The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual American film festival founded in 1977.
History
In October 1977, Mark Fishkin, Rita Cahill and Lois Cole organized a three-day film festival. It featured three film tributes,
Francis Ford Coppola's ''
The Rain People
''The Rain People'' is a 1969 American film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Shirley Knight, James Caan and Robert Duvall. Coppola's friend and fellow director George Lucas worked as an aide on this film, and made a short ...
'' and
George Lucas' ''
Filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
''.
[ The first official festival took place in August 1978.]
About the Festival
The San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
continues to be a significant market for independent and international film,[ and MVFF provides a forum for introducing new films to West coast audiences.
Presented by the California Film Institute, the Mill Valley Film Festival takes place in early October. With a reputation for launching new films and creating awards season buzz, MVFF has earned a reputation as a 'filmmakers' festival" by celebrating the best in American independent and world cinema alongside high profile and prestigious award contenders.
Notable attendees have included ]Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
, Jim Jarmusch, Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film '' Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, ...
, Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, h ...
, Roberto Benigni
Roberto Remigio Benigni (; born 27 October 1952) is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film ''Life Is Beautiful'' (1997), f ...
, Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard (; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards (tying the record for the most acting Emmys won by an African-American performer, along with Regina King ...
, Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal (; born 30 November 1978) is a Mexican actor and producer. He is best known for his performances in the films '' Bad Education'', '' The Motorcycle Diaries'', '' Amores perros'', ''Y tu mamá también'', ''Babel'', '' Coco'', ...
, Helen Mirren, Steve McQueen, Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over four decades, including a British Academy Film Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominati ...
, Glenn Close
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, James Franco
James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-M ...
, Edward James Olmos
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, Jared Leto, Lily Taylor, Mike Leigh
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, Ben Stiller
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, Carey Mulligan
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Mulli ...
, Mira Nair
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, Dustin Hoffman
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, Geoffrey Rush
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, Marcel Ophuls
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, Jane Russell
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Russell moved from th ...
, Les Blank
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Leslie Harrod Blank Jr. was born November 27, 1935 in Tampa, Florida. He atten ...
, Barbet Schroeder, James Woods
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, Sissy Spacek
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, Jonathan Winters
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, Robert Altman, Nicholas Ray
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, Roger Corman
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, Jeanne Moreau, Karen Black
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, Barry Levinson
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, Sarah Silverman
Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer.
Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced '' The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...
, Costa-Gavros, Jan Troell
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, William H. Macy
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, Milos Forman
Milos or Melos (; el, label=Modern Greek, Μήλος, Mílos, ; grc, Μῆλος, Mêlos) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group.
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, Dianne Weist, Edward Norton
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, Uma Thurman
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, Alejandro González Iñárritu
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, Alan Arkin
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, Amanda Plummer
Amanda Michael Plummer (born March 23, 1957) is an American actress. She is known for her work on stage and for her roles in such films as ''Joe Versus the Volcano'' (1990), '' The Fisher King'' (1991), ''Pulp Fiction'' (1994), and '' The Hunge ...
, Darren Aronofsky
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, Laura Linney, Gena Rowlands
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, Albert Maysles
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, Donald Sutherland
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, John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and '' ...
, Bradley Cooper
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, Jeff Daniels, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Helena Bonham Carter
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, Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', '' Macbeth'', ''Twelfth Night'', '' The Tempest'', ''Kin ...
, Ismail Merchant
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, Carroll Baker
Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is an American former actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in t ...
, Malcolm McDowell
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, Joan Allen
Joan Allen (born August 20, 1956) is an American actress. She began her career with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1977, won the 1984 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for '' And a Nightingale Sang'', and won the 1988 Tony Aw ...
, Dick Cavett, Hilary Swank
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, Jason Reitman, John Hawkes, Laura Dern
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, Elle Fanning
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, Felicity Huffman, Clive Owen, Eddie Redmayne
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, Forest Whitaker
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, Ximena García Lecuona
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, Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film '' The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his rol ...
, Billy Bob Thornton
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, Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...
, Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
, Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor, musician, and singer.
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, John Walsh, Waldo Salt
Waldo Miller Salt (October 18, 1914 – March 7, 1987) was an American screenwriter who won Academy Awards for both ''Midnight Cowboy'' and '' Coming Home''.
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, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh (born Jennifer Leigh Morrow; February 5, 1962) is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough as Stacy Hamilton in '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982). Sh ...
, Ang Lee
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, Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...
, Holly Hunter
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, Sean Penn
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, Danny Huston
Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an Italian-born American actor and film director. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and the half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston.
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, Joe Wright
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, Peter Marshall Peter Marshall may refer to:
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* Peter Marshall (author, born 1939) (1939–1972), British novelist whose works include ''Th ...
, Dee Rees
Diandrea Rees (born February 7, 1977) is an American screenwriter and director. She is known for her feature films '' Pariah'' (2011), '' Bessie'' (2015), '' Mudbound'' (2017), and '' The Last Thing He Wanted'' (2020). Rees has also written and d ...
, Greta Gerwig
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, Margot Robbie
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, Allison Janney
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, Richard Linklater, Aaron Sorkin
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, Simon Curtis, Kristin Scott Thomas, Andrew Garfield
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, Connie Nielson, Catherine Hardwicke, Sean Baker, Jason Clarke
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, Sophie Nelisse, Lou Diamond Phillips
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, Brie Larson
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, Kenneth Branagh
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, Simon Rex
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, Denis Villeneuve, Jane Campion
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and Joe Wright
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.
Festival Sections include the ''World Cinema, US Cinema, Valley of the Docs, filmHOOD, 5@5'' (shorts programs) and ''MVFF Music''.
Festival Initiatives include Mind the Gap: Women , Film , Tech, Viva El Cine! and Active Cinema.
The festival also features tributes and spotlights to acclaimed filmmakers, screenwriters and actors. Screenings are usually held at the Christopher B Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, the Sequoia Theatre in Mill Valley, the Cinema in Corte Madera, and the Lark Theatre in Larkspur.
'' Screen International'' has named Mill Valley Film Festival a Top 10 US film festival. The 2020 Festival is scheduled for October 8–18, 2020.
References
External links
*
California Film Institute
{{Coord, 37, 58.3903, N, 122, 31.7152, W, display=title
Film festivals in the San Francisco Bay Area
Mill Valley, California
Film festivals established in 1977
1977 establishments in California
Tourist attractions in Marin County, California