Palm Springs International Film Festival announces 180-film lineup

The 24th Palm Springs International Film Festival on Thursday announced its lineup of 180 films from 68 countries, including 61 premieres -- three world, 21 North American and 37 U.S. Of the total number of movies, 63 are features by first-time filmmakers.

The festival is set to open Jan. 3 with Pablo Berger’s “Blancanieves,” a silent-movie version of “Snow White,” which is Spain’s submission for the foreign-language-film Oscar.

Closing the festival on Jan. 13 is to be the U.S. premiere of Paul Andrew Williams’ “Unfinished Song,” starring veteran British stars Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave.

The world premieres include France’s “Elephants,” Canada’s “Molly Maxwell” and the U.S. documentary “Smiling Through the Apocalypse -- Esquire in the ‘60s.”

Among the North American premieres are “900 Days” from the Netherlands”; “Crawl” and “Dreamers” from France; the Australian/U.S. production “Mental,” with Toni Collette and Liev Schreiber; and “Two Lives,” starring Liv Ullmann, from Germany and Norway.

The U.S. premieres include “Emperor,” starring Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones; Mike Newell’s “Great Expectations,” with Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes; and “Still,” with James Cromwell.

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