The 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival will open on Jan. 3 with Simone Godano’s Italian farce “An Almost Ordinary Summer” and close on Jan. 12 with Peter Cattaneo’s Kristin Scott Thomas/Sharon Horgan film “Military Wives,” PSIFF organizers announced on Tuesday.
The festival will screen 188 films from 81 different countries, including 51 of the 91 Oscar entries in the Best International Feature Film category. Those films will include Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory,” Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables,” Karim Ainouz’s “Invisible Life,” Halina Reijn’s “Instinct,” Yaron Zilberman’s “Incitement,” Vaclav Marhoul’s “The Painted Bird,” Kantemir Balagov’s “Beanpole,” Lila Aviles’ “The Chambermaid” and Antoneta Kastrati’s “Zana.”
Other programs will include the Talking Pictures series of conversations with filmmakers and authors from “Hustlers,” “Jojo Rabbit” and “Motherless Brooklyn”; Focus on Italy, featuring seven Italian films including “The Traitor”; Modern Masters, which will present new films from Roy Andersson, Takashi Miike, Werner Herzog, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Agnes Varda, among other international auteurs; and New Voices New Visions, with a series of films from first- and second-time directors from more than a dozen countries.
PSIFF will also present a dozen LGBTQ-themed films in the Queer Cinema Today section; 20 documentaries, including Gabe Polsky’s “Red Penguins,” Lauren Greenfield’s “The Kingmaker” and Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche’s “Advocate”; and almost 60 films from around the globe in World Cinema Now, including Shannon Murphy’s “Babyteeth,” Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ “Bacuaru,” Guiseppe Capotondi’s “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency,” Michael Winterbottom’s “Greed” and Alice Winocour’s “Proxima.”
Fifty one of the festival’s films will be world, North American, international or U.S. premieres.
The 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival will run from Jan. 3 through Jan. 12 in the desert resort town east of Los Angeles, after its annual Awards Gala on Jan. 2.
The full list of films can be found at the festival website.