For the next nine days, Burns Court Cinemas and Lakewood Ranch Cinemas will play host to Sarasota’s cinephiles and film fans, as they gather for the Cine-World Film Festival. Organized for the last 25 years by the Sarasota Film Society, Cine-World has made a name for itself, consistently bringing some of the most interesting and acclaimed foreign and independent films to Sarasota’s theaters.

This year is no exception, beginning with the opening night film, Mr. Turner, starring Timothy Spall as eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner and ending with the closing night presentation on Nov. 16 of Jean-Pierre Darden’s Two Days, One Night starring Marion Cotillard, the Cine-World Film Festival will screen films from 26 different countries, including Australia, Norway, Japan, Israel and Papua New Guinea.

In between, the festival’s Spotlight Selections run the gamut from the intriguing Escobar: Paradise Lost showcasing Benicio Del Toro as cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar to Ethan Hawke’s meditative documentary of aging pianist Seymour Bernstein. It’s a selection broad as the world it seeks to represent, with a little space left over for a film from one of Sarasota’s own in Karl Wilson’s Breaking Up With Rosie.

It’s easy for great films to slip between the cracks, drowned out by blockbusters and big budgets, and it can be a hassle to seek them out later – festivals like Cine-World do the work for us.

Cine-World Film Festival runs from Nov. 7-16, with screenings at Burns Court Cinemas and Lakewood Ranch Cinemas. Tickets are available online or at the theater box office.

Click For Full Cine-World Programming