The 2024 Beyond Fest lineup has officially been unveiled, and fans are ready for a spooky good festival.
The genre film festival will open with the highly-anticipated reimagining of Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot.” The novel was originally brought to the screen in 1979 with a two-part miniseries and a 2004 film.
Now, director Gary Dauberman is giving the horror classic his own twist, with Lewis Pullman starring. The feature had a delayed debut as Warner Bros. pushed its slated September 2022 until Spring 2023 before pulling the film from a U.S. theatrical release all together. “Salem’s Lot” will debut on Max October 3, and will have its world premiere on the big screen for Beyond Fest.
The festival will take place from September 25 to October 9.
Beyond Fest will close with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud.” Kurosawa will be in-person to launch a 7-film retrospective with the festival. A Guy Maddin retrospective will also take place to honor his latest feature “Rumours.”
Additional highlights include the West Coast premieres of “The Brutalist” in 70mm with director Brady Corbet, Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” the 35mm debut of Palme D’or winner “Anora” with writer/director Sean Baker and Mikey Madison, and Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch.”
The star-studded festival welcomes a “Speed” reunion with Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and director Jan de Bont, plus a career tribute to Kyle MacLachlan. Al Pacino, Ron Perlman, Barbara Crampton, Don Johnson, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, and Bob Odenkirk will also host special anniversary screenings.
Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel will present the world premiere of the new, never-before-seen ‘Shush Cut’ of “Hush” as the film lands its DVD and digital release. The 50th anniversary of “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” will also include 12 members of its original cast and crew at a screening.
A double feature of “Hold Your Breath,” which will make its U.S. premiere at the fest, and indie classic “Martha Marcy May Marlene” will be presented by “Hold Your Breath” star Sarah Paulson.
IndieWire’s own Jim Hemphill will be moderating two of the highly-anticipated events: the Walter Hill/Keith Carradine Q&A after “Southern Comfort” on September 27, and the Shane Black film marathon on September 29.
The full festival’s 2024 programming slate includes 82 features, with 16 World Premieres, 4 International Premieres, 1 North American Premiere, 3 U.S. Premieres, and 25 West Coast Premieres. This is the festival’s 12th edition.
“Combining a celebration of cinema whilst firmly focusing our gaze on the next generation of filmmakers has always been at the heart of the Beyond Fest” Head of Programming Evrim Ersoy said. “And this year we have even more opportunity to bring together the full spectrum of genre filmmaking to the community that is at the core of everything we do: from Kiyoshi Kurosawa to Brady Corbet, Jennifer Kent to Sam Raimi, we have created a program that embraces all corners of the cinematic spectrum.”
Beyond Fest is presented exclusively by NEON and programmed and produced in partnership with the American Cinematheque.
American Cinematheque Artistic Director Grant Moninger added, “We are thrilled for the festival to return to the beloved Egyptian Theatre, broadening Beyond Fest across Los Angeles to all three American Cinematheque venues for the very first time. The biggest genre fest in the U.S. has gotten even bigger with the festival’s largest slate to date. Beyond Fest 2024 has something for every L.A. moviegoer, with even more premieres, guests, reunions, marathons and free screenings of exciting new films.”
Click here for full Beyond Fest 2024 lineup.
