The Mill Valley Film Festival always showcases many of the most promising prestige films that are scheduled for release during Award Season. It’s the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies. Last year’s fest featured an array of Oscar winners and Oscar-nominated films: The Imitation Game, Whiplash, Wild, Foxcatcher, Mr. Turner and Two Days, One Night, along with Force Majeure, which made it on my Best Movies of 2014 list.
Again this year, the film fest is especially rich with Oscar bait:
- Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg’s espionage thriller with Tom Hanks;
- Carol – fest favorite about lesbian awakening with Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett;
- Dheepan – the French immigration thriller that won the Palm d’Or at Cannes;
- The Danish Girl – Eddie Redmayne portrays one of the recipients of gender reassignment surgery;
- Son of Saul – the Hungarian movie about Auschwitz that stunned critics, both for its intense brilliance and for the discomfort in watching it;
- Suffragette – Carey Mulligan wins women the vote; and
- The Assassin – an especially epic Chinese costume epic.
I’m especially looking forward to My Mother from Italy, about a film director who is simultaneously dealing with her dying mother, challenging teenager and hilariously pompous leading man (John Turturro). I’m also eager to see I Smile Back – Sarah Silverman has been getting buzz for a reportedly searing performance as an alcoholic.
Those are the Big Movies, but there’s also a promising assortment of the indies, foreign flicks and documentaries that I usually cover. Here’s the schedule.
The fest runs October 8-18 in Mill Valley, San Rafael and Corte Madera. Tickets are now available to members and will go on sale to the public on September 19.
