Academy Launches New Film-to-Film Festival

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will launch its first-ever Film-to-Film Festival on Sept. 27 to showcase its newest film preservation initiative.

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A year ago, the Academy embarked on a two-year effort called Project Film-to-Film aimed at preserving films on film. The initiative's main goal is to use currently available film stock to create new prints of a diverse range of motion pictures. More than 390 new prints, covering narrative features, documentaries, experimental films, animation and short movies, have already been created. The titles range from Navajo, the only film to receive Oscar nominations for both documentary feature and cinematography; Naked Yoga, a short once presumed to be lost; and the cult favorite Carnival of Souls.

The festival will kick off Sept. 27 with a screening of Terry Gilliam's original director's cut of Brazil at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

The complete schedule follows:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 

Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 7:30 p.m. 

BRAZIL (1985), Original Director’s Cut (35mm, color, 142 min.) 

Onstage discussion with Katherine Helmond and Arnon Milchan 

Writer-director Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” is set in an alternative reality “somewhere in the 20th century,” where civil servant Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) fights a hopeless battle against a totalitarian state. The film earned Academy Award® nominations for Original Screenplay (Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown) and Art Direction (Art Direction: Norman Garwood; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray). The stellar supporting cast includes Helmond, Jim Broadbent, Robert De Niro, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Charles McKeown and Michael Palin

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 

Linwood Dunn Theater, 7:30 p.m. 

ANIMATED AND LIVE ACTION SHORTS PROGRAM 

This program illustrates the wide range of films preserved by the Film-to-Film initiative, including a rare short made by the Academy itself, intriguing works by noted animators and the big-screen debut of crooner Phil Harris. 

OF MEN AND DEMONS, John Hubley and Faith Hubley (1969, 16mm, color, 9 min.) 

Academy Award nominee: Cartoon Short Subject 

SO THIS IS HARRIS, Mark Sandrich (1933, 35mm, black-and-white, 28 min.) 

Academy Award winner: Comedy Short Subject 

THE UNICYCLE RACE, Robert Swarthe (1966, 35mm, color, 7 min.) 

RAILWAY WITH A HEART OF GOLD, Carson “Kit” Davidson (1965, 16mm, color, 15 min.) 

SCREEN ACTORS, (1950, 35mm, black-and-white, 9 min.) 

Linwood Dunn Theater, 9:30 p.m. 

EXPERIMENTAL FILM PROGRAM 

The boundaries of the film medium are stretched, ignored and laughed at in these experimental shorts that manipulate sight, sound, narrative and the relationship between filmmaker and spectator. 

EYE MYTH, Stan Brakhage (1967, 35mm, color, silent 24fps, 9 seconds) 

NIGHT MULCH & VERY, Stan Brakhage (2001, 35mm, color, silent 24fps, 6 min.) 

EXPERIMENTS IN MOTION GRAPHICS, John Whitney (1968, 16mm, color, sound, 11min.) 

MADAME MAO’S LOST LOVE LETTERS, Tom Leeser & Diana Wilson (1983, 35mm, color, 

3 min.) 

BABOBILICONS, Daina Krumins (1982, 35mm, color, 16 min.) 

PENCIL BOOKLINGS, Kathy Rose (1978, 35mm, color, 14 min.) 

FURIES, Sara Petty (1977, 35mm, color, 3 min.) 

SONOMA, Sky-David, formerly known as Dennis Pies (1977, 35mm, color, 7 min.) 

BACKGROUND, Carmen D’Avino (1973, 35mm, color, 20 min.) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 

Linwood Dunn Theater, 2 p.m. 

DOC PROGRAM #1 

The afternoon’s first program illustrates the diverse topics of the documentaries covered by the initiative, with a short about the spiritual aspects of Hatha yoga, and the Maysles brothers’ portrait of movie distributor Joseph E. Levine. 

NAKED YOGA, Paul Cordsen (1974, 35mm, color, 25 min.) 

Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject 

SHOWMAN, Albert Maysles and David Maysles (1963, 35mm, black-and-white, 52 min.) 

Linwood Dunn Theater, 4 p.m. 

DOC PROGRAM #2 

The afternoon’s second documentary program features two titles that use a semi-documentary approach to convey stories of World War II rumor-mongering and the cultural conflict faced by a young Navajo boy. 

MR. BLABBERMOUTH!, Basil Wrangell (1942, 35mm, black-and-white, 19 min.) 

Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject 

NAVAJO, Norman Foster (1952, 35mm, black-and-white, 70 min.) 

Academy Award nominee: Documentary Feature; Black-and-White Cinematography 

Linwood Dunn Theater, 7:30 p.m. 

SPIDER BABY (1968, 35mm, black-and-white, 81 min.) 

World premiere of the Academy Film Archive’s new restoration from the original negative, with special guest writer-director Jack Hill. 

Filmed in 1964 but not released theatrically until 1968, this cult classic marked the solo directorial debut of Hill. The eerie story follows three siblings suffering from a rare genetic disorder that causes them to regress to a primal state of being and act out with savage, incestuous and animalistic behavior. 

Linwood Dunn Theater, 9:30 p.m. 

CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962, 35mm, black-and-white, 78 min.) 

World premiere of the Academy Film Archive’s new restoration from the original negative. 

Director Herk Harvey’s only feature film was made on a tiny budget with a crew largely composed of industrial filmmakers from Lawrence, Kansas. Filled with evocative images, the film tells the story of a young woman who seemingly survives a car crash but is haunted by a ghostly figure that is somehow connected to an abandoned carnival pavilion.