MVFF39: Chazelle’s La La Land & Larrain’s Jackie Highlight Awards Friendly Film Fest

They might not be known for high profile premieres and there might be similarities in festival programming to other autumn set fests such as Denver, Chicago, Hamptons and Savannah, but what sets the Mill Valley International Film Festival (October 6-16) apart in terms of award seasons clout is that it kick starts the conversation for the West coast elite in the shape of Academy members from the Visual Effects and Sound branches. The proof is in the pudding with recent winners and previous MVFF attendees being Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), Brie Larson, Ang Lee, Michel Hazanvicius, Danny Boyle and Tom Hooper. Apart from introducing mostly Cannes offerings, the 39th edition is once again heavy on Telluride/Venice/TIFF titles and is opening with not one, but a pair in: Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (arguably the current Best Picture frontrunner) and Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival which could very well land Amy Adams her sixth nomination in the Best Actress category. She’ll face some stiff competition from offer MVFF invited perfs in Natalie Portman (Jackie), Emma Stone (La La Land) and Annette Bening (20th Century Women).

The guest list for the event is stacked: Chazelle, Pablo Larrain (Jackie & Neruda), Jeff Nichols (Loving), Mike Mills (20th Century Women), Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) will all be making the rounds, while star quotient will come from Best Actor possibilities in Casey Affleck (Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea) and other buzz worthy elite in Ryan Gosling, Joel Edgerton and probably Gael Garcia Bernal (the latter two will appear at the fest as well).

While Nicole Kidman (Lion) and Aaron Eckhardt (Bleed for This) will be honored by the fest (and not coincidentally likely score Supporting Actress/Actor categories), not unlike last year, the 2016 is stacked in subtitled gems that will represent their respective countries for the Best Foreign film category. Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann (Germany), Farhadi’s The Salesman (Iran), Larrain’s Neruda (Chile), Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea (Italy) and Pedro Almodovar’s Julieta (Spain) are among the highlights.