The AFI Fest will present two spcial sections this year. One is a selection of classic films, both new and old, which features last year Oscar Winner for Best Picture American Beauty. This year's AFI will feature a special tribute to filmmaker Philip Kaufman

Filmmaker Tribute: Philip Kaufman

In 1989, The New Yorker magazine's former film critic Pauline Kael called Philip Kaufman "a great filmmaker who hasn't had his full due."

This will change at this year's AFI festival, where Kaufman's latest film Quills will close the event. In addition, a retrospective of his films is scheduled.

After graduating from the University of Chicago, Kaufman spent a year at Harvard Law School before realizing that law was not to be his chosen route. In 1960, he moved with his wife to northern California, where they earned just enough money to travel to Europe. There, the Kaufmans worked in Greece and Israel and became excited by the artistry of film in Europe, believing it was also possible in the United States. When he returned to the US in 1962, Kaufman had found his passion for film and set to work on his first screenplay, Goldstein. The film went on to share the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival with Bernardo Bertolucci's Before the Revolution. He is most famous commercially for his film The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the 1978 science fiction flick set in San Francisco. In 1990 he directed Henry and June starring Maria de Medeiros as Anais Nin and in 1993 he directed Rising Sun.

Philip Kaufman Retrospective

Henry and June by Philip Kaufman
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Philip Kaufman
The Right Stuff by Philip Kaufman
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Philip Kaufman
The Wanderers by Philip Kaufman
The White Dawn by Philip Kaufman

Films in Special Presentations

The Age of Consent by Gregory LaCava
American Beauty by Sam Mendes
The Cincinnati Kid by Norman Jewison
Laputa: The Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki
Before Night Falls by Julian Schnabel
Quills by Philip Kaufman
Spriggan by Masayuki Ochiai

AFI