‘The Sopranos’ gets its own 20th anniversary film festival

by JAY LUSTIG
Sopranos film festival

The influences and legacy of “The Sopranos” will be explored in an upcoming film festival.

HBO broadcast the first episode of “The Sopranos” on Jan. 10, 1999, and in honor of the landmark series’ 20th anniversary, the IFC Center in New York has put together a Sopranos Film Festival that will take place Jan. 9-14. Organized by Matt Zoller Seitz — who writes about television for New York magazine and other outlets, and covered the original series for New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper, The Star-Ledger — it will feature “Sopranos” episodes as well as films that influenced it, or were influenced by it.

The festival will open Jan. 9 with “Woke Up This Morning: ‘The Sopranos’ 20th Anniversary Celebration,” at which series creator David Chase, executive producers Terence Winter, Matthew Weiner and Ilene S. Landress and cast members will participate in a program of clips and conversation, moderated by Seitz.

The festival will also feature, on Jan. 11, the premiere of a movie, “My Dinner With Alan,” in which Seitz and fellow former Star-Ledger television critic Alan Sepinwall talk about television, movies, their years together at The Star-Ledger and other things. The movie was filmed at Holsten’s in Bloomfield, where the final, controversial “Sopranos” scene was shot. (Seitz and Sepinwall also have co-written a new book about the series, “The Sopranos Sessions,” that will be released in conjunction with the anniversary.)

Here is the festival’s schedule. All events will be at the IFC Center at 323 Sixth Ave. except for the “Woke Up This Morning,” which will be at the SVA Theatre at 333 W. 23rd St. For information, visit ifccenter.com/series/the-sopranos-film-festival.

JAN. 9
7 p.m.: “Woke Up This Morning: ‘The Sopranos’ 20th Anniversary Celebration” (see above).

JAN. 10
7:15 p.m.: “Not Fade Away” (2012, directed by David Chase)
10 p.m.: “Performance” (1970, directed by Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell)

JAN. 11
7:30 p.m.: “Pine Cones All Around: ‘The Sopranos’ and the Art of Surprise” with screening of “Sopranos” episode “The Knight in White Satin Armor” and “Show Biz Bugs” (1957, directed by Friz Freleng)
9:30 p.m.: “My Dinner with Alan” (2019, directed by Kristian Fraga)

JAN. 12
Noon: “Barry Lyndon” (1975, directed by Stanley Kubrick)
5 p.m.: “Poor You: Gangsters, Mothers and The Sopranos” with screening of The Public Enemy (1931, dir. William A. Wellman) and the “Sopranos” episode “Provai, Livushka.”
8:30 p.m.: “Goodfellas” (1990, directed by Martin Scorsese)

JAN. 13
Noon: “Trees Lounge” (1996, directed by Steve Buscemi)
2:45 p.m.: “Stooges With Guns: The Bloody Slapstick of The Sopranos” with screening of “Sopranos” episode “Pine Barrens” and the Three Stooges short “Idiots Deluxe” (1945, directed by Jules White)
5:30 p.m.: “Tony in Slumberland: The Dream Visions of The Sopranos” with screening of “Sopranos” episode “The Test Dream” and “Un Chien Andalou (1929, directed by Luis Buñuel)
7:45 p.m.: “Cul-de-Sac” (1966, directed by Roman Polanski)

JAN. 14
8 p.m.: “Blow-Up” (1966, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni)

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