The UC Davis Film Festival next week adds red carpet fanfare this year: a red carpet leading into the Varsity Theatre, and a second carpet to beckon festivalgoers across the street to the Vini Wine Bar for prefestival mingling with faculty and the student filmmakers.

Also, festivalgoers are encouraged to dress up and have their photos taken in front of a Hollywood backdrop — all part of the price of admission. 

The 13th annual festival is scheduled for Wednesday-Thursday (May 22-23), featuring works of comedy, drama, documentary, animation and political satire. A different program is planned each day, starting time 8:30 p.m.

The Varsity, 616 Second St., presents the festival. It is produced by the theatre-dance, design and art studio departments, and the Cinema and Technocultural Studies program.

Student producer Jessica Philipps, a fourth-year communication major, said: “Both the visual and content quality of this year's submissions have dramatically increased. I think the judges will have a hard time choosing among films.”

Read the complete news release.

Music department concerts

Early Music Ensemble — 7 p.m. Saturday (May 18), St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 640 Hawthorn Lane, Davis. The program:

• Tallis — Spem in alium nunquam habui
• Rogier — Salva nos, Domine
• Monteverdi — Salve, O Regina, featuring Leslie Gilhooly, mezzo-soprano
• Monteverdi — Missa in illo tempore
• Byrd — Nunc dimittis
• Monteverdi — Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, featuring Alice Del Simone, soprano (Clorinda), Jonathan Nadel, tenor (Il Testo) and William David Cooper, tenor (Tancredi)

Empyrean Ensemble: New Music from Davis, Works for Electronics and Ensemble — 7 p.m. Sunday (May 19), Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Works by Gabriel Bolaños Chamorro, Bryce Cannell, Alex Van Gils, William Cooper, Christopher Castro, Scott Perry and Fang-Wei Luo.

Tickets for the Empyrean Ensemble concert are available through the Mondavi Center box office: online; by telephone, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787; or in person (the box office is open from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday). Suggested donations for the Early Music Ensemble will be taken at the door.

Corin Courtyard Concerts: Music and dance

The Mondavi Center closes out its Corin Courtyard Concert series with back-to-back events this weekend. Both are free and precede inside programs for which tickets are required.

• Saturday, May 18 — Music by Richie Lawrence and The Yolos. 6:30-7:30 p.m., in advance of In Conversation with Ira Glass, moderated by Daniel Handler.
• Sunday, May 19 — Kids in the Courtyard! — the “kids” being anyone from 3 to 7 who would like to join the Sacramento Ballet’s Vanessa Bautista for an introductory dance lesson. 1:30-2:30 p.m., in advance of the Lara Downes Family Concert.

More information.

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