Roll out the red carpet: AIFF kicks off in Halifax Wednesday night with film 'Sharp Corners'

Atlantic International Film Festival begins The eight-day Atlantic International Film Festival kicked off in Halifax Wednesday for its 44th year.

Movie lovers in Halifax are set to celebrate some of the top films in the world during a more than week-long celebration, and it all kicks off with an opening gala Wednesday night.

Our partners at the Atlantic International Film Festival (AIFF) say it’s a hot ticket to have – the opening night gala screening of “Sharp Corner” has officially sold out.

However, the festival’s executive director anticipates a few rush seats will be available around 6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane for the film.

“It is the second feature from Nova Scotian writer and director Stephen Buxton, it just had its premiere at TIFF, which was very buzzy. It’s a big production that was shot here, it stars Colby Smulders, Ben Foster. It’s kind of a little bit of thriller, it’s got a creepiness to it,” Martha Cooley said during an interview with CTV Morning Live Atlantic.

The festival also has the Canadian premiere of the controversial drama “The Apprentice” starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong.

The dramatic biopic explores Donald Trump’s early career in real estate in1980s New York City.

“It premiered at Cannes (Film Festival), it was kind of unclear what was going to happen with the film. Obviously, there was some concerns about releasing it in the States, it wasn’t sure if it was going to get picked up by a distributor for legal reasons,” Cooley said.

“We’re really excited to show it. It’s also a really strong film, it’s a really amazing piece, it’s by director Ali Abbasi whose film ‘Holy Spider’ we played at the festival a number of years ago, (she’s) a really interesting filmmaker and I think people are going to get something out of it.”

In addition to film screenings, AIFF will also host several events, such as panels, interviews and more.

“We’re doing a lot of live script reading this year, which should be really fun. It’s scenes from 90s rom-coms, it’s going to be really funny, it’s local actors, that’s going to be a blast,” Cooley said.

A conversation with filmmaker Matthew Rankin is also scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

His feature “Universal Language” has been selected as the Canadian entry for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.

“He’s originally from Winnipeg – it’s set in sort of a fictional hybrid of Winnipeg and 1980s Iran. It’s very wacky, it’s a little bit Wes Anderson-y and his film it premiered at Cannes, so it was one of the only Canadian features at Cannes, which is a big thing,” Cooley said.

A full list of events and showtimes is available on the festival’s website.

CTV’s Katie Kelly will also be live from the festival Wednesday night on CTV News at 5 and 6.

For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.