Cast of “Taxi Driver” in 2016: Michael Phillips, Cybill Shepherd, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Jodie Foster, Paul Schrader, and Harvey Keitel
The Ojai Film Festival celebrates the 50th anniversary of the classic film Taxi Driver with a special screening and an award for screenwriter Paul Schrader.
Schrader is scheduled to appear in person to receive the festival’s inaugural Storyteller Award on Saturday, November 7 at 1:30 p.m. at the Chaparral Auditorium in Ojai.
Later that evening Schrader’s newest film, The Basics of Philosophy, will be screened in competition at the Art Center Theater.
Directed by Martin Scorsese and first released in 1976, Taxi Driver stars Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel and Cybill Shepherd. De Niro plays Travis Bickle, an isolated and mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran working the night shift as a New York City cab driver.
Disgusted by the city’s decay and fueled by obsession, Bickle descends into a personal crusade to save a teenage prostitute (Foster) and purge the streets. The critically-acclaimed film, based on Schrader’s original screenplay, was nominated for four Academy Awards.
This year’s festival, which was founded in 2000, also offers an evening of conversation with Jeff and Beau Bridges about 1989’s The Fabulous Baker Boys, co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer. The movie-star brothers present the film on Thursday, November 5 at 7 p.m. at the Libbey Bowl in Ojai.
This is the first year with Richard Sven Shelgren serving as festival director and Theodore Melfi serving as artistic director. Individual tickets and multi-screening passes are available for the entire six-day festival that runs from November 4 to 9.