Oscar® Loves the Brand New CineGrand!

Ellsworth, Maine - The Grand announces the lineup for the return of the Winter and Spring CineGrand – a series of the best of the recent films, most of them nominated for this year's Academy Awards and all projected through the theater's brand-new Digital Projection System. The films will be shown weekly with an evening screening on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm and a special closed-captioned matinee screening on the following Wednesday afternoon. Ticket prices for evening movies and are $8 for Adults, $7 for Seniors and Students and $6 for Grand Members. Wednesday matinees are $6. The line-up of titles for Winter and Spring CineGrand are:

Tuesday, February 14th at 7:30 pm/Wednesday February 15th at 2:00 pm– Love and Friendship Directed by independent film legend Whit Stillman, this acclaimed film celebrates Valentine's Day with an adaptation of Jane Austen's classic romantic story of wit and wisdom. Beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) visits the estate of her in-laws to wait out the colorful rumors about her dalliances circulating through polite society. Can she keep from creating new scandals? Don't count on it! With Chloe Sevingy, Stephen Fry and Jemma Redgrave.

Tuesday, February 21st at 7:30 pm/Wednesday February 22nd at 3:30 pm– The Girl on the Train A

CineGrand Screens “The Hateful 8”

ELLSWORTH – The Grand announces Quentin Tarrantino's The Hateful 8 as the next film in its weekly Summer CineGrand series on Tuesday nights at 7:30 pm. Screening on July 19th, it is almost three hours long and contains one 10 minute intermission. Ticket prices are for general admission seating for each movie and are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, and $5 for Grand members.

Tarrantino's latest genre twister (featuring an an Oscar®-winning score from Ennio Morricone), the film is set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War as a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh in an Oscar®-nominated performance,) race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as "The Hangman," will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former Union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town's new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren, and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie's, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Demian Bichir), who's taking care of Minnie's while she's visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all.... (2015. US 2hr, 47min. Directed by Quentin Tarrantino. R.)

For more information on these or other Grand events, including on July 26th at 7:30 pm the next CineGrand selection, Life, the story of photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) who convinced a rebellious young actor on the cusp of stardom, James Dean (Dane DeHaan), to allow him to shoot him for LIFE Magazine, please call the box office at 207-667-9500 or visit The Grand website at www.grandonline.org or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Grand-Auditorium/112755987339

CineGrand Takes “The Hundred-Foot Journey”!

Ellsworth, Maine - The Grand announces “The Hundred-Foot Journey” as the next title in its CineGrand series of the best recent films, many of them nominated for this year's Academy and Golden Globe Awards, screening on Tuesday, February 10 at 7:30 pm.  The film is sponsored by The Salt Box Restaurant in Hancock.  Additional Grand films are available for sponsorship by community members and businesses, with sponsorships still available with a $200 donation to The Grand. Contact The Grand for more information. Ticket prices for CineGrand films are for general admission seating and are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and $5 for Grand members.

Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is a culinary ingénue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect

CineGrand Screens “12 Years a Slave”

Ellsworth, Maine - The Grand announces “12 Years a Slave” as the next title in its CineGrand program, a series of the best of recent independent films in a new weekly format. The movie will show on Tuesday, February 25 at 7:30 pm.  The Oscar- nominated drama is directed by British filmmaker Steve McQueen (“Hunger”, “Shame”) and stars  Chiwetel Ejiofor (“Kinky Boots”, “Inside Man”) with Michael Fassbender  (“X-Men: First Class”, “Inglorious Basterds”), Brad Pitt (“World War Z”, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“Sherlock”, “Star Trek Into Darkness”), Sarah Paulson (“American Horror Story”, “Down With Love”), and Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”, “John Adams”). Ticket prices are general admission seating and are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and $5 for Grand members. The CineGrand series is sponsored by Sullivan Harbor Farm Smokehouse.

Based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom, the film takes place in the pre-Civil War United States and tells the story of Solomon Northup (Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, who is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, portrayed by Fassbender), as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Pitt) will forever alter his life. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said that “the genius of '12 Years a Slave' is its insistence on banal evil, and on terror, that seeped into souls, bound bodies and reaped an enduring, terrible price.”

For more information on these or other Grand events- including on March 11th at 7:30 pm the next CineGrand selection of “Adult World,” the satirical coming-of-age comedy starring Emma Roberts, John Cusack, Evan Peters and Cloris Leachman- please call the box office at 207-667-9500 or visit The Grand website at www.grandonline.org or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Grand-Auditorium/112755987339

Grand Film: The Maine Story of “Finding Donn Fendler”

Ellsworth, Maine - The Grand’s film program of documentary and independent films, CineGrand, continues on Friday, September 21st at 7 pm with the documentary film, “Finding Donn Fendler: Lost on a Mountain in Maine 72 Years Later”. This event will include a post-film Q&A with the directors and the film’s subject.

Filmmakers Ryan Cook and Derek Desmond took the true story of one lost boy’s survival in the Maine wilderness in 1939 and attempted to create a feature-length film.  “Finding Donn Fendler” is a 60-minute documentary of their efforts to re-tell the story through interviews and footage of Donn Fendler today, their obstacles in making the film and their rewards in discovering the remarkable man who inspired their efforts.

Fendler’s story of hope and survival took place in July of 1939, when twelve-year-old Donn got separated from his family while hiking up Katahdin's Hunt Trail. Lost and alone, Donn made his way down the mountain and through over 80 miles of thick Maine forest and over the course of nine days, lost nearly twenty pounds, most of his clothing, and was eaten alive by seemingly every insect known to man. Through hallucinations, black bears and abandoned cabins, Donn never gave up hope as he continued to push onward.

So bring a friend and share the experience at The Grand on Friday, September 21st at 7 pm with the documentary film “Finding Donn Fendler: Lost on a Mountain in Maine 72 years later.” A post-screening Q&A will feature both filmmakers and Donn Fendler himself.

Tickets are available at The Grand box office (667-9500) or online at www.grandonline.org.  Adults are $10 while Youth (12 and under) are $7.

CineGrand continues at The Grand with “Manhattan Short Film Festival 2012” on Friday, September 28th and “Sharing the Stories- the 2nd Annual Maine LGBT Film Festival” running from Friday October 19th through Sunday October 21st.

Information on everything Grand is at The Grand website at www.grandonline.org.  Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Grand-Auditorium/112755987339