronado Island Film Festival on January 17th. It was very exciting to get together with my castmates and the crew of the film at Coronado School of The Arts to experience a labor of love that was shot at the legendary Hotel del Coronado and that had an incredible turn around so it could award the amazing students from CoSa at the festival. *Teaser and more info here : https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hotel-del-coronado-indie-film-daydream-hotel#/
My husband and I decided to get passes to enjoy the festival and take advantage of screenings, events and panels. There was such a great selection of films. I’m not surprised since Mary D. Sikes, Doug St. Denis, Andre Zotoff, and Andy Friedenberg are behind it.
One of the movies that we were fortunate to watch was the Opening Night Screening: The Finest Hours based on Casey Sherman’s book, directed by Craig Gillespie, and produced by James Whitaker .
Courage – Faith – Honor
Since Coronado is a navy town, it was the perfect place to debut this film. In fact, soldiers were marching with the United States flag and we sung the national anthem prior to the screening. An admiral explained how similar this movie is to real duties.
Per the CIFF here is the synopsis:
On February 18, 1952, a massive nor’easter struck New England, pummeling towns along the Eastern seaboard and wreaking havoc on the ships caught in its deadly path, including SS Pendleton, a T-2 oil tanker bound for Boston, which was literally ripped in half, trapping more than 30 sailors inside its rapidly-sinking stern. As the senior officer on board, first assistant engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) soon realizes it is up to him to take charge of the frightened crew and inspire the men to set aside their differences and work together to ride out one of the worst storms to ever hit the East Coast. Meanwhile, as word of the disaster reaches the U.S. Coast Guard station in Chatham, Massachusetts, Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana) orders a daring operation to rescue the stranded men. Despite overwhelming odds, four men, led by the Coast Guard Captain Bernie Webber (Chris Pine), set out in a wooden lifeboat with an ill-equipped engine and little, if any, means of navigation, facing frigid temperatures, 60-foot high waves and hurricane-force winds.
I was on the edge of my seat during the entire movie. It felt like we were in the water as well. Maybe the 3D glasses made it happen, I don’t know. I usually don’t like wearing them but it was not a burden at all. The acting is great especially the new face of Holliday Grainger. It’s so refreshing to have women in film that are strong and classic beauties. I won’t reveal too much about the film since it’s being released on January 29th but I just want to say that Disney picked a jewel here and that it was a very immersive film.
The festival ended with a screening of “Some Like It Hot” on the beach of the Hotel del Coronado and the intro of the film had a preview from the upcoming musical comedy Sugar, based on the screenplay of “Some Like It Hot” about to open at Lamplighters with my friend Kristen FOgle in it. Chris Lemmon opened the film. He is the exact replica of his father Jack Lemmon. It was surreal!
Additional links:
Teaser of The Finest Hours: http://di.sn/6002BXEfg
CaroLine Style 