The Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Film Festival© to Offer 16 Films Directed by Women

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Dec. 28, 2022 - PRLog -- (West Palm Beach, FL – December 27, 2022) "Experience the Magic of Cinema" is the slogan of a major new cultural event: The Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Film Festival^© Presented by MorseLife. Offering dozens of unique features, documentaries, and short films from 20 different countries, the inaugural festival will have a truly international focus, celebrating cinematic excellence and reflecting a commitment to global diversity.

Sixteen of the 37 feature films and documentaries in the Festival, which runs January 26 through February 16, were either directed or co-directed by women, including:

ALI & AVA

Director: Clio Barnard

(Feature—UK—2021)          This romance is a bundle of good humor and nervous energy. Ali is a British Pakistani working-class landlord who forges close bonds with his tenants. One day, while picking up one of his tenants' children from school, he offers a lift to Ava, an Irish-born teacher and single mother of five. They bond almost instantly through their love of music. Their story serves as a reminder that it is sometimes the least likely connections that are the ones most worth pursuing. (Toronto International Film Festival, BAFTA Nominee Best British Film)

+ February 1, 3:45 pm – Movies of Lake Worth

+ February 14, 1:00 pm – Paragon Theatres of Delray Beach

+ February 14, 4:00 pm – CMX Wellington

Palm Beach Premiere

BALABAN

Director: Aysulu Onarani

(Feature—Kazakhstan—2022)

On the verge of adulthood, Ardak, a reserved 16-year-old schoolgirl who was diagnosed with HIV as a child, lives a sheltered life with her mother in a plush house in a part of Kazakhstan known for its dramatic mountains and vast nomadic steppe. Ardak dreams on moving to Paris and becoming the next big thing in fashion. After a chance meeting with an adventurous teen, Zhanna, at a local charity for HIV adolescents, they forge a plan to steal a prized falcon from Zhanna's cousin to finance their trip—which proves to be the ultimate test of their relationship. (International Peace Film Festival)

+ January 30, 1:00 pm – Movies of Lake Worth

+ February 9, 1:00 pm – Paragon Theaters of Delray Beach

Palm Beach Premiere

BREAKING THE ICE

Director: Clara Stern

(Feature—Austria—2022)

What happens when someone with a rigid approach to life meets their freewheeling opposite? Mira is the heir to an Austrian vineyard whose existence is defined by stress: the family business is barely staying afloat, her grandfather's dementia is getting worse, and her brother Paul recently went missing.

Available for Interview:
Ellen Wedner, Founding Festival Director

The Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Film Festival^©

305.586.6215 / ellen@dmepbff.org

Media Contact:

Gary Schweikhart, PR-BS

561.756.4298 / gary@pr-bs.net