Philadelphia Film Festival
ready to launch

By Nathan Lerner
For the Times

Starting on April 5 and running for two weeks, the Philadelphia Film Festival offers a smorgasbord of nearly 300 films from 50 countries. Since 2001, Ray Murray, the co-owner of TLA, has served as the extravaganza’s artistic director.
Under Murray’s leadership, last year’s festival broke attendance records by selling 66,300 tickets. In audience balloting, 52 percent of the films presented during the fest garnered a rating of "good" or better.
"Overall, people liked what they saw. They did not like some of my more unusual offerings, so I’ve scaled back my favorite oddities for more conventional international cinema," he explained.
Murray has introduced a smattering of high-end studio films to augment the traditional low-budget, esoteric fare. This strategy is epitomized by the choice of The Ten as the festival’s opening-night film. The feature, distributed by the Hollywood studio THINK Films, has a star-studded cast that includes Winona Ryder, Jessica Alba, Liev Schreiber, Gretchen Mol and Oliver Platt.
It will be presented on April 5 at 6 p.m. at the Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.
"I actually saw it on DVD in my office," Murray said, discussing his choice of the film as the festival opener. "I like seeing films in cinemas, but I need to watch a lot on DVD. ‘The Ten’ was different than most. It captured my attention, even as people called and came into my office, and had me laughing out loud throughout the film. I always like opening with a light film — comedy, thriller — so as to launch the festival on a festive note.
"I don’t want people crying and depressed afterward at the opening-night party! Since we will be beginning the festival during Passover and Easter, I thought a religious comedy would be appropriate, especially since the film is not sacrilegious, and it just takes a commandment and runs with it. So it should not be offensive," he added.
After the screening, the opening-night festivities will adjourn to the Penthouse Lounge & Grille, a new venue in Northern Liberties.
Murray, who grew up near Fourth and Cayuga in the Hunting Park area, graduated from Temple University and cultivated a lifelong love of films.
"I loved growing up there, and I was all over the neighborhoods going to films. I went to all of the neighborhood cinemas," Murray said, reciting a long list of Philly movie houses, most of them long gone. "But while they were there, I enjoyed and learned all about movies." ••
For the full festival schedule and ticket prices, visit www.phillyfests.com