Rickshaw Girl, The Rescue win over audiences at 44th Mill Valley Film Festival

During this year's hybrid festival, audiences attended virtually through the CAFILM Streaming Room and flocked to CinéArts Sequoia and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in Marin County to celebrate the return of in-person screenings. MVFF also returned to Berkeley with a selection of films at BAMPFA (Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive) and held four live music shows at Sweetwater Music Hall.
 
Festival goers received an early look at upcoming Academy Award® contenders; discovered some of the best films from around the globe; and celebrated many talented local filmmakers in the Bay Area, as well as acclaimed filmmakers from countries all around the world.
 
“My intent for the 44th Mill Valley Film Festival was to create a safe and vibrant festival that entertains and addresses the universal need to gather together and share stories about our common humanity. After 11 days, 125 films, and over 23,000 guests, I can say unequivocally that the hopes for this years' festival were realized,” said MVFF Founder/Director Mark Fishkin. “The one-two punch of being both in theaters and in the virtual arena made it possible to include a wide selection of films from around the globe that were embraced with unbridled excitement and joy by theatergoers. MVFF44 was slightly smaller with fewer screens than normal (pre-pandemic). However, it included all the elements, special “Big Night” events, conversations with industry experts, and host to Variety's 10 Screenwriters to Watch, that make the Mill Valley Film Festival one the most highly anticipated film festivals in the country,” continued Fishkin. “Audiences were giddy to be in theaters and showed up in large numbers for films and stayed to enjoy dozens of post-film conversations that took place at CFI's Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center as well as the Sequoia theater in Mill Valley. I believe that in this polarized world, our work at MVFF44 is more important than ever.”
 
On Opening Night, Thursday, October 7, the highly anticipated musical film adaptation CYRANO had its California Premiere and featured an in-person conversation with Award-winning director Joe Wright. Additional in-person discussions throughout the festival with such luminaries as writer/director Mike Mills whose beautiful new drama C'MON C'MON deeply connected with the viewers as MVFF's Centerpiece presentation; a special look at Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's overwhelmingly intense new documentary THE RESCUE, which featured conversations both with Jimmy and Thai groundwater expert Thanet Natisri; a Mind the Gap screening of PASSING with writer/director Rebecca Hall, producer Nina Yang Bongiovi and actress Ruth Negga; and a Closing Night presentation of the highly-anticipated new film by Wes Anderson, THE FRENCH DISPATCH with Stephen Park.
 
MVFF44 presented several Spotlights and Tributes throughout the Festival. This year's Spotlight programs included Oscar®-winning Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (THE GREAT BEAUTY), presenting his most personal movie to date, THE HAND OF GOD (É STATA LA MANO DI DIO); San Francisco native Simon Rex blew everyone away with his sensational star-making performance in RED ROCKET; Maggie Gyllenhaal and members of the phenomenal ensemble she put together, Dakota Johnson and Paul Mescal, for her directorial debut THE LOST DAUGHTER; and one of the most exciting directors working today, Denis Villeneuve, who shot to international acclaim with INCENDIES, for his work writing and directing the eagerly anticipated adaptation of DUNE. Festival Tribute programs included Emmy and BAFTA award winner and Academy® Award nominee Kenneth Branagh who received the Mill Valley Film Festival Award and talked with Festival Head of Programming Zoe Elton about his new film BELFAST. After receiving two standing ovations, Kenneth discussed filmmaking during COVID and how the pandemic has provided moments of self-exploration. Additionally, the festival paid tribute to the first woman to receive the acclaimed Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or, Jane Campion, who received the Mind the Gap Award – Innovative Artist Award and was interviewed on stage by Zoë Elton after the showing of her new film THE POWER OF THE DOG. Jane recounted her journey of working with Benedict Cumberbatch and the evolution of her work to a packed theater.
 
Many local films and filmmakers were celebrated during MVFF44, including the World Premieres of CENTER DIVIDE, directed by Bay Area auteur Rob Nilsson, THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALISTS – FROM ACCRA TO ELEUTHERA ISLAND, a film from the Mill Valley Film Group, and SONG FOR CESAR, directed by Andres Alegria and Abel Sanchez, showcasing music of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. Celebrating their North American Premieres were RICKSHAW GIRL, based on the award-winning YA novel by Bay Area author Mitali Perkins and produced by Sonoma County's Eric J. Adams and BORN IN CHICAGO, directed by John Anderson and Bay Area local, Bob Sarles from a script penned by Joel Selvin. MVFF screened the US Premiere of LADY BUDS, a film that features six courageous women who came out of the cannabis underground to enter the newly legalized market in California. BAD ATTITUDE: THE ART OF SPAIN RODRIGUEZ, a thought-provoking look at the controversial art and life of the legendary underground cartoonist through the lens of his wife, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Susan Stern, had its California Premiere. REFLECTION: A WALK WITH WATER from director Emmett Brennan also had its California Premiere. The Bay Area Premiere of LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN FONG-TORRES, directed by Suzanne Joe Kai, is an intimate portrait of Ben Fong-Torres, a social activist, legendary rock journalist, and a Bay Area institution. Lissette Feliciano‘s rule-breaking debut, WOMEN IS LOSERS also had its Bay Area Premiere at MVFF, as did Kate Tsang's film, MARVELOUS AND THE BLACK HOLE. Local Academy Award®-winning director Louie Psihoyos teamed with co-director Peggy Callahan on MISSION: JOY – FINDING HAPPINESS IN TROUBLED TIMES, a documentary with unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship between two international religious icons: His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Archbishop Tutu. 
 
Both a celebration and call to action, Mind the Gap (MTG), MVFF's platform for inclusion and equity, amplifying and championing filmmaking by women, non-binary people, and other marginalized groups through a vibrant collection of films, Q&As, Panels, and Conversations. The 2021 Mind the Gap Summit featured five programs including Evolution of Latina Roles Onscreen, a virtual roundtable in partnership with MVFF's ¡Viva el cine! featuring actress Gina Torres (9-11, LONE STAR, SUITS, FIREFLY), director Lisette Feliciano (WOMEN IS LOSERS), and casting director Carla Hool (COCO, NARCOS, NOW AND THEN); and the Mind the Gap Directors Forum moderated by MVFF & Mind the Gap Director of Programming, Zoë Elton, and featuring first-time feature directors, Halle Berry (BRUISED), Rebecca Hall (PASSING), Maggie Gyllenhaal (THE LOST DAUGHTER), and Nana Mensah (QUEEN OF GLORY).  2021 also launched the first MVFF $10,000 Mind the Gap Creation Grant awarded to Nana Mensah for her feature directorial debut, QUEEN OF GLORY, which captured the 2021 MTG theme, Reconnecting with Community, centered not only on the concept of reconnecting but also on how we build and define community. Additionally, the MTG program presented two live awards, Producer of the Year to PASSING'S Nina Bongiovi and the Innovative Artist Award to Jane Campion.
 
“The 2021 theme for Mind the Gap, our gender equity initiative, is re-connecting with community. It's a message that's proved much needed, powerful and healing,” said Zoë Elton, MVFF Director of Programming. “We've witnessed it palpably in the excitement of audiences re-connecting with the in-person cinema experience, as well as in virtual panels and Q&As as we navigate this journey together. And new possibilities continue to present themselves. For instance, the MTG Directors Forum was a revelation: getting four actors-turned-directors together for such a rich conversation would have been (virtually!) impossible in real-time,” Elton continued. “The MTG theme has echoed throughout the whole festival this year and as communities re-connect, we have seen the door opening to new audiences. We witnessed many first-time festival attendees at screenings like Red Rocket, A Song for Cesar, and the Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch panel. It's so great—it really bodes well for our efforts to nurture the next generation of festival-goers. One thing is sure: Cinema is back, and online is a rich and supportive way to reconnect with everyone, everywhere.”
 
The Festival's Active Cinema initiative is a forum for films united in their commitment to explore the world and its issues, engage audiences, and transform ideas into action. Highlights this year included: COEXTINCTION, highlighting the beauty and vulnerability of the whales in an absorbing film that is also an urgent call to action; LADY BUDS, celebrating the women and marginalized people who've truly tended the roots of cannabis culture; MISSION: JOY – FINDING HAPPINESS IN TROUBLED TIMES offers an up-close and personal look into the friendship between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and REFLECTION: A WALK WITH WATER, a poetic and soulful essay on the perilous state of California's water ecosystems.
 
MVFF's ¡Viva el cine! initiative is a showcase of Latin American, Latinx, and Spanish-language stories, connecting audiences with a diversity of cultures, identities, and histories explored through the magic of cinema. This year included films from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Spain. The opening night of ¡Viva el cine! was celebrated on Sunday, October 10 with the North American Premiere of LA CIVIL, by Teodora Ana Mihai, and continued throughout the eleven days with the World Premiere of SONG FOR CESAR by Andres Alegria and Abel Sanchez, US Premier of 7 PRISONERS by Alexandre Moratto, and the California Premieres of BAD ATTITUDE: THE ART OF SPAIN RODRIGUEZ by Susan Stern, MY DEAD DAD by Fabio Frey, and CLARA SOLA by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén.
 
MVFF Education has been offering free education programs to Bay Area schools for more than 30 years, welcoming thousands of students to the festival each year to view new films and meet filmmakers from around the world. MVFF44 was no exception, with both live and virtual programs that served a record-breaking number of 12,000 students online—from 115 different schools (61 new and 54 returning schools) from 74 different cities, including 24 from out of state—and an additional 540 students in person with screenings and conversations at Marin School of the Arts with directors Mike Mills (C'MON C'MON), Abel Sanchez & Andres Alegria (SONG FOR CESAR), and Kate Tsang (MARVELOUS & THE BLACK HOLE); directors Abel Sanchez & Andres Alegria (SONG FOR CESAR) at the Sweetwater Music Hall with students from Tamalpais High School; and screenwriter Jeremy O. Harris at Oakland Technical High School.
 
“After successfully launching our MVFF Education program online in 2020, we doubled down this year on our efforts to make Festival films, filmmaker conversations, and curriculum resources accessible to schools nationwide virtually. We are overjoyed by the tremendous response we received, increasing our online student participation by a full 50%! With teachers and students still getting back in the groove of being in school in person, we knew the timing wasn't right to bring students into our theaters just yet, but we were so happy for them to be back in classrooms watching and discussing Festival films together instead of individually at home. And thanks to some great local partners, we were also able to present some really inspiring opportunities for students to speak with filmmakers in person. It was truly the best of both worlds, being able to connect with so many students so safely and efficiently,” said Director of Education Joanne Parsont
 
MVFF Music returned to the Sweetwater Music Hall in downtown Mill Valley with a diverse series of four live music shows. Nights of live music included performances by artists featured in festival films and local, national, and international musicians. A special tribute for the documentary film BORN IN CHICAGO, which had its North American premiere the same evening, showcased music from co-music director Jimmy Vivino with famed blues harmonica player Rob Stone. In honor of the World Premiere screening of SONG FOR CESAR, a tribute performance to the legacy of civil-rights activist and labor leader Cesar Chavez created a Latin-fueled rock show featuring director, Abel Sanchez, and eight of the film's project musicians. A live musical concert from the soul band, Monophonics, celebrated the US Premiere of LADY BUDS. Legendary rock critic Ben Fong-Torres and the new film based on his life and career was celebrated by an all-star house band led by Austin DeLone with special guests, Annie Sampson, David Freiberg, Maria Muldaur, Glenn Walters, Scott Mathews, Kimberlye Gold, Kurt Huget, Sweetwater fave Roger McNamee, and the Soul Delights.
 
MVFF presented another strong slate of Panels, Master Classes, and Workshops, Behind the Screens, to supplement film programming and continue the discussion for Festival attendees. The annual State of the Industry panel featured leaders of the independent film world, including, Senior Vice President, IFC Films and General Manager, IFC Center John Vanco, producer and former head of production, Amazon Original Movies, Ted Hope, US arthouse consultant and programmer for Pacific Film Resources, Jan Klingelhofer, and award-winning director Antonio Méndez Esparza (Aquí y Allá, Life and Nothing More), to discuss the current pulse of the independent film community. Black Girls Film Camp Showcase featured a collection of short films from the inaugural virtual learning experience Keepin' It Reel: Black Girls Film Camp, which included a robust conversation with Black Girls Film Camp filmmaker's Kristen Jackson, Jessica Johnson, and Sanaa Wilkins with Senior Vice President of Production, Franklin Entertainment Karen Peterkin, Executive VP of Creative, Sony Pictures Animation; Producer, Hair Love (2020 Academy Awards® Best Animated Short Film) Karen Toliver, Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer Nichelle Tramble Spellman. Paint and Sip – Animation! An in-person socially distanced animation workshop for kids, parents, and grandparents with Brian Scott, an animator at Disney Studios. And returning to MVFF was the Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch panel featuring an insightful conversation with six of the screenwriters, Zach Baylin (KING RICHARD), Camilla Blackett (QUEEN), Julia Cox (NYAD), Jeremy O. Harris (ZOLA), Jessica Knoll (LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE), and Randy McKinnon (STATIC SHOCK). Variety also presented the Variety Creative Impact Award for Screenwriting to Paolo Sorrentino following a thoughtful conversation with Variety's Features Editor, Malina Saval.