Hamptons Film Festival draws top stars

New films from Ben Affleck, Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney and "The Sopranos" creator David Chase are among the highlights of this year's Hamptons International Film Festival, which celebrates its 20th anniversary Oct. 4-8 at venues around the East End.

Actors and filmmakers scheduled to attend include Melissa Leo, Nathan Lane, Mike Nichols, Justin Long, Sienna Miller, Steven Van Zandt and Ari Graynor. Richard Gere and Alan Cumming will be interviewed before live audiences, and singer Stevie Nicks will speak at a screening of her documentary, "In Your Dreams: Stevie Nicks."

The festival's full lineup includes 22 world premieres among more than 80 feature films. The opening night film is "Love, Marilyn," a documentary on Marilyn Monroe; David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook," starring Bradley Cooper as a bipolar man living with his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver), opens the festival's Southampton venue Oct. 5. "Argo," Affleck's true-life thriller set against the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, is the centerpiece film. The festival closes with Chase's feature-film debut, "Not Fade Away," about teenagers who form a rock band in the 1960s.

Other highlights include Gibney's "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," which delves into a groundbreaking Catholic Church sex scandal; Steven Frears' "The Details," a dark comedy starring Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks; "Wakaliwood," a documentary from East Northport native Alan Hofmanis about a colorful Ugandan filmmaker; and the caper comedy "Whole Lotta Sole," starring Brendan Fraser and directed by Oscar-winning Hamptons resident Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda").

The full schedule is at hamptonsfilmfest.org.