By LaToya Clement
A&E Reporter
Now that the Oscars have come and gone, film lovers can lookforward to something new.
The Memphis Film Forum is gearing up for Memphis InternationalFilm Festival 4.
The festival, which is set for March 27-30, will feature avariety of films, both local and international. Film showings willbe held at Malco's Studio On The Square and the First CongoTheatre.
"Our program philosophy is a mix of local and global. We thinkthat we have done a pretty good job of finding a little somethingfor everyone, in terms of subject matter and film style," saidMichael Harwood, Memphis Film Forum chairman.
"This year we have documentaries, animated films, live actionshorts and foreign films."
Spectators of Film Festival 4 can expect to see the talents ofactor Morgan Freeman showcased in many of the films.
Freeman, a Memphis native, was selected as the forum's honorarychair. In his honor, the festival will feature several of Freeman'sfilms: Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Glory.
"We are doing a Morgan Freeman retrospect. We have several ofhis previous films in the festival, including his one directingeffort, a film called Bopha!," Harwood said.
In addition to his previous films, Film Festival 4 will alsoshow a new documentary called Partners of the Heart, in whichFreeman narrates.
"We will also show his new feature film called Levity, whereFreeman produces and stars in the film with Holly Hunter, Billy BobThornton and Kirsten Dunst," Harwood said.
Levity is set to be the opening film of the festival on Thursdayat 7:30 p.m.
Freeman, along with Hunter and writer-director Ed Solomon, arescheduled to attend.
Admirers of foreign films can expect to see a variety ofinternational films there in a series called InternationalMasters.
"We received submissions from all over the world and we havesome new foreign films in the festival," Harwood said. "We alsohave some films that we selected which are thought to be the bestin world cinema."
According to Harwood, the International Masters series willshowcase films such as Scent of Green Papaya from Vietnam andBreathless from France. The series will also include a showing ofAmores Perros, in honor of the film's director AlejandroInarritu.
"The director, Inarritu, was just here filming 21 Grams. So wethought that we would include Amores Perros in the festival thisyear, in honor of him being here," he said.
Burton Morrison, the general manager of Studio On The Square,has had the opportunity to experience several film festivals in thelast few years. He said his staff has started preparing for thisweekend's festival. Although he will be busy in the film projectionroom, Morrison is looking forward to the event.
"I think it is really neat they chose to do the festival here.Midtown is the perfect place to hold something like this inMemphis," Morrison said. "It looks like they are going to beshowing a lot of good stuff this year."
For more information regarding ticket sales and movie line ups,visit Memphis Film Forum's web site atwww.memphisfilmforum.org.
