After the success of the inaugural event in late 2004, the Second Sunderland Film Festival (SFF2) takes everything to a whole new level. The SFF2 has a new home: the CineWorld multiplex cinema located at 4 Lambton Street in the heart of Sunderland's city centre.

The long-awaited return of cinema to Sunderland will enable the festival to introduce local audiences to over 20 feature films, with several North Eastern and UK premieres, and an exciting range of guests.

For full listings of the times and dates each film is showing check out the timetable.

Tickets go on sale on 19/1/05 and are available in person at Cineworld itself or by calling their booking line on 0871 220 8000.

NEW RELEASES

Aitraaz
Showing Sunday 23rd January, 4.00pm
In Hindi, 160mins, cert 12A
AITRAAZ has an adult theme - that of an adulterous, deceitful and treacherous woman
- but you can still watch this challenging theme with your mother, wife, sister and daughter, without squirming in your seat. For an audience looking for a change, Aitraaz works big time!
more...

The City of No Limits (Spain)
Showing Friday 21st January, 6.00pm
in Spanish & French with subtitles. 125 mins, cert 12A
The secret at the heart of a dysfunctional family comes slowly to light as the father lies dying. Victor, the son, travels to Paris and decides to help his father towards some kind of resolution before his death.
more...

Daybreak (Sweden)
Showing Thursday 27th January, 6.00pm
108 mins, in Swedish with subtitles, cert 15
The interlinking stories of three families set in Swedish suburbia where lies, jealousy, despair, and betrayal destroy lives. Compellingly sad - nobody does it better than the Swedes.
more...

The Door in the Floor (USA)
showing Friday 28th January, 8.30pm
111mins cert 15
The wonderful Jeff Bridges stars with Kim Basinger in this adaptation of a John Irving novel, as a blocked novelist with a wife who is emotionally frozen by a family tragedy. A young student enters their lives, with emotional and erotic consequences. Brilliant performances, great script, intense and engaging story. Oscar nominations, anyone?
more...

Head-On (Germany)
showing Friday 28th January, 6.00pm
121 mins cert 18 German/Turkish/English with subtitles
A dark love story set in the world of second generation Turkish immigrants in Germany. Two despairing suicidal people meet in hospital, and agree to a marriage of convenience to enable the girl to escape her repressive family. But things don't stay so simple, and tragedy ensues.
more...

Maria Full of Grace (USA/Colombia)
Showing at the Opening Gala (invite only) and on Tuesday 25th January, 8.30pm
101 mins cert 15 Spanish with English subtitles
A Columbian girl seeks escape from poverty by becoming a drug 'mule'. A hard-hitting film that pulls no punches in its depiction of the real, sordid world of the lucrative (for some) drug trade. At times difficult to watch, but totally engrossing, it is ultimately a positive portrayal of the human spirit and its resilience.
more...

Mean Creek (USA)
Showing Monday 24th January, 6.00pm
87 mins, cert 15
Young teenagers set off on a river trip in Oregon, from which, Deliverance-like, none will emerge unscathed. An impressive array of young talent that we'll be seeing much more of in years to come, and a director who has the guts to show adolescence in an honest, no-frills way. Outstanding.
more...

Shall We Dance (USA)
Showing Saturday 22nd January, 8.30pm
106 mins cert 12A
Richard Gere is a lawyer with everything he wants in life - he thinks (including Susan Sarandon as his wife) - but still yearns for that little bit extra. When he spots beautiful dance teacher Jennifer Lopez, he signs up for classes, and soon finds he's lost his heart... Is he in love with her, or the raptures of the dance? Can he rekindle her lost joie de vivre? A remake of the highly acclaimed Japanese film of the same name.
more...

Somersault (Australia)
Showing Sunday 23rd January, 8.30pm
Australia 106 mins, cert 15
This first feature debut for Australian director Cate Shortland won an amazing 13 awards at the recent Australian Film Awards ceremony. It's a girl's coming of age drama, but touching on many other themes too, with complex undertones. Amazing cinematography, set in a part of Oz, the snowy mountains, that we rarely see. Astounding performance by newcomer Abbie Cornish, great support by talented cast.
more...

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (USA)
Showing Saturday 22nd January, 1.30pm and Sunday 23rd January, 1.30pm
USA animation 90 mins cert U
What more need we say? A whole full length feature of Spongebob & his mate Patrick the Starfish, hunting for the stolen Neptune's crown after his boss Mr Krabbe is framed. The kids'll never forgive you if you don't get them to this one. Absorbing.
more...

The Woodsman (USA)
Showing Monday 24th January, 8.30pm
87 mins cert 15
Intelligent, hard hitting drama starring Kevin Bacon in amazing, possibly Oscar-winning, form as a paedophile trying to regain a normal life. Demanding subject, not an easy film to watch, it's another film they'll all be talking about.
more...

AND FROM THE ARCHIVES
CLASSICS SPECIALLY SELECTED BY LOCAL CRITICS AND FILM-MAKERS

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Showing Monday 24th January, 1.15pm
UK/Germany 128 mins, cert PG, choice of Adam Maxwell (local critic)
Terry Gilliam does it again - a crazy, heart-thumping dash through the outrageous, gorgeous C18th universe of fantasist Munchhausen. Disquieting and exhilarating, it's a sunshine romp with touches of a dark soul, a delight for all ages.
more...

Don't Look Now (1973)
Showing Friday 28th January, 1.30pm
Italy/UK, 110mins, cert 15 choice of Sheila Seacroft (local critic)
Venice in winter: grief, danger, menace, decay, the randomness and inevitability of death, the precariousness of life and love, Julie Christie at her most beautiful, and a little figure in red running, running along the canal edges. This is a horror film for grown-ups, with one of the most shocking of all film endings. Maybe the best British film of the 70s.
more...

Kes (1969)
Showing Thursday 27th January, 1.30pm
UK, 110 mins, cert PG choice of Keith Seacroft, (SFF treasurer)
Everyone's favourite Ken Loach movie. The years have not dulled the impact of this shattering and lyrical story of the raising and then crushing of a boy's spirit in a deprived Yorkshire pit village. It will break your heart and stir your anger.
more...

Playtime
Showing Friday 21st January, 1.15pm
(archive 1972) France 126mins choice of Alistair Robinson (local critic)
This is Tati with a surreal edge, as M Hulot wanders around a shiny, modernistic, sharply angled Paris. Certainly the world looks a harsher place than the rural and seaside idylls of his earlier films, but the humour is still that great mix of laugh-out-loud and inner smile, with human foibles still at its centre.
more...

Shakespeare In Love (1998)
Showing Thursday 27th January, 8.30pm
USA/UK 122 mins cert 15 - to be introduced by the film's Sunderland-born Oscar-winning producer David Parfitt, Oscar winning producer and local lad. Shakespeare in Love is the opulent tale of heady romance, beautiful people, gorgeous frocks & well-filled tights. All that and Gwyneth Paltrow too. Brush up your Shakespeare.
more...