20th Berkshire International Film Festival With Amy Goodman and Karen Allen, May 28–31

The Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) marks its 20th anniversary this year with its largest lineup to date, featuring more than 80 films from 27 countries, screening over four days in Great Barrington and Lenox from May 28 through May 31. Tickets are on sale now.

The festival opens Thursday, May 29 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center with “Steal This Story, Please!,” a documentary portrait of Amy Goodman, the longtime host of Democracy Now! and one of American journalism's more persistently independent figures. Goodman will be in attendance for a conversation following the screening. Afterward, BIFF marks its anniversary with a birthday party and dance at the Indigo Room next door.

Saturday, May 30 is devoted in part to a tribute for Karen Allen, who has been a BIFF board member for nearly 20 years and a fixture in the Berkshires long before and since her role as Marion Ravenwood in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Allen will appear in conversation with production designer Kristi Zea at the Mahaiwe, followed by a screening of “Starman.”

Closing night, Sunday May 31, brings the Sundance documentary “Give Me the Ball!,” a portrait of Billie Jean King directed by Elizabeth Wolff, who will also be present for a post-screening Q&A. A closing party follows at Number Ten.

"There are 10 films that have Berkshire connections. We have four Tea Talks, jury prizes, and the filmmakers' summit, where we have a record number of filmmakers coming," says BIFF founder and artistic director Kelley Vickery. "The secret is out that BIFF is the place to be."

The Films

This year's program spans 29 narrative features, 31 documentaries, 29 short films, and a free animated shorts selection for children, with stories arriving from Germany, Greece, Norway, France, India, Ghana, Iceland, South Africa, and more than 20 other countries. Ten films have direct Berkshire connections, among them "Thickly Settled," "House of Light," "Barbara Prey," "Painting to Scale," and "Rockwell Comes to Life: The Runaway."

The fiction lineup is as strong as any in the festival's history. Walter Thompson-Hernández's "If I Go Will They Miss Me," which drew considerable attention at Sundance, follows a twelve-year-old boy in South Los Angeles seeing spectral figures in his neighborhood while struggling to reconnect with his recently released father. Critics have compared it to the work of Charles Burnett and Barry Jenkins. "Union County," Adam Meeks' debut feature, stars Will Poulter in a patient portrait of recovery set against the opioid crisis in rural Ohio, filmed alongside real-life recovering addicts.

"A Mosquito in the Ear," adapted from an Italian graphic novel and already an opening-night selection at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, follows an American couple who travel to Goa to bring home their newly adopted daughter, only to find she refuses to leave the orphanage she calls home. These three, along with "Broken Voices," compete for the juried narrative prize. Beyond the competition slate, notable screenings include Kent Jones' "Late Fame," Gregg Araki's "I Want Your Sex," and Jay Duplass' "See You When I See You."

In competition for the juried documentary prize are "Admission Impossible," "Gaslit," "Italian Wannabe," and "Remaining Native." The jury includes distribution veterans Josh Braun and Dan Braun, director Kent Jones, actors Peter Riegert and Scott Cohen, publicist Laura Sok, and production designer Kristi Zea. Awards are presented at a brunch Sunday, May 31 at the Granville House.

More Action

This year BIFF is the US launch point for the European Union's Transatlantic Rising Stars Film Program, which brings five European directors to the country for two weeks of screenings and industry exchange. All five films have won awards abroad; most American audiences won't encounter them outside a festival context. The five directors will participate in a Tea Talk on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday May 30’s Tea Talk at the Indigo Room, a festival staple for eight years, include four conversations: Barbara Kopple, the two-time Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, joins to mark the 50th anniversary of “Harlan County USA”; Oscar-nominated producer Yael Melamede speaks with filmmaker and author Kevin Smokler following a screening of “Children No More: Were and Are Gone”; screenwriter John Orloff, known for “Band of Brothers” and “Masters of the Air,” sits down for a conversation about his work; and five European directors participating in the transatlantic program discuss making films across borders.

Now in its third decade, BIFF has grown from a scrappy four-day showcase into one of the more distinctive independent film events in the Northeast. What's kept it that way isn't scale is the combination of serious programming and accessibility, a festival where you might find yourself in line behind a filmmaker whose work just screened at Sundance, or discover that the documentary you almost skipped is the one everyone's still talking about on Sunday. At 20, it still feels more valuable than ever.

Full schedule, screening locations, and tickets at biffma.org. A selection of films is also available to screen virtually.