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Dallas International Film Festival announces first ten titles (and a visit from John Landis)

April is around the corner, and so is the Dallas International Film Festival. The fest just announced it's first ten films, as well as the presentation of Dallas Star award to director John Landis, who will come to town for a screening of The Blues Brothers. (You could say he's on a mission from God). This year's festival runs April 9-19.

Here are those first ten movies:

5 FLIGHTS UP

Director: Richard Loncraine

USA

Cast: Morgan Freeman; Diane Keaton; Cynthia Nixon

Synopsis: Over one crazy weekend, a long-time married couple discovers that finding a new apartment is not about winding down, but starting a new adventure.

BEING EVEL

Director: Daniel Junge

USA

Synopsis: Millions know the man, but few know his story. In BEING EVEL, Academy Award® winning filmmaker Daniel Junge (SAVING FACE) and actor/producer Johnny Knoxville take a candid look at American daredevil and icon Robert "Evel" Knievel, while also reflecting on our voracious public appetite for heroes and spectacle.

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ECHOS OF WAR (World premiere)

Director: Kane Senes

USA

Cast: James Badge Dale; Ethan Embry; William Forsythe; Maika Monroe

Synopsis: A Civil War veteran returns home to the quiet countryside, only to find himself embroiled in a conflict between his family and the brutish cattle rancher harassing them.

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HOLLOW

Director: Ham Tran

Vietnam

Cast: Kieu Chinh; Jayvee Mai The Hiep; Ngoc Hiep Nguyen

Synopsis: A young girl falls into a river and drowns. When her body is found in a remote village along the river, her uncle arrives to claim her body, only to find that she is very much alive. But when she returns to her family, unexplainable occurrences lead them to believe she is possessed.

JASMINE

Director: Dax Phelan

USA

Cast: Jason Tobin; Byron Mann; Sarah Lian

Synopsis: JASMINE is a gripping and chilling psychological thriller about a man still struggling to come to terms with his grief nearly a year after his wife's unsolved murder.

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 THE BLUES BROTHERS

Director: John Landis

USA

Cast: John Belushi; Dan Aykroyd; James Brown; Cab Calloway; Ray Charles; Aretha Franklin; John Lee Hooker

Synopsis: Jake Blues, just out from prison, puts together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and brother Elwood were raised.

THE LOOK OF SILENCE

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

Denmark/Finland/Indonesia/Norway/UK

Synopsis: In Joshua Oppenheimer's companion piece to the Oscar® nominated THE ACT OF KILLING, a family of survivors of the 1965 Indonesian genocide discovers how their son was murdered and the identity of the men who killed him. The youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence and fear under which the survivors live, and so confronts the men responsible for his brother's murder - something unimaginable in a country where killers remain in power.

PLAYING IT COOL (North American Premiere)

Director: Justin Reardon

USA

Cast: Chris Evans; Michelle Monaghan; Luke Wilson; Aubrey Plaza; Topher Grace; Anthony Mackie

Synopsis: It's this generation's SWINGERS meets (500) DAYS OF SUMMER. The story is fresh, quirky, and weirdly relatable as this young, slightly pretentious man falls for an unlikely girl, and will stop at nothing to get her even after realizing she's already in a relationship.

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WELCOME TO LEITH

Director: Michael Beach Nichols; Christopher K. Walker

USA

Synopsis: A white supremacist attempts to take over a small town in North Dakota.

WESTERN

Director: Bill Ross; Turner Ross

USA/Mexico

Synopsis: For generations, all that distinguished Eagle Pass, Texas from Piedras Negras, Mexico was the Rio Grande. But when darkness descends upon these harmonious border towns, a cowboy and lawman face a new reality that threatens their way of life.