You know there are star ratings, thumbs up or down ratings and rotten tomatoes ratings to help you gauge how good a movie really is but after our Palm Springs International Film Festival vacation, I’ve added one more personal one.
The ‘how long does it take my hubby to nod off?‘rating!
The festival itself is a delight and being located in the mostly sunny desert town of Palm Springs, just down the highway from Hollywood, is a real kick. Along with two dear friends we poured over descriptions for the many films on offer. One of our friends is a Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) veteran and even she was impressed – just look at this schedule for only three of the days:
The offerings included lots of young, enthusiastic new filmmakers and given the timing of this festival the Academy Award nominees for best foreign film were all here – what a choice we had.
So 15 films later – brilliant stories and documentaries from Iceland, Jordan, South Africa, Turkey, Estonia, Belgium, Israel to name a few we were hard pressed to pronounce on some of our favourites. We’ve already booked for next year!
Hubby? He only snoozed through one and I let him happily since it was a stinker. If you have time, take a look at some of these trailers, you won’t be sorry:
Womanseyeview's Blog 
We love Palm Springs were there in October. Right now we are in Mexico.
Thank you for your visit.
Miss you… are you still in L.A.?
Oh wish I was there – but out here in the boonies of the midwest there is NOTHING to compare.. I will note all these recommendations though and hopefully catch up with them when i visit civilisation some time soon.. c
Looks like you have lots on your plate…an escape into good quality movies is great every once in a while and hope you get to see some of these. Thanks for the visit.
Just finished watching the trailers you posted, they all look like such interesting films. I shall have to check the Toronto area to see if any of them are playing!
I know Mustangs is around – glad you enjoyed them😊
I watched all the trailers! They were all so very interesting… but the New Testament was so funny!
It was laugh out loud funny! Thanks for letting me know what you thought😊.
Film festivals are fun. I usually attend the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Thanks for the heads up of the films you watched. 🙂
A number of them have been nominated for best foreign film so it will be fun to see which one wins.
I enjoyed seeing the trailers. The festival looks like so much fun.
So glad you enjoyed them! I was a bit hesitant to include them in the post at first but it seems to have worked out😊
Wow, that’s some schedule! One day, hubby and I will have time to watch movies, but only when the house is finished. 🙂
We found combining a vacation with film festival perfect. Good luck with your upcoming move.
Thank you. 🙂
What a brilliant selection. I love all the trailers. My snooze metre seems to work overtime these days, so a film has to be really good to keep me awake.
So glad you enjoyed the trailers – we were really pleased with almost all we saw. Know what you mean about snoozing more these days!
Haha…that sounds like an awesome rating system. A bit outside of the usual:)
I think it also depends on your age😴
I think I’d have a numb bum after that lot! But at least I wouldn’t be snoring 🙂
I agree about numb bums but we combined our time with some great walks to help get our blood flowing again!
I suspect Winter isn’t over yet. I just heard the patter of hail on our windows despite a beautiful dawn. Happy Valentine’s Day 🙂
Thank you for posting the trailers! They were great. Sounds like you had a fantastic time!
We did – excellent festival, really good restaurants, desert hikes, mostly sunshine and fun friends! Lucky us.
Wonderful .. I must check out those trailers. Was it a bag of popcorn for each movie? 😀 I remember years ago going to a movie and a lady in front of me turning round and telling me to eat my popcorn quietly. LOL .. I did too
Oh no – obviously she didn’t understand that it’s part of the film watching tradition! In fact we did have a fair bit of popcorn to keep us going:-)
Ha ha
Goodness, how could you choose? So many options. (And possible gambles – how do you judge if it’s a potential stinker?) I think your rating system is entirely valid. 🙂
We were lucky with timing because the nominees for best foreign film at the academy awards had been announced and most of them were here…also a film festival does get a reputation based on the films they have chosen to show in the past and Palm Springs has a good one.
I added some to my ‘save’ list at Netflix. They’ll let me know when they become available. They look pretty intriguing. You’re right it does serve as a bit of international ‘travel’. Thanks!
Thanks right back to you – I had no idea you could do that with Netflix!
I checked the trailers and every one I would like to see. I wonder if I can find them on the movie channel or Apple TV? There are film festivals where I live but have never been to one yet, your post makes me think I will check the next one that comes here.
I don’t think they’re available generally yet and many will not be seen again by western audiences I fear. Knowing you through your blog, I think you’d really enjoy an international film festival – so many challenging topics are covered and very often the young filmmakers themselves are there taking questions from the audience. The maker of the Icelandic film Rams was in Palm Springs snd he was so genuinely overwhelmed by it all – delightful!
It does sound to be a lot of fun. We plan to have a year at home so maybe this year will be our year of doing things like film festivals. We have already booked to go on a “Blues Train”
What fun! I love all those trailers – The Brand New Testament looks hilarious!
It was an audience favourite at the festival…takes a lot to get me laughing out loud at movies but everyone roared. Not sure if it’ll win an Oscar but it was a winner in Palm Springs!
Wow, that’s looks like a fun excuse to catch up with friends and have some mutual experiences while on holiday together. I have never participated in a film festival. We do however, belong to a film club which screens an eclectic bunch of movies and documentaries – old, new and foreign, on Sunday nights. It starts again in a few weeks with “The Women He’s Undressed” about the costume designer Orry-Kelly. Have you come across that?
Oh yes! Women He’s Undressed was fabulous and really popular with audiences at the festival…about Australian costume designer extraordinaire Orry-Kelly. What a life he had and you’ll really enjoy this I’m sure!
I’m looking forward to it!
I do enjoy the occasional movie, but I think I’m too restless for this kind of challenge. I’m starting to squirm after anything that lasts more than an hour
I think that you may find some of these grab your attention but I’m sure it’s not for everybody…I’ll have to see you on the trail then!
Someday when the weather is nicer, we will have to take matters into our own hands and make it happen! 🙂
For sure! Although I think that Cheryl and I are a lot slower and less ambitious on our hikes than you and Helen.
Sounds like my kind of hiking.
Since we are no longer doing end-to-end hiking, we often cut our hikes short and headed back to the car when we’ve had enough.
Sitting in a pub with a beer and hot bowl of soup is soooo much more fun 🙂
Yes! Let’s stay in touch about a date.
ok – great 🙂
Hard to believe that I am so close to Palm Springs and have never once gone to a film festival. I’m not a real big movie buff so perhaps that is why. I’m going to check out some of your trailers and consider the possibility of this as an event in the future. Thanks for the info. Retirement allows more time to expand my horizons and have new experiences. Perhaps this will be an exciting new opportunity.
This has come to be a highly regarded festival and has been around 27 years. We enjoy the way these films often take you to parts of the world or ways of life we might otherwise never see. Wouldn’t that be fun if we got a chance to grab a coffee together next January😊
That would be great! I am going to make a plan to get our there next year to see a film or two. See you then♡.
The trailers were great thanks for sharing. I couldn’t do 5 films a day but did the love the atmosphere of the festival when I was there.
Our max over the 11 days was three in one day and I wouldn’t like to do more than that either. You’re right about the atmosphere in the line ups – lots of Bernie Saunders buttons to be seen!
Goodness. I do like a good film, but I don’t think I could have your tenacity. And I’m prone to nod off too, even in the good ones, so I might not be a very good companion… especially if that meant you had two people gently snoring beside you 😉
We did slip in a couple of days where we had other things to do but spread out over 11 days it wasn’t too bad. On the stinker film I think there were more than a couple so feel free to join us!
😉
Haha love your new rating system! Thanks for the trailers. Will check some out.
By the look of the audience sometimes, the snooze meter should be a valid system! Do take a look since in a way it’s another form of travel.