January 25-March 15
AMC Theater at Essex Green West Orange
Full schedule below.
For film lovers, winter means the start of the award season, Ten Best Movies of the Year lists, and the annual West Orange Classic Film Festival. For seven Sunday afternoons, films will be shown as made to be seen. That means on a big screen in a real theater filled with fellow moviegoers. And no distractions.
This year—the festival’s 20th—pays informal tribute to Robert Redford with the incisive geopolitical thriller Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Diane Keaton in her breakout title role in the multiple Oscar-winning romantic comedy Annie Hall (1977).
“It’s always a great time with great cinema artists telling great stories about great characters,” said West Orange’s Paul Castiglia, who has sat in the festival director’s chair since founding father, Emmy award-winning documentarian Ken Mandel (now emeritus), passed him the megaphone.
Castiglia’s multifaceted CV includes comic-book writing (Archie’s Weird Mysteries), comics archivist/historian, animation scripts, and film historian. His book Scared Silly about horror comedies is forthcoming.
Full disclosure. As a past West Orange Arts Council founding officer and unabashed film buff (I write a film column for a print-only outlet), I was part of the 2004-2005 discussions with AMC management that enabled the West Orange Film Society and festival founding.
THEMES
Some festival years there is a stated theme. This year is more an unstated one examining social class, racial/ethnic divides, international tension, and more light-heartedly, the war between the sexes. Brother From Another Planet looks at race; Secret of Roan Inish to Irish heritage; Condor to geopolitics; Annie Hall, ethnicity; One Night, social class.
SPEAKERS
Don’t worry. There are no prerequisite film study requirements to attend nor post-screening exams. That said, knowledgeable audience members are often the prize in the crackerjack box. After a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, a Hitch-aficionado opened a box to display the actual Mark Cross handbag that actress Grace Kelly used to great effect in the film.
Commentators include area festival directors, critics, filmmakers, academics, screenwriters, authors, producers, and people who just love movies. Here, volunteers are central.
“On the guest speaker end, you never know who in the group knows someone tied to a notable figure in some way,” Castiglia said.
Sometimes, a volunteer is the leader. John Casse will be talking about Frank Capra’s sly, smart It Happened One Night (note its glorious cinematography), which swept the 1934 Oscars. “John is a crowd favorite, an avid film-goer who brings humor,” Castiglia said. “Discussions are spirited. They might be 45 minutes; they might be twice that.”
This year, in a festival first, veteran film, television and stage actor Alvin Alexis, a cast member in writer and director John Sayles’ cult favorite, Brother From Another Planet (1984) will anchor that discussion.
I love all the films in this year’s lineup, but the quirky, shaggy Brother is a special favorite: Actor Joe Morton portrays a mute extraterrestrial baffled by a lot of NYC fast talkers. Morton evokes the power of silent-screen performance–especially fitting for a classic film festival.
Watch for a brilliant turn by a young Fisher Stevens as the card playing trickster on the uptown A subway: “I have another magic trick for you. Wanna see me make all the White people disappear?” as their express train pulls into the 59th St. Station before hurling north to 125th Street and the then-all-Black Harlem.
Castiglia, a speaker most years since 2014, programmed and will talk about the 2026 festival closer, Politics Schmolitics (March 15).
“Our festival shows mainstream classics, art house works and popcorn classics,” he elaborated. “That’s where I fit: Classic comedies.”
Castiglia divulged one of his planned titles, a Three Stooges’ short, You NATZY Spy (1940). The short lampooned Adolf Hitler before the release of Charlie Chaplin’s more famous The Great Dictator. Count on Betty Boop to be among the animated and human characters who will also show up.
Other speakers include Joyce Weisinger Kaffel a freelance film/arts writer/lecturer well-known to SOMA Adult School students (Annie Hall) and writer, director, and professor of film studies Stuart Weinstock (Three Days of the Condor) who curates and hosts the JCC MetroWest Jewish Film Festival. The Secret of Roan Inish brings in librarian, author, historian, and archivist, Alan Delozier, the Director of the Special Collections Center at Seton Hall University who specializes in Irish Studies.
I spoke with visual artist, educator, filmmaker, and WOFF veteran presenter Gerard Amsellem who presides over his long running, area New Wave Cinema series. (Both New Wave and JCC film programs are highly recommended.) Amsellem, who relocated here from France at age 25, has long scheduled the festival’s foreign language film selections.
“I only bring in films I love, films I love talking about,” Amsellem said. This year it’s Cinema Paradiso (1988), the beloved Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language Film. “It’s a film about the power of film, perfect for the festival,” Amsellem said. “It’s a human story, a simple love story based on a real story.”
COMPLETE SCHEDULE
Buy tickets here.
JANUARY 25: CINEMA PARADISO (1988) with film historian, filmmaker, artist, and educator Gerard Amsellem. Perhaps one of the most beloved foreign language films of all time, Giuseppe Tornatore’s masterpiece is a love letter to cinema that won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
FEBRUARY 1: THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1984) with actor Alvin Alexis. An alien escapes captivity on his home planet and lands in New York City, where he navigates life on the streets of 1980s Harlem. Director John Sayles blends science fiction, comedy, and social commentary, creating a powerful and humane story filled with unforgettable characters.
FEBRUARY 15: ANNIE HALL (1977) with media scholar and film and arts writer and lecturer, Joyce Weisinger Kaffel. Winner of multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress, this classic romantic comedy explores the foibles of modern relationships with wit, warmth, and insight, featuring an iconic performance by Diane Keaton.
FEBRUARY 22: THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH (1994) with author and Irish studies educator Alan DeLozier. John Sayles returns with this charming fable that leans into Irish myths and legends as a girl discovers the magic and resilience behind her heritage.
MARCH 1: THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975) with film historian, educator, and director Stuart Weinstock. Sydney Pollack’s spy story starring the legendary Robert Redford was designed first and foremost as an action-packed entertainment, that also happens to be one of the top political conspiracy thrillers of its decade.
MARCH 8: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) with film aficionado John Chasse. The highly quotable film inspired lots of laughs and a famous cartoon “Bunny.” See superstar Clark Gable break down Claudette Colbert’s defenses, along with class barriers and bedsheets, in the beloved screwball rom-com classic that was the first film to win the “Big Five” Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay).
MARCH 15: POLITICS SCHMOLITICS (1930s/40s) with film historian, author, and comics/animation writer Paul Castiglia. Classic comedy shorts, trailers, and cartoons lampoon the electoral process, political scandals, espionage, and war. With Laurel & Hardy, Betty Boop, The Little Rascals, Daffy Duck, The Three Stooges, and more satirical surprises!
The West Orange Film Society is under the aegis of the all-volunteer nonprofit West Orange Arts Council. WOAC members receive discounts on admissions to festival showings.
