2022 Napa Valley Film Festival ‘Film, Food and Wine Showcase’ to honor Laura Dern, Janelle Monáe, Luis Guzmán, Stephanie Hsu and more
The Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) today announced its NVFF 2022 Film, Food and Wine Showcase programming and honors, to take place at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Copia on November 10 – 13 featuring a curated group of 2022 films and honoree tributes that celebrate artistic achievement and brings to Napa some of this year’s most talked about films and performances.
This year’s honorees include Laura Dern (Legend Award), Frank Grillo (Spotlight Award), Luis Guzmán (Trailblazer Award presented by mitú Studios), Regina Hall (Maverick Award), Stephanie Hsu (Rising Star Award), Janelle Monáe (Trailblazer Award), and Cooper Raiff (Rising Star Award).
“I couldn’t be more thrilled about the 2022 NVFF Film, Food and Wine Showcase nor prouder of our team of dedicated board directors, our partners at The CIA at Copia, and our showcase team. This marks our post-COVID return to multi-day events that connect our community with storytellers and will serve as a prelude to the 2023 Napa Valley Film Festival. We’ve worked extremely hard to curate a diverse program that will undoubtedly deliver an exciting and fun-filled weekend of amazing films, food, wine and actor honorees,” said Cinema Napa Valley (CNV) chair Rick Garber.
“Food has long played a central role in film,” said Thomas Bensel, managing director for the CIA’s California campuses. “Teaming up with the NVFF for the 2022 Film, Food and Wine Showcase gives us an opportunity to celebrate these incredible stories and artists with meals inspired by them. Each event will have its own unique flavor, and guests are in for something truly special.”
Tickets go on sale today for the four-day showcase, which will include special culinary events created by the CIA taking place in tandem with four special screenings, celebrating the food and wine culture evoked in each film. Additional films and Q&A’s will also join the lineup.
NVFF 2022 Film, Food and Wine Showcase: Film, Honoree and Culinary Line-up:
Thursday, November 10
Cha Cha Real Smooth, written and directed by Cooper Raiff
- Intro, Q&A and tribute following film with Cooper Raiff
- Synopsis: Fresh out of college and without a clear life path going forward, 22-year-old Andrew (Cooper Raiff) is stuck back at home with his family in New Jersey. But if there’s one thing that belongs on his nonexistent résumé, it’s how to get a party started, which lands him the perfect job of motivational dancing at the bar and bat mitzvahs for his younger brother’s classmates. When Andrew befriends a local mom, Domino (Dakota Johnson), and her daughter, Lola (Vanessa Burghardt), he finally discovers a future he wants – even if it might not be his own.
- Reception celebrating “Cha Cha Real Smooth” and Cooper Raiff
Friday, November 11
Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend, written and directed by Bobby Moresco
(US Premiere)
- Intro, Q&A and tribute following film with Frank Grillo
- Synopsis: Featuring Oscar® winners Mira Sorvino and the screenwriter of “Crash,” this thrilling, high-speed biopic tells the story of genius auto inventor Ferruccio Lamborghini (Frank Grillo, “Captain America” and “The Purge” franchises, “Kingdom,” “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” and “Boss Level”). All his life Ferruccio has dreamed of beating his longtime rival Enzo Ferrari (Gabriel Byrne, “War of the Worlds”)—and the upcoming Geneva grand prix could be his chance to blow past Ferrari for good. But can Ferruccio get his untested vehicle prepped for victory with the competition just months away? The race is on!
- Dinner celebrating “Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend” and honorees Luis Guzmán and Laura Dern
Saturday, November 12
The Son, written by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller and directed by Florian Zeller
- Synopsis: A drama that follows a family as it struggles to reunite after falling apart. “The Son” centers on Peter (Hugh Jackman), whose hectic life with his infant and new partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby) is upended when his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) appears with their son Nicholas (Zan McGrath), who is now a teenager. The young man has been missing from school for months and is troubled, distant, and angry. Peter strives to take care of Nicholas as he would have liked his own father to have taken care of him while juggling work, his and Beth’s new son, and the offer of his dream position in Washington. However, by reaching for the past to correct its mistakes, he loses sight of how to hold onto the Nicholas in the present.
Everything Everywhere All at Once, written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
- Intro, Q&A and tribute with Stephanie Hsu
- Synopsis: Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, the film is a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman (Michelle Yeoh) who can’t seem to finish her taxes.
- Dinner celebrating “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and Stephanie Hsu
Sunday, November 13
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, written and directed by Rian Johnson.
- Intro, Q&A and tribute with Janelle Monáe
- Synopsis: Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns to peel back the layers in a new Rian Johnson whodunit. This fresh adventure finds the intrepid detective at a lavish private estate on a Greek island, but how and why he comes to be there is only the first of many puzzles. Blanc soon meets a distinctly disparate group of friends gathering at the invitation of billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) for their yearly reunion. Among those on the guest list are Miles’ former business partner Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe), current Connecticut governor Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), cutting-edge scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), fashion designer and former model Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) and her conscientious assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick), and influencer Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) and his sidekick girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). As in all the best murder mysteries, each character harbors their own secrets, lies and motivations. When someone turns up dead, everyone is a suspect. Returning to the franchise he began, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson writes and directs Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and assembles another all-star cast.
- Lunch celebrating “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and honorees Janelle Monáe and Regina Hall
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Written and directed by Adamma Ebo
- Intro and Q&A with Regina Hall
- Synopsis: “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” is a satirical comedy starring Regina Hall as Trinitie Childs – the proud first lady of a Southern Baptist megachurch, who together with her husband Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown), once served a congregation in the tens of thousands. But after a scandal forces their church to temporarily close, Trinitie and Lee-Curtis must reopen their church and rebuild their congregation to make the biggest comeback that commodified religion has ever seen.
Corsage, written and directed by Marie Kreutzer
- Synopsis: In this critically acclaimed feature, named Best Film at the 2022 London Film Festival and garnering Best Actor- Un Certain Regard for star Vicky Krieps at Cannes 2022, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps) is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. But in 1877, ‘Sisi’ celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset tighter and tighter. While Elisabeth’s role has been reduced against her wishes to purely performative, her hunger for knowledge and zest for life makes her more and more restless in Vienna. She travels to England and Bavaria, visiting former lovers and old friends, seeking the excitement and purpose of her youth. With a future of strictly ceremonial duties laid out in front of her, Elisabeth rebels against the hyperbolized image of herself and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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