The Phoenix Film Festival is underway – 11 days and nights of Arizona, U.S. and foreign feature films, documentaries, shorts, educational sessions and parties. The Harkins Scottsdale 101 multiplex on East Mayo Drive will host rolling blocks of screenings through Sunday, April 14..

At the top of my agenda is Cruel Hearts, the latest film from director Paul Osborne (Official Rejection, Favor), a festival favorite.

Director Paul Osborne has two films at the festival.

In what looks to be his latest examination of the gray zone in which human desires collide with law and morality, “A young man discovers the woman he’s been seeing is married to a notorious crime boss. Worried that this gangster will at some point discover the affair and seek revenge, the young man decides to confess his transgression and beg for forgiveness. The ploy works, and the pair form a very unusual, and ultimately dangerous, friendship.”

The crime boss in Cruel Hearts is played by Patrick Day, who put an acting clinic in Osborne’s 2013 film Favor as the malevolent Marvin. After doing perhaps the ultimate favor for childhood friend Kip, Marvin transforms from couch slouch into a human cancer that slowly spreads through every aspect of Kip’s life. Day does an amazing job of making Marvin relatable even as he grows into a monster, kind of like the carnivorous plant in Little Shop of Horrors. (“Feed me, Seymour!”)

Cruel Hearts screens three times: Friday at 11:10 a.m., Saturday at 5:25 p.m. and Sunday at 10:10 a.m. Osborne told me that he plans to attend each screening, and that Day will attend on Saturday and Sunday. Favor will screen Tuesday at 2:40 p.m., part of a retro showcase of past PFF favorites.

Friday evening could be the time for celebrity sightings. Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver, Battlestar Galactica) is scheduled to attend the 7:30 screening of Windows on the World, which was directed by his son Michael. In the film, the elder Olmos plays Balthazar, a Mexican father and grandfather who travels to New York City to earn money for his family. On 9/11, he is working at the Windows on the World restaurant atop the World Trade Center.

Back in Mazatlán, Balthazar’s family is horrified by the footage played again and again on TV. After his wife thinks she spots Balthazar fleeing the carnage, his younger son, Fernando (Ryan Guzman), heads to New York to search for the family patriarch. Because his goal is simply to find out if Balthazar is alive and, if so, bring him home, Fernando isn’t emotionally invested in the immigrant experience – even as he navigates through getting to New York, supporting himself and searching for his father. Through his eyes, viewers get a dispassionate view of illegal immigration, as well as the good and bad in people on its fringes.

In the same time slot Friday evening is the world premiere of Live from the Astroturf, Alice Cooper, in which “a lifelong Alice Cooper superfan convinces the original lineup of his favorite band to reunite at his record store 40 years after they parted ways.” Cooper, who lives in the Phoenix area, is expected to attend, along with his bandmates and director Steven Gaddis.

Over the weekend, I’m looking at a couple of films with big-name cast members.

Daisy Ridley (Star Wars) plays the title role in Ophelia, a retelling of Hamlet through the eyes of his love interest. Naomi Watts portrays Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, and Clive Owen plays his uncle/stepfather, Claudius, in the movie, which screens only once during the festival – Saturday at 7:25 p.m.

On Sunday at 7 p.m., I anticipate a big crowd for Teen Spirit, which stars Elle Fanning (Super 8, Somewhere) as a shy girl competing in a singing competition.

Another crowd-pleaser with a big-name cast will be Ode to Joy, a romantic comedy starring Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, Black Panther), Morena Baccarin (Firefly /Serenity, Homeland, Deadpool) and Melissa Rauch (Big Bang Theory, The Bronze). Freeman plays Charlie, a librarian with a condition called cataplexy – a rare disease that causes him to lose control of his muscles whenever he is overcome by strong emotion, particularly joy. When sexy Francesca (Baccarin) takes a romantic interest in him, hilarity ensues. Yes, I know that sounds unlikely (and horribly insensitive), but when I saw the move in February at the Sedona International Film Festival, the audience roared with laughter. All I will say is: Picture Rauch performing The Cranberries’ song “Zombie” on the cello.

During its second half, the festival presents three screenings of Eleven Eleven, an Arizona sci-fi comedy set in Sedona and filmed in Sedona and Phoenix. The cast includes Charles Baker (Breaking Bad) as Tim Faris, a UFO enthusiast who had a one-night stand with an alien 16 years earlier. Things start to fall apart for him when sexy alien Andromeda (Krista Allen) returns to earth. The film features strong performances from Phoenix-based actress Jennifer Pfalzgraff as Faris’ wife, Eve, and Christina Rose as his teenage daughter, Mallory.

Pfalzgraff also appears in Raising Buchanan, a comedy about a desperate woman who steals the corpse of the late President James Buchanan (1791-1868). Rene Auberjonois (Benson, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), portrays the 15th president. (Auberjonois also has a small role in the aforementioned Windows on the World.) Raising Buchanan has three screenings the second weekend of the festival.

Some of the festival’s evening and late-night screenings are devoted to the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival, which merged with the PFF a few years back. Among those offerings, I’m looking forward to feature films Assassinaut and One Cut of the Dead, as well as the documentary Survival of the Film Freaks.

Before and after movies, filmgoers can visit the free party pavilion for daytime educational activities and evening entertainment. This Saturday is Industry Night; Sunday is the Copper Wing Awards Party; and the following Saturday is the Cafe Pino Awards Party for Arizona films and the Horror & Sci-Fi festival. The pavilion will host a Kids’ Day event this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Children can select from a series of hands-on activity stations focusing on different aspects of film production and geared to various age and ability levels.

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Stu Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications. 

Tags: Alice Cooper, Assassinaut, Charles Baker, Christina Rose, Clive Owen, Cruel Hearts, Daisy Ridley, Edward James Olmos, Eleven Eleven, Elle Fanning, Jennifer Pfalzgraff, Krista Allen, Live from the Astroturf, Martin Freeman, Melissa Rauch, Morena Baccarin, Naomi Watts, Ode to Joy, One Cut of the Dead, Ophelia, Patrick Day, Paul Osborne, Phoenix Film Festival, Rene Auberjonois, Ryan Guzman, Survival of the Film Freaks, Teen Spirit, Windows on the World