American beauties?

They're off and screening in the 15th Boston Film Festival

Now in its 15th year, the Boston Film Festival is settling into middle age with a comfortable, no-frills formula: some 45 features spread over 10 days (September 10 through 19 this year), plus six programs of shorts. It's not Cannes or Berlin or New York or Toronto, but last year's offerings did include Adrian Lyne's Lolita, Julia Sweeney's God Said, "Ha!", Bill Condon's Gods and Monsters, Joan Chen's Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, Robert Towne's Without Limits, Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration, John Boorman's The General, Udayan Prasad's My Son the Fanatic, and Walter Salles's Central Station. This year we get a sneak preview of the promising American Beauty, whose stars, Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, will be receiving the festival's Film Excellence Awards this Sunday evening. There's also a trio of attractive documentaries: Cynthia Gates Fujikawa's Old Man River, James M. Felter's Rats, and Mark McLaughlin's Keepers of the Frame. Here's the line-up for the first week of the festival:

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Film Festival Feature Films

| The Minus Man | The Tavern | Black Eyed Dog | The Last September | A Wake in Providence | Man of the Century | Pups | Dreaming of Joseph Leeds | Wisdom of Crocodiles | That's The Way I Like It | American Beauty | Mifune | Black Cat, White Cat | Hit and Runway | All the LIttle Animals | Me Myself I | The Alchemist and the Virgin | Trash | Old Man River | The Poet and the Con | Snow Falling on Cedars | Guinevere | East is East | American Movie | Rivers of Babylon | Two Ninas | Rats | Keepers of the Frame | The Runner

Also, Boston Film Festival short films

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More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

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