AFI Fest to open with Cash biopic

THIS year’s AFI Fest will start out with a twang -- the Johnny Cash/June Carter biopic “Walk the Line.” The opening-night film, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon and directed by James Mangold, arrives in L.A. after well-received screenings at the Toronto and Telluride festivals. It’s also in time for the run-up to awards season that traditionally begins when the National Board of Review announces its honorees, which this year will be Dec. 1, followed in quick succession by the Los Angeles and New York critics groups and later by the Golden Globe nominees in mid-December, as well as the AFI’s own picks for the year.

Among the festival’s world premieres, most of them U.S. films, will be Penelope Spheeris’ “The Kid and I,” a film written by and starring Tom Arnold, with Linda Hamilton, Henry Winkler, Joe Mantegna and Shannon Elizabeth, about a teen (Eric Gores) who dreams of starring in a big action movie. From the U.K. is director Roger Spottiswoode’s “Ripley Under Ground,” the further adventures of Patricia Highsmith’s smooth-moving murderer, this time played by Barry Pepper.

Among noteworthy North American premieres are Marcelo Gomez’s “Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures” from Brazil; the soccer documentary “Pele Forever,” also from Brazil; and Ari Alexander Ergis’ documentary about Iceland’s unusual music scene, “Screaming Masterpiece,” which features, among others, Bjork, the Sugarcubes and Bang Gang.

AFI Fest runs Nov. 3-13. For information and tickets, visit afi.com or call (866) AFI-FEST. The accompanying American Film Market, where independent films are packaged, bought and sold, runs Nov. 2-9. For information on AFM, go to americanfilmmarket.com.

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-- From a Times staff writer