The 14th edition of the Beirut International Film Festival is playing out for the third day on Friday October 3rd at the Abraj Theaters in Sin El Fil with screenings from the International Panorama and other unclassified sections.

Three films are scheduled for screening at 5 pm, including Life May Be by Irish filmmaker and critic Mark Cousins under the Spotlight category, and Paisà by Italian director Roberto Rossellini (1906-1977), a 1946 movie and one of six Rossellini films to be screened during the festival.

Cinéast(e)s is a documentary by Jury president and French actress July Gayet, starring Mathieu Busson. This film, which will be screened at 5 pm as well, features several female filmmakers talking about “women in the movie business” and the scarcity of female filmmakers.

The Devil’s Violinist, which is written for the screen and directed by Bernard Rose, is to be screened at 7.30 pm. Starring David Garret and Jared Harris, it features Garret as 19th-century Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini.

The Man of The Crowd (O Homem das Multidões) is a Brazilian film directed by Marcelo Gomes and screening at another theater. Inspired by an eponymous 1840 short story by Edgar Allan Poe, it tackles contemporary loneliness through the life of a shy train driver who is engrossed in his work in his job with no social life. This film was screened under the Panorama section at the 64th Berlin International Festival.

At the same time, the BIFF audience will be watching Love Is Strange, by U.S. director Ira Sachs and starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as two homosexuals who had benefited from the new law on same-sex marriage. Yet the same problems as any regular couple force them to face potential separation.

The program of the third day also includes Lilting, an award-winning movie at the Sundance Film Festival by Cambodian-born British director Hong Khaou. It tells the story of a Chinese widow who lives in Britain and who does not speak English. When her son dies, she experiences cultural estrangement.

Also screening at 10 pm is Calvary, which is written and directed by Irish filmmaker John Michael McDonagh. Starring Brendan Gleeson and Kelly Reilly, it features a good priest who finds himself under threat and locked in a confrontation with sinister forces.

At the same time, Desert Dancer chronicles the life of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian. Filmed on location in Morocco, France and Great Britain, this movie by British director Ricahrd Raymond is produced by Saudi filmmaker Mohammad al-Turki.

Mathieu Amalric’s La Chambre Bleue, which was slated for the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard award, portrays a love story between a man and a woman against a Hitchcock backdrop. Amalric himself plays the leading role alongside his wife and theater actress Stéphanie Cléau.

10 pm screenings include Bird People by French director Pascale Ferran and starring Josh Charles, Anaïs Demoustier and Roschdy Zem. This film about an American arriving at a Paris hotel and turning off his mobile phone to start a new life also competed under the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival.