On Thursday, September 10 through Sunday, September 13, the 2009 Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival takes over Vineyard Haven! All four days will be filled with the best feature and short films from the biggie film festivals like Sundance, Berlin and Cannes – and new films that have yet to be discovered.

This year’s festival films come from every corner of the globe: Palestine, Russia, China, India, Norway, France, Israel, Germany, Spain, Japan, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, and more. Some highlights:

• Rudo Y Cursi – one of the top-grossing Mexican films of all time.
• Waltz with Bashir – an innovative animated drama from Israel that was nominated for a 2009 Oscar for Best Documentary.
• Munyurangabo – awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the American Film Institute festival, it explores the Hutu-Tutsi genocide from the point of view of an orphaned teen and is the first film ever in the Kinyarwanda language.
• Local Martha’s Vineyard filmmaking – lead by islanders Liz Witham and Ken Wentworth of Film-Truth Productions.

Of course, there is more to this Vineyard film festival than movies. An opening night cocktail party on the roof of the Mansion House kicks things off, and there will be nightly parties, art gallery and meet-the-filmmaker gatherings for the festival’s duration. Live music, DJ’s food from top island chefs and open bars round out the weekend.

Visit the website for a full schedule and tickets to films and exciting events.

This September 10-14, the Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival takes the island by storm once again. This festival is on par with Sundance for bringing cutting edge independent films to our communities. Talks and events planned throughout the festival give the community access to film directors, actors, writers and more, while providing a platform for conversation and dialog surrounding the films’ varied, controversial and thought-provoking topics.

This years films include: FLOW (For Love of Water) which has aired at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions as an eye-opening look at the Earth’s water crisis; Blindsight about six blind Tibetan teenagers climbing Everest; and, Beyond the Call about three men who travel the world right up to the front lines of war doing good deeds.

Check out this video coverage of last year’s festival from Plum TV: