DISPATCH FROM THE DENVER FILM FESTIVAL • DAY 2

While the focus of today’s first full day of the 48th Denver Film Festival will rightly be on celebrating the many career accomplishments of actor Delroy Lindo, the fest will also be uplifting a major new artist at the beginning of his film journey.

Described by the New York Times as a wunderkind for his work in live theater, Charlie Polinger will be presented Denver Film’s Breakthrough Director Award following a 6:45 p.m. screening of “The Plague” at the Sie Film Center.

Interviewed at the Cannes Film Festival, Polinger noted the preponderance of movies about 12-year-old boys that are made “The Goonies”-style. “My sense of being 12 was it was more like a social anxiety hellscape,” he said.

Polinger’s directorial debut, which has been favorably compared to the recent limited series “Adolescence,” follows a young boy at camp who finds himself torn between his fear of being ostracized and his conscience when a fellow campmate is bullied.

Critic David Cuevas calls “The Plague” “an intense directorial debut that perfectly captures the cruelty of youth through its rigorous dissection of groupthink.”

SCREENING OF THE DAY

It won the audience awards at both the SXSW and Telluride festivals, so there’s no reason to think it won’t happen here, too. The wonderfully titled “Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie” has all the buzz. The premise: “When their plan to book a show at the Rivoli goes horribly wrong, Matt (Johnson) and Jay (McCarrol) accidentally travel back to the year 2008.”  As you do. It’s being called a wildly hilarious film, and its 100% fresh audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes would seem to back that up. Slate calls it “a roof-shaking blast.” 4 p.m. today (Nov. 1) at the Denver Botanic Gardens

I AM MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO …

Not a screening but an early morning (10 a.m.) panel conversation called “From Policy to Production: The Future of Film Incentives.” How states compete for productions and why tax incentives matter are topics of endless fascination to the Colorado film community, which is slowly digging its way back into the film game thanks to the state’s reintroduction of tax breaks that are starting to make Colorado nominally competitive again.

But what makes this panel of particular interest is the inclusion of Arielle Brachfeld, Colorado’s interim Film Commissioner. There still hasn’t been any reasonable explanation why she is the interim Film Commissioner, or why longtime commish Donald Zuckerman is no longer the boss. In an industry that exists to tell stories, the departure of Zuckerman remains a gaping untold tale. Perhaps we’ll get some clues today.

The panel is moderated by Lauren Sloan and includes Peter Stathopoulos of Bennett Thrasher, an entertainment CPA firm. Lower level of the Tattered Cover Bookstore, 2526 E. Colfax Ave.

LET’S GO RETRO!

The Denver Film Festival’s unique place in the international festival ethos has been showing as-yet unreleased films long after all the biggest glam fests have already passed. Its place on the calendar at the end of the year might seem to be a competitive disadvantage but that actually works out well for Denver festgoers because the biggest Oscars heavyweights don’t come out until December. So Denver Film Artistic Director Matt Campbell can give us a sneak peek at many of them, often a month or more before they are more widely seen.

That said, the fest programmers have loosened up in recent years when it comes to movies that are already out there in the world. That’s why it’s showing “Sinners” to go with Delroy Lindo’s Career Achievement Award today, for example. It’s a well-timed pairing to help turn up the Oscar buzz for both Lindo and “Sinners.” A few years ago, the fest found a reason to show “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” after it was acknowledged as revolutionary filmmaking – and the place was packed.

But then there are “retro classics,” which have always had a nominal place here or there. But nothing like the numbing recent succession of legendary celebrity deaths to make you see the light on retro screenings. Denver Film is finally fully embracing the idea that there’s nothing wrong with showing movies that people actually want to see. And this year, Denver Film is delivering known crowd-pleasers as a way of honoring several recently departed legends:

• Robert Redford: Today at high noon, the fest will screen “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

• Diane Keaton: 3 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 2) at the Sie will bring Nancy Meyers’ sophisticated romantic comedy “Something’s Gotta Give” about love, age and second chances (with Jack Nicholson).

• David Lynch: At 5:30 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 2) at the Sie, the fest will offer a Lynch-approved 4K restoration of the enigmatic, seductive and scary zeitgeist classic “Mulholland Drive.” Also being remembered: Rebekah Del Rio.

• Shelley Duvall: At 10 a.m. Tuesday (Nov. 4) at the Sie, it’s Robert Altman’s “3 Women,” co-starring Sissy Spacek in a dreamlike tale of identity and obsession about women who inexplicably swap personalities in the California desert.

• Gene Hackman: At 7 p.m. Friday (Nov. 7) at the Sie, Denver Film screens the 1971 Best Picture winner, “The French Connection” – the tale of drug-busting New York detectives Popeye Doyle (Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider).

• Val Kilmer: At 12:45 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Sie comes the ridiculous comedy “Top Secret!” which pits American rock star Nick Rivers against the dreaded East German High Command. It’s written in part by Jerry Zucker, who, coincidentally, will be at the Paramount Theatre with Robert Hays on Sunday (Nov. 1) to present a new cut of the 40-year-old classic “Airplane!”

BARGAIN SHOWINGS

Adventurous moviegoers looking for a bargain will find them for the first time at this year’s fest. Denver Film is launching a daily $5 ticket. Each day , the fest will identify up to five films with availability that day that can be had for $5 when purchased in person at any box office. Box offices open 30 minutes before the first showtime of the day.

Saturday’s $5 films:

• “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” noon at Denver Botanic Gardens (U.S.)

• “Living the Land,” 12:45 p.m. at the Sie (China)

• “Sisu: Road to Revenge,” 9 p.m. at the Sie (Finland)

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

A film festival isn’t a film festival without a little bubblegum grindhouse adventure, is it? Smut, psychics and filth collide in “****town” (starts with F, rhymes with “truck”), a John Waters-esque provocation written and directed by star Annapurna Sriram. Late-night camp and lurid humor. If that’s your jam, then by all means, jam. 9:15 p.m. tonight (Nov. 1) or same time Nov. 7 at the Sie.

TICKETS AND INFORMATION

Go to denverfilm.org

John Moore is the Denver Gazette’s Senior Arts Journalist. Email him at john.moore@denvergazette.com.

MORE OF OUR DENVER FILM FESTIVAL COVERAGE:

• Our interview with Delroy Lindo

• Here are five films you don’t want to miss

• Look who’s coming to Denver 

• Spotlight on Colorado films like ‘Creede U.S.A.’

• Daily Dispatch from the Denver Film Festival: Oct. 31