Brown, Cumming, Dench, Jones, Minnelli, et al. Part of 2005 Hamptons Film Festival

A restored version of Liza Minnelli’s Emmy-winning TV special Liza With A “Z”, and films starring Tony Award winners Blair Brown, Alan Cumming, Len Cariou, Judi Dench, and Cherry Jones are among the offerings of 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival, which will take place October 19-23 on Long Island.

Liza With A “Z” first aired on TV in 1972. Directed by Bob Fosse, it was recorded at the Lyceum Theater, and featured Minnelli performing a variety of songs, including special material by John Kander and Fred Ebb (such as the now-famous title tune). Fosse, Minnelli, Kander, and Ebb all won Emmys for their work.

Brown appears in the drama Loverboy directed by Kevin Bacon, and starring Kyra Sedgwick, Melissa Errico, Campbell Scott, Jessica Stone, and Marisa Tomei. Cumming will appear alongside Lois Smith, Ned Beatty, and John Heard in Sweet Land, about immigrants trying to rebuild their lives after World War I; he will also participate in the Festival’s “Rising Stars Roundtable”.

Cariou stars alongside Joseph Bologna, Dyan Cannon, and Sally Kellerman in the romantic comedy Boynton Beach Bereavement Club. Dame Judi stars with Bob Hoskins in Mrs. Henderson Presents, a “love letter” to the English theater of the 1930s and 1940s, while Jones is joined by Colder Than Here star Sarah Paulson in the coming-of-age drama Swimmers.

Other films of note include A Good Woman, a romantic comedy based on Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan starring Helen Hunt, Scarlet Johansson, and Tom Wilkinson; Prime, in which Meryl Streep plays a psychiatrist who discovers her patient (Uma Thurman) is dating her son (Bryan Greenberg); and two films starring Off-Broadway favorite Hope Davis: The Weather Man (with Nicolas Cage) and The Matador (with Greg Kinnear).

In addition, one of the many panels and readings that run concurrently with the Festival will be a tribute to the late Spaulding Gray, in which Roy Scheider, Joe Pintauro, and Bob Balaban will read excerpts from his last book Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue. It will take place at the Southampton Inn.

For more information on the 13th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival, go to www.hamptonsfilmfest.org.