BY VICKI GILHULA
This year's Cinéfest Sudbury will present films with exotic locations like Lebanon and Spain, and some not so exotic places such as Wawa, North Bay and New Jersey.
Staff at Cinéfest were working up to the last minute to prepare for the kickoff press conference Thursday (July 27) to announce programming for the 2006 festival which will run from Sept. 16 to 24.  Confirmation for two of the feature films were finalized the night before.
Cinéfest just got the OK to open the festival with
Snowcake,  a British/Canadian production starring Alan
Rickman and Sigourney Weaver, which was shot in Wawa.
Snowcake hasn't been released yet but opened at the
Berlin Film Festival, and was shown at the Tribeca Film
Festival in May.
When Rickman's character Alex picks up a hitchhiker, his
world is about to be turned upside down. Weaver plays the
hitchhiker's autistic mother.
The festival also just got the green light to present The
Journals of Knud Rasmussen, based on the journals of a 1920s
Danish ethnographer about the life of the last great Inuit
shaman.
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen is opening this year's
Toronto Film Festival and there is lots of buzz about it.
The movie, exploring the history of the Inuit people through
the eyes of a father and daughter, is a follow up to Zacharias
Kunuk's 2001 film, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), which won
the Camera D'or in Cannes and then the prize for best
Canadian film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
 
One of the films for Cinéfest's Indie Can program, The
Beautiful Somewhere, was shot in North Bay. A young
archaeologist is sent to the north country to investigate a
mysterious "bog body" discovered in a swamp. She is
teamed up with a police officer and former soldier. They
develop a bond as they track down the mystery.
Jersey City is the location of one of the International
Cinema offerings, The Immaculate Misconception. Mary Flanagan,
a good girl, says she was visited by Saint Bernadette and the
Virgin Mary and that her pregnancy must be a miracle.
For more information about the 18th annual film festival phone (705) 688-1234 or visit www.cinefest.com .
