Spring into action for Flix film series at the Fox

Jan. 25—Although it was only Oscar nominations announced on Tuesday, the Fox Theater knows it has a winner on its hands with "Aftersun," one of the films it will feature in the second half of the current season of Flix.

Actor Paul Mescal is a contender for best actor for his portrayal of a struggling father on holiday with his preteen daughter (played by Frankie Corio) at a Turkish resort in the late 1990s. That film will screen Feb. 10 at the theater.

The series is one year shy of major anniversaries: 25 years at the Fox and 40 years for the program, which began as FLICS and evolved slightly when founder Phil Neufeld retired in 2018.

Flix's current board, consisting of members Woody White, Georgia Bailey and Susan Sainte-Marie, now select the international and independent films to be screened in a season split into fall and spring sections.

Sainte-Marie said the lineup is determined from a blend of "critics' consensus, reviews and our gut."

Bailey enjoys Anthony Lane from The New Yorker, admitting "I've gone to see bad films because his reviews are so funny."

White and Bailey concede their colleague keeps track of how films fare at awards ceremonies, which is another consideration to determine viewer interest.

In discussing the films on Monday, the trio noted that there was Oscar buzz around "Aftersun" as well as the South Korean romantic noir "Decision to Leave," screening Feb. 24, which failed to get the nomination for best international feature.

The board and the Fox both hope to build up the audience for the series, which was decimated in the wake of COVID. One of the biggest draws was "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," which had an audience of 1,100 while the average since Flix returned after a two-year hiatus has been between 50 to 100 people in attendance.

Although many of the films are available on streaming services, all agree that being able to watch a film in an actual theater with an audience of fellow film lovers makes all the difference.

"This is the sixth place we've been," said White, who's been on the board since the FLICS days. "We've been here the longest and we don't want to go anywhere else as long as the Fox will have us."

"Any excuse you have to go to the Fox Theater, you should take."

Before each screening, Ally Lara, the Fox's assistant theater manager, runs a film trivia contest, usually themed in some way to the film. Attendees can download the app on their phone to answer the questions with prizes awarded for top performers.

Organizers hope people get on board and enjoy this eight-film run that kicks off Friday.

"There are some really excellent films," Sainte-Marie said. "Take a chance. It's really rewarding."

Season lineup

The second half of the season resumes Friday with "Hit the Road," a 2021 Iranian dramedy about a family road trip to the Turkish border to smuggle out their young adult son.

In the coming weeks, these seven films will be screened:

Feb. 10: In "Aftersun," a woman (Celia Rowlson-Hall as an adult, Corso as a youth) looks back on the vacation she spent with her melancholy father (Mescal).

Feb. 24: "Decision to Leave," directed by Park Chan-wook, follows an insomniac detective investigating the death of a retired immigration officer, Ki Do Soo, in for which his younger wife is suspected. The detective and widow are drawn together as the mystery unfolds.

March 31: Javier Bardem stars as a manipulative factory owner who meddles in the lives of his employees in the 2021 corporate satire "The Good Boss."

April 14: Another offering from Spain, 2021's "Official Competition" centers on a multi-millionaire's decision to finance a film led by an eccentric director (Penelope Cruz) and starring a Hollywood performer (Antonio Banderas) and a method actor (Oscar Martínez) who are at odds with each other.

April 28: The 2020 Hungarian film "Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time" tells the story of an accomplished neurosurgeon (Natasa Stork) who believes she has met the love of her life but finds when she goes to meet him at the appointed time that he said he has never met her.

May 12: Nicholas Cage portrays an acclaimed chef turned reclusive truffle-forager who must return to Portland, Ore., to find his beloved foraging pig who has been kidnapped in 2021's "Pig."

May 26: Adapted from a short film, "Brian and Charles" from 2022 is about a lonely inventor living in rural Wales who builds a robot using a mannequin's head he finds. Although his efforts are initially unsuccessful, the invention activates during a thunderstorm.

Read full descriptions of each film and ratings at thebakersfieldfox.com.

Attendees can enjoy their own wine bottle at screenings with a $10 corkage fee that includes tumblers.

Stefani Dias can be reached at 661-395-7488. Follow her on Twitter at @realstefanidias.