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The annual Forum Film Festival offers you the unique opportunity to watch and discuss movies dealing with legal themes, with a box of popcorn in hand and surrounded by a large audience, most of whom are not lawyers, so you don’t need to know any legalese. Featuring an exciting mix of current blockbusters, classic favorites, documentaries, and independent movies over six nights, the Film Festival illuminates the legal system with all of its triumphs, failures, moral dilemmas, and dramatic moments.

Each movie is followed by a post-screening discussion with renowned artists, writers, public intellectuals, and members of the legal profession who have a particular connection to the film. Explore how the themes of justice and injustice continue to inspire the artistic imagination. Hear interesting stories and anecdotes. Get answers to your questions. And share your own ideas and viewpoints.

Events / Film Festival Schedule / 2006

2006 Film Festival

The inaugural Forum Law Film Festival was a resounding success, bringing together a wide range of people who shared an equally wide range of viewpoints about six films that demonstrate the reciprocal influence of the legal system on the broader culture.

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  • Thank You for Smoking

    • Christopher Buckley – Novelist; Author, Thank You for Smoking
    • Aaron Eckhart stars in this adaptation of Christopher Buckley's witty, hilarious novel about a top spin agent who attempts to balance the difficulties of defending Big Tobacco with being a good role-model for his twelve-year-old son.

  • 12 Angry Men

    • Boyd Gaines – Award-winning Actor; Juror No. 8 in the 2004 revival of 12 Angry Men
    • Peter Friedman – Award-winning Broadway Star; Actor in the 2004 Revival of 12 Angry Men
    • Henry Fonda plays a righteous juror who seeks to convince eleven fellow jurors of the innocence of an 18-year-old Latino charged with murder.

  • The Accused

    • Joel J. Seidemann – Assistant DA, New York County
    • Deborah Denno – Professor, Fordham Law School
    • Roslyn Myers – Adjunct Professor, Fordham Law School
    • Jodie Foster portrays a rape victim who inspires the prosecutor (Kelly McGillis) to bring charges against those who cheered on the rape after the legal system failed to properly punish the actual attackers. Inspired by real events.

  • A Civil Action

    • Denny Chin – U.S. District Judge, Southern District of New York
    • Jack Ford – Emmy and Peabody Award–winning Journalist
    • Matthew Diller – Former Professor, Fordham Law School
    • John Travolta stars as real-life personal injury lawyer Jan Schlictmann, who represents several families suing a large corporation for leaking toxic waste into the water supply, causing fatal cases of leukemia, in high-stakes litigation that could make or break his entire career.

  • A Time to Kill

    • Benjamin Brafman – Attorney; Principal, Brafman & Associates PC
    • Dolores Jones-Brown – Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
    • When Samuel L. Jackson's character takes justice into his own hands and kills the two men who raped his daughter, the lawyer (Mattew McConaughey)  attempts to defend him against the District Attorney (Kevin Spacey).

  • Judgment at Nuremberg

    • Eli Rosenbaum – Longest-serving Prosecutor/Investigator of Nazi Criminals in World History; Director, U.S. DOJ Office of Special Investigations
    • Maria Marcus – Professor, Fordham Law School; Former Chief, New York State Attorney General's Litigation Bureau
    • In the film version of Abby Mann's fictionalized account of the trials of former Nazi officers in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II, Spencer Tracy stars as a U.S. Chief Judge charged with presiding over the trial of four Nazi judges, supported by a high-profile cast featuring a powerful Burt Lancaster as one of the Nazi judges, Marlene Deitrich and a young William Shatner.

  • In the Bedroom

    • Christopher Cuomo – News Anchor, Good Morning America; Fordham Law Graduate
    • Daniel Kornstein – Attorney; Writer
    • Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek star as a New England couple whose lives are consumed by tragedy stemming from the murder of their college-age son.