The nation's largest international film festival is coming to Penn.
The 15th annual Philadelphia Film Festival will be held from March 30 to April 11, and part of it will take place on campus.
Screenings in University City will be held at Penn's International House and the Cinema at Penn, as well as at the Bridge: Cinema de Lux.
This year, actor Laurence Fishburne will open the festival by introducing the first film, "Akeelah and the Bee," on March 30 at the Annenberg Center's Harold Prince Theatre. Fishburne stars in the film, which is about a girl's experiences preparing for a spelling bee.
The festival will close with a screening of "Friends with Money," which opened at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah earlier this year.
Anyone can purchase tickets to festival events and screenings local TLA video stores and from Phillyfests.com. Tickets run from $7.50 to $9.50.
Penn has been key in the festival's expansion from downtown, Penn's Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik said.
"We are acting in a facilitating way to bring the festival to West Philadelphia," Blaik said.
Of the 65,000 projected attendees of the festival, Blaik expects more than half come to West Philadelphia.
But Penn's role in the festival extends beyond hosting events.
"With Penn Cinema Studies' authority behind [the lectures] -- with their prestige -- this is going to be a much bigger event than it has been in the past," said Andrew Preis, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Film Society, which organizes the festival. "We're very excited and very grateful to them."
The festival also provides a unique opportunity for students of the cinema studies program.
"The connections to the festival are amazing," Program Assistant Director Nicola Gentili said.
The festival, featuring 231 films from 43 countries, hosts screenings in Old City, Center City and, since 2003, University City.
It will feature a tribute to actress Susan Sarandon and a five-part Cine Cafes lecture series, which will examine five separate aspects the film industry and will be conducted for the first time this year by Penn professors from the cinema studies program.
Gentili said that many Penn cinema studies students will participate in the screenings, both as volunteers and as spectators.
But the festival aims to attract any and all students.
"We are hoping to really draw from the University of Pennsylvania community for the film festival," Preis said.
He noted the opportunity that the international festival provides to Penn students.
"We're offering them the world's imagination," Preis said.
One Penn student who is sure to be in attendance is Elizabeth Lim.
Lim, a Master of Fine Arts candidate in the School of Design, is director the short film "A Sleeplessness," which will be featured in the festival.
She said that attending classes in the School of Design influenced the cinematic technique implemented in the film.
"Being in such an artistically diverse environment has reshaped my entire pursuit of the medium," Lim said.
The festival will also feature the work of Penn alumni Heather Douglass, star of "Two Days," and Alex Orlovsky, producer of "Half Nelson."
