"Twelve Angry Men" and "Dirty Harry" are coming to Charlottesville Oct. 27 through Oct. 30 for the 18th annual Virginia Film Festival.
The two movies are tied together by the festival's theme, "In/Justice." The theme was announced Monday.
"We try to choose films that will generate a lot of great titles so that we can show some really great movies," Festival Director Richard Herskowitz said. "The other thing is that we're a film festival that is known for the quality of its discussions, and this is going to generate some really meaty discussion. We try to make the films springboards for larger discussions about culture and society."
The festival also will screen other classic movies with legal themes, such as "Inherit the Wind," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Crucible." Similar to last year, though, the festival also will feature a number of films unrelated to the theme.
"For the last two years we've been setting off a section of the festival where we can show movies that have not been released yet," Herskowitz said.
Along with big name films, the festival often brings big name stars to Charlottesville.
"We're going to be sending invites to Clint Eastwood and Sidney Lumet," Herskowitz said. "Both of them have made justice a theme in their films."
An invite also will be sent to Paul Newman, but as of now, no one has confirmed.
This year's festival also will see the return of the Adrenaline Film project. Of the 36 people who participated last year, 24 were University students. Project participants had 72 hours to create an original film.
"I was so impressed with the quality of the films," Publicity Intern and fourth-year College student Kate Malay said. "It's amazing how much you can do in 72 hours."
In the next couple of months, Herskowitz said the festival will make more announcements regarding other additions to the festival.
"This is just a first of some announcements," Herskowitz said. "We have some other major innovations on the way. The festival is really reinventing itself. People can expect that over the next several months, they will be hearing a lot more."
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