In addition to a workshop with Michael Winterbottom collaborator Frank Cottrell-Boyce (screenwriter for Welcome to Sarajevo and The Claim), and a public interview with Neil Jordan, the Budweiser 14th Foyle Film Festival features a fine menu of diverse film titles. Running from the 9th of November to the 19th, the festival’s highlights include:

Opening film – Wit

Starring Emma Thompson as a literary professor with terminal cancer, in what has been almost universally hailed as a virtuoso performance.

Closing film – Heist

David Mamet follows up State and Main with this homage to film-noir which stars Gene Hackman as an old-school criminal forced into taking one last job (surprise!), thanks to a double-cross by his fence, Danny deVito. Expect a perfectly structured affair replete with note-perfect performances and wry dialogue. Sam Rockwell, Delroy Lindo and director’s wife Rebecca Pidgeon also star.

Greenfingers

Superior Britflick: many felt that Greenfingers should have been this year’s Billy Elliot. Set in the picuresque Cotswolds, this Full Monty-with-flowers affair stars Helen Mirren and veteran Irish actor David Kelly.

Storytelling

Split into two parts, Todd Solondz’ follow-up to Happiness begins with Fiction, in which Selma Blair splits up with her cerebral-palsy afflicted boyfriend. Non-Fiction follows a documentary filmmaker trying to capture the post-Columbine American High School experience.

Eloge de l’Amour

Eloge de l’Amour – Jean-Luc Godard’s latest cine-essay, with Bruno Puzrelie as a director planning a creative project about the four stages of love – meting, passion, separation and reconciliation. The gospel according to Jean-Luc hasn’t changed at all over the years.

On The Nose

Irish comedy with Robbie Coltrane as a Dublin porter with the ability to predict racing results by consulting the head of a dead Aboriginal activist. Dan Ackroyd and Brenda Blethyn also star.

Baby Boy

John Singleton returns to South Central LA for this tale of a pampered twenty-year-old who refuses to settle with either of the mothers of his children. When his mother starts dating Ving Rhames, however, he has to think about moving out and ownwords. Features gunfire and Snoop Dogg.