Your FLIFF 2023 to-do list: A guide to the festival’s must-see films, celebrities and parties

The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival is peeking over the horizon, and you’ll forgive millennials if they seem a little too excited. 

The 38th edition of FLIFF will open on Nov. 3 with a red-carpet screening of “The Good Half,” a comedic drama directed by Robert Schwartzman, son of Talia Shire and nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, whose heartthrob status as an actor was enshrined in the 2001 coming-of-age flick “The Princess Diaries.” Schwartzman played Michael Moscovitz, the love interest of Anne Hathaway, in her first feature film. 

The star of Schwartzman’s “The Good Half” is another millennial dreamboat, Nick Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers, in his first lead role. While this overlap of bedroom-wall pinups may seem remarkable, it has happened before. In his other life, Schwartzman is the leader of the band Rooney, which parlayed a moment of fame on TV’s “The O.C.” into a few dates as an opening act on the Jonas Brothers’ 2008 When You Look Me in the Eyes Tour.

Such interesting adjacencies are something of a trademark of FLIFF president Gregory von Hausch’s more than three-decade run at the helm of the nonprofit festival, which is poised to unspool nearly 200 films from 40 countries through Nov. 16.

As always, FLIFF 2023 will offer an appealing list of appearances from actors sure to spark memories of favorite films and TV shows. Along with Schwartzman’s attendance at screenings of “The Good Half” and a free showing of “The Princess Diaries,” you’ll find Brittany Snow (“Pitch Perfect”), Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”), Melora Hardin (“The Office”), Diane Ladd (“Wild at Heart”) and Charles Martin Smith (“American Graffiti”).

Of local interest, the schedule includes documentaries on the legendary Sidney Poitier (Miami-born Bahamian-American), South Beach fashion icon Gianni Versace and Fort Lauderdale mermaid MeduSirena. And where else are you going to see a film with a cast that includes Boynton Beach rapper Bhad Bhabie?

If you’re new to FLIFF, here’s a guide on tickets and theaters, plus a dozen recommended films, many including receptions with stars in attendance. For information on all films being shown at the festival, visit FLIFF.com.

TICKETS

General admission: Tickets to basic screenings cost $13 in advance; $10 for seniors, military and students; and $8 for members. Tickets sold at the door cost $15. Some films with parties and receptions are priced individually.

FLIFF Fast Pass: With this photo ID, you’ll have entry to all films with no line. Cost: $300, or $250 for members.

More information: Call the box office at Savor Cinema, FLIFF’s home base, at 954-525-3456 or visit FLIFF.com.

THEATERS

A majority of screenings will take place at Savor Cinema, Cinema Paradiso Hollywood and Gateway Cinema, but here’s the total list of venues throughout Broward County.

Savor Cinema: 503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale
Cinema Paradiso Hollywood: 2008 Hollywood Blvd.
Gateway Cinema: 1820 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
Las Olas Oceanside Park: 3000 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
Lauderhill Performing Arts Center: 3800 NW 11th Place
Museum of Discovery & Science (AutoNation IMAX 3D Theater): 401 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale
NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale: 1 E. Las Olas Blvd.
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood: 1 Seminole Way

HIGHLIGHTS

‘The Good Half’
7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3
Hard Rock Hollywood

FLIFF begins with Robert Schwartzman’s opening-night feature starring Nick Jonas as a moody writer who goes home to Cleveland for the funeral of his free-spirited mother (Elisabeth Shue), where he is forced to deal with his impatient sister (Brittany Snow), awkwardly well-meaning father (Matt Walsh) and narcissistic stepfather (David Arquette). Out of this grief and dysfunction, he finds a new relationship with Zoey (Alexandra Shipp), who guides him toward healing.  

Schwartzman, Snow, Shue (“Adventures in Babysitting,” “Leaving Las Vegas”), Walsh (“Veep”), Arquette (“Scream”) and Shipp (“Barbie,” “X-Men”) are among the celebrities scheduled to attend the red-carpet screening and the after-party.

Tickets to the film are standard price: $13 in advance, $15 at the door. The after-party, which includes an open bar, food and music from The WolfePak Band, costs $125, or $100 for members.

‘The Princess Diaries’
11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4
Savor Cinema

FLIFF will host a free screening of the coming-of-age adventure, starring then-newcomer Anne Hathaway, Julie Andrews and, of course, Robert Schwartzman as Hathaway’s frustrated admirer. Schwartzman will attend the screening to take pictures with “Princess” fans during an after-party with free pizza from 1 to 1:30 p.m.

‘This Time’
3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4
Savor Cinema

Actor, writer and director Charles Martin Smith, a memorable part (as Terry the Toad) of the remarkable ensemble cast in George Lucas’ “American Graffiti,” will receive the FLIFF Lifetime Achievement Award prior to the screening of “This Time.” Smith stars in the story, directed by Robert George Vaughn, of a closeted teenager who inherits her estranged father’s journal, which reveals clues to his secret life. To fulfill his dying wish, she blackmails an alcoholic hearse driver to race her cross-country for a long-shot meeting with her father’s longtime friend, Liza Minnelli. 

‘Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid’
1:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov 5
Gateway Cinema

If you’ve lived in South Florida for a while, you have heard of (and probably seen) MeduSirena, a local icon also known as Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid, who performs underwater at the Wreck Bar in the B Ocean Resort in Fort Lauderdale. What is not apparent through the porthole during these finned performances is what a hoot this “51-year-old ubiquitous, aqueous entertainer” is. The 20-minute documentary by Emmy-winning South Florida writer-producer Linda Corley and partner Joel Kaplan (“After Parkland,” “Sons of Lebanon”) follows Marina as herself, Wendy Duran Anderson, as she reveals other skills in wing walking, fire eating, taiko drumming and grocery aisle comedy. She is expected to be at the screening (with assorted other Wreck Bar mermaids), joined by Corley and Kaplan.

‘Isle of Hope’
3:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5
Savor Cinema

Emmy and Golden Globe winner Diane Ladd (“Chinatown,” “Wild at Heart”) will receive a FLIFF Lifetime Achievement Award prior to the screening of “Isle of Hope.” With a cast that includes Mary Stuart Masterson, Andrew McCarthy, Sam Robards and Jessica Lynne Wallace, the film explores the frayed relationship between a university professor and her mother, a self-absorbed actress, after the latter suffers a life-threatening stroke.

‘The Genius of Gianni Versace’
6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5
Savor Cinema

Partially filmed in Versace’s South Beach mansion, Casa Casuarina, the documentary examines the life of the designer who redefined the relationship between fashion and popular culture. Directed by Emmy winner Salvatore Zannino (who worked as a model and actor as Vincent De Paul), the film does not dwell on Versace’s shocking 1997 assassination in front of his home, instead luxuriating in the memories of friends such as Elton John, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Jon Bon Jovi. Zannino is scheduled to attend a post-screening reception.

‘Golden Vanity’
5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7
Cinema Paradiso Hollywood

Best known for her protean comedy on TV’s “The Office,” Melora Hardin returns to FLIFF with “Golden Vanity,” a one-woman tour de force about a faded movie star who responds to an embarrassing flop at a 1967 awards show by barricading herself in her mansion to tape-record her life story with Norma Desmond-style venom. Hardin is scheduled to attend a reception after the film. 

‘Sidney’
5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8
Gateway Cinema

This critically praised documentary chronicles the complicated life and career of the late Sidney Poitier, born in Miami to Bahamian parents, and perhaps the greatest actor of his time. Poitier died in 2022 at age 94. Produced by Oprah Winfrey, the film includes comments from Quincy Jones, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Spike Lee and Lulu, his co-star in “To Sir With Love.” The Guardian in London called the documentary “a spirited rebuke to the ‘sellout’ narrative which has been allowed to grow up around his career, and a paean of praise to his commitment, talent and heroism.” One of the actor’s daughters, Pamela Poitier, is scheduled to attend the screening. 

‘The Senior’
7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9
Savor Cinema

Michael Chiklis (“The Shield,” “The Commish,” “Fantastic Four”) stars in a fact-based account of Mike Flynt, a 59-year-old family man who decides to overcome his regrets and return to college football 35 years after being kicked off his team with a year of eligibility left. Chiklis will receive the FLIFF Career Achievement Award prior to the screening, joined by director Rod Lurie, producer Mark Ciardi and Mike and Eileen Flynt, the subjects of the film. After the movie, Southeast Sixth Street, in front of Savor Cinema, will be transformed with a football-stadium theme for a VIP street party complete with referees, cheerleaders, bleachers, stadium lighting, a jumbo TV screen showing the Chicago Bears-Carolina Panthers game, plus bars and buffet tables of stadium food. The after-party costs $50, or $35 for members.

‘Show Her the Money’
3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10
Savor Cinema

Former “Cagney & Lacey” and “Burn Notice” star Sharon Gless is expected to attend a screening of the documentary “Show Her the Money,” about the economic disparity women entrepreneurs face. Gless, who appears in the film and serves as an executive producer, will be joined by filmmaker Ky Dickens and executive producers Catherine Gray and Dawn Lafreeda. 

‘Drugstore June’
8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10
Savor Cinema

A comedy produced by Robert Schwartzman that FLIFF president Gregory von Hausch calls “one of the funniest films of FLIFF38,” the story follows a self-absorbed young woman who sets out to solve the robbery of a local pharmacy while struggling to get over her ex-boyfriend. Led by rising talent Esther Povitsky (Hulu’s “Dollface”), the cast includes a parade of familiar faces from all corners of pop culture: Beverly D’Angelo (“National Lampoon’s Vacation”), Patricia Williams (“The Ms. Pat Show”), Miranda Cosgrove (“iCarly”), Haley Joel Osment (“The Sixth Sense,” “The Kominsky Method”), Matt Walsh (“Veep”), Jackie Sandler (“You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!”), comedians Bill Burr and Bobby Lee, and of local interest, Boynton Beach’s Danielle Bregoli, the rapper better known as Bhad Bhabie. Povitsky and director Nicholaus Goossen are expected to attend a post-screening party in the courtyard at Savor Cinema.

‘Robot Dreams’
9:45 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10
Savor Cinema

Based on Sara Varon’s popular graphic novel about a dog, a robot and the fragility of friendship, this Spanish-French animated tragicomedy was a talked-about hit at Cannes. “The fierce battle for the title of the best animated film of the year has a new strong contender,” wrote IndieWire after the acclaimed festival debut of this “delightfully bittersweet animated wonder” filled with “astoundingly profound ruminations.”

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.