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Film Festivals 1996

This year's line-up was dotted with award winners including Todd Solondz's Sundance winner "Welcome to the Dollhouse", Best Foriegn Film at the Academy Awards, "Antonia's Line" and winner of Cannes Best Director Award, "La Haine". Other stand-outs were Lars Von Trier's minor masterpiece "Breaking the Waves" and the Coen Brothers' "Fargo". Ken Loach didn't disappoint with "Land and Freedom" while Mike Leigh made his most accessible film yet with "Secrets and Lies". Kathryn Bigelow, director of 'Point Break', broke out with her stylish and visually stunning "Strange Days" (pictured).

Shine ( Blu-ray ) (1996)

7.7/10
Director: Scott Hicks
Starring: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, John Gielgud

Geoffrey Rush's upset win for the Best Actor Oscar was the jewel in the crown for this wonderful, moving little film portraying the torrid true story... Read more

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)

7.4/10
Director: Todd Solondz
Starring: Brendan Sexton Jr, Heather Matarazzo, Matthew Faber, Eric Mabius

This Sundance winner follows the travails of Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo), the teen pariah who seems to invite the cruelties heaped upon her by cla... Read more

Beautiful Thing (1996)

7.6/10
Director: Hettie Macdonald
Starring: Glen Berry, Linda Henry, Scott Neal, Tameka Empson

An insightful take on first love between two working class adolescent boys, neighbours with very different home lives, who become sexually and romanti... Read more

Breaking the Waves (1996)

7.9/10
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier

The extraordinary story of a young, simple-minded, God-fearing Scottish woman who willingly takes on lovers in the belief that it will cure her paraly... Read more

Secrets and Lies (1996)

7.7/10
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Timothy Spall, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Claire Rus...

A 27 year old black London Optometrist decides to seek out the woman who gave her up for adoption after she was born. The search leads to a surprising... Read more

Fargo (1996)

8.1/10
Director: Joel Coen
Starring: Peter Stormare, William H Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harve Presnell, Frances McDormand

A lovingly mocking tale of a kidnapping scheme that goes horribly wrong in the snow-clad Mid-West. A pregnant Sheriff (Oscar-winning Frances McDormand... Read more

Love And Other Catastrophes (1996)

6.3/10
Director: Emma-Kate Croghan
Starring: Frances O'Connor, Alice Garner, Radha Mitchell

Students Alice and Mia move into a new flat and plan a party while looking for another flatmate, as well as trying to sort out their loves and lives a... Read more

Love Serenade (1996)

7/10
Director: Shirley Barrett
Starring: Miranda Otto, Rebecca Frith, George Shetsov

The tale of two sisters in a small back-of-beyond Australian town and their relationship with a seedy disc jockey, whose career is on the slide, when... Read more

Shine (1996)

7.7/10
Director: Scott Hicks
Starring: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, John Gielgud

Geoffrey Rush's upset win for the Best Actor Oscar was the jewel in the crown for this wonderful, moving little film portraying the torrid true story... Read more

Small Faces (1996)

7.1/10
Director: Gillies MacKinnon
Starring: Iain Robertson, J S Duffy, Joseph McFadden

For the three McLean Brothers (Ian Robertson, Joseph McFadden and J. S. Duffy) art and violence are the alternative escape routes out of the Glasgow s... Read more