The 36th annual Atlantic Film Festival announces its full festival program, featuring over 225 films and a full slate of special events, to be presented over eight days in Halifax, September 15-22.

"This year we are delivering as your curator of epic and unforgettable stories across the spectrum of every taste like never before. Audiences flock to film festivals to be moved, challenged, shaken and stirred and this year’s program guarantees all of that and beyond”, said Wayne Carter, Executive Director.

Adding to the already impressive list of previously announced Gala Presentations – Opening Night Gala Maudie (Sept. 15), Friday Night Gala Weirdos (Sept. 16), Sunday Night Gala: Reel East Coast Shorts (Sept. 18), and Wednesday Night Gala Perfume War (Sept. 21) – are the exciting announcements of four additional Gala Presentations to complete the 2016 program.

The Saturday Night Gala presentation on Sept. 17 will be American Honey, written and directed by Andrea Arnold (Wasp, Red Road). The film follows Star (Sasha Lane), a teenage girl from a troubled home, who runs away with a travelling sales crew selling Magazine subscriptions door to door. Finding her feet in this gang of teenagers, one of whom is Jake (Shia LaBeouf), she soon gets into the group's lifestyle of hard-partying nights, law-bending days and young love. Candid, bold and powerful, with an almost non-stop music track ranging from rap to ballad, American Honey is an engrossing and exhilarating coming-of-age film that examines frayed youth with surprising depth. American Honey is produced by Film4, Parts & Labor, Maven Pictures, and the British Film Institute, and is distributed in Canada by Elevation Pictures.

Theatre of Life, from director Peter Svatek, is the Atlantic Film Festival Monday Night Gala on Sept. 19 – and also part of this year’s inaugural NFB Showcase. For Expo Milano 2015, renowned chef Massimo Bottura, whose Osteria Francescana was named world’s best restaurant in 2016, invited 60 of his international confrères to join him in transforming food destined for the dumpster into delicious and nutritious meals for Italy’s hungriest residents. A visual feast in itself, Theatre of Life puts a human face on its powerful message of social justice while raising awareness about the enormous environmental impact of food waste. Theatre of Life is produced by Triplex Films and The National Film Board of Canada.

This year’s Tuesday Night Gala: Français will be Xavier Dolan’s Juste la fin du monde (It’s Only the End of the World), winner of the Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. After 12 years of absence, a writer goes back to his hometown, planning on announcing his upcoming death to his family. As resentment soon rewrites the course of the afternoon, fits and feuds unfold, fuelled by bitterness and fear, while all attempts of empathy are sabotaged by people’s incapacity to listen, and love. Produced by Sons Of Manual and MK Productions, Juste la fin du monde is distributed in Canada by Entertainment One.

The Festival's Closing Night Gala presentation on Thursday, Sept. 22 will be Manchester by the Sea, written and directed by Academy Award® nominated filmmaker, Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me). When his older brother dies, Lee (Casey Affleck) is granted custody of his teenage nephew (Lucas Hedges). As they both adjust to their new lives, Lee struggles with the many ghosts of his past, including his estranged ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams) who makes her way in and out of his past and present. Produced by K Period Media, Manchester by the Sea is distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media.

Featuring the newest and most anticipated films of the year, moviegoers will want to be first in line to see the twelve films comprising the 2016 Special Presentations, sponsored by Cineplex Events. Savour the sights and sounds of soon to be award-winning films: Denial, recounting Deborah E. Listadt’s (Rachael Weisz) legal battle for historical truth against Holocaust denier David Irving (Timothy Spall); The Dressmaker, an Australian revenge comedy-drama starring Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth; Elle, a French psychological thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Isabelle Huppert; Gimme Danger, Jim Jarmusch’s affectionate tribute to Iggy Pop and The Stooges; The Handmaiden (Agassi), a South Korean erotic psychological thriller from writer-director Park Chan-wook; I, Daniel Blake, the latest Palme d’or prize-winner from celebrated filmmaker Ken Loach; Julieta, based on three short stories by Alice Munro and brought to the screen by Pedro Almodóvar; Mean Dreams, a coming-of-age thriller from writer-director Nathan Morlando and starring Bill Paxton; Patterson, Jim Jarmusch’s tale of a bus driver poet played by Adam Driver; Personal Shopper, a ghost story set in the fashion underworld of Paris starring Kristen Stewart; Toni Erdmann, a German comedy-drama written and directed by Maren Ade; and Trespass Against Us, following a family living on the wrong side of the law in provincial England, and starring Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson.

Two new film programs are being announced this year. The first being Restored! which focuses on a new film preservation each year. The 2016 selection offers Multiple Maniacs, John Waters’ gloriously grotesque, unavailable-for-decades second feature, made in 1970 on a shoestring budget in Baltimore.

The second is the inaugural NFB Showcase, celebrating our nations oldest and most celebrated film institution with a suite of screenings highlighting their latest productions. Featured documentaries are Angry Inuk (Alethea Arnaquq-Baril), Bluefin (John Hopkins), Gun Runners (Anjali Nayar), The Gift (Niobe Thompson), and We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice (Alanis Obomsawin), along with nine additional films in a NFB Shorts program.

Rounding out this year’s complete AFF program is a top-tier line up of features and documentaries from Canada and throughout the world. Viewers will delight in a wide range of films, including Canadian films: Below Her Mouth, First Round Down, Hello Destroyer, Old Stone, Two Lovers and a Bear, Unless and Window Horses; international award-winners: L’Avenir (France/Germany), Land of Mine (Denmark/Germany), A Man Called Ove (Sweden), The Salesman (Iran/France) and Transpecos (USA); and Canadian Premieres of international titles: Crosscurrent (China), Moon Dogs (UK), Papa: Hemingway in Cuba (USA/Canada), and She Remembers He Forgets (Hong Kong), among many more.

Select documentaries include: the rotoscoped recount of America’s first mass school shooting, Tower; a look at champion show chicken breeders in Chicken People; a wide ranging musical celebration of Austin City Limits in A Song for You; a gripping, psychological thriller, and winner of a Special Jury Prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Kate Plays Christine; and Dilip Mehta’s profile of porn star turned Bollywood star, Sunny Leone, in Mostly Sunny; among many other captivating and enlightening titles.

The Atlantic Film Festival will once again feature French language films from Canada in partnership with Quebec Cinema, including feature films Boris sans Béatrice (Denis Côté), King Dave (Daniel Grou) and Les Mauvaises Herbes (Louis Bélanger), along with nine short films in Courts métrages. All films in the Quebec Cinema program are in French with English Subtitles.

Also included in this year’s line up are Short Film Programs, featuring both a Canadian and international selection, and the Festival’s popular ViewFinders: Films for Youth program.

The 2016 Festival will host several one-of-a kind special events and parties to celebrate the movies, the people and the city of Halifax. In addition to the Opening Night Party is the return of the Festival Music House Atlantic presented by Radio Starmaker Fund. The night will feature a stellar line up, including performances by Paper Lions, Amelia Curran and Atlantic Canada’s own Joel Plaskett.