42nd Mill Valley Film Festival bringing Ira Sachs, Pedro Almodóvar and the final film of Angès Varda

The first set of films selected for the 42nd edition of the Mill Valley Film Festival were announced today. The Festival will present premieres of many acclaimed films and prize winners from Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, South by Southwest and many more. 

Additionally, MVFF42 will launch many acclaimed Bay Area filmmakers’ latest films as part of the Festival’s effort to showcase the many established and emerging filmmakers in the Bay Area.

The 42nd Mill Valley Film Festival runs OCTOBER 3-13, 2019.

Early confirmed films from the 2019 Cannes Film Festival at MVFF42:

California Premiere of Jury Prize winner BACURAU, an absorbing small town mystery from Brazil, directed by Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho;

US Premiere of Ira Sachs’ FRANKIE, an intergenerational drama set in Portugal, starring Isabelle Huppert, Marisa Tomei, Brendan Gleeson, and Greg Kinnear

US Premiere of Jessica Hausner’s plant nursery horror film LITTLE JOE, starring Best Actress winner Emily Beecham

Pedro Almodóvar’s meditation on the life of a film director, PAIN AND GLORY, starring Best Actor winner Antonio Banderas

Melina Leon’s SONG WITHOUT A NAME, a kidnapping drama set in Peru, and winner of Best Emerging Director at the Munich Film Festival

West Coast Premiere of Ken Loach’s UK drama about the struggles of a working class family SORRY WE MISSED YOU

North American Premiere of animated French film set in the summer of 1998 THE SWALLOWS OF KABUL from Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec

California Premiere of Marco Bellocchio’s Italian mafioso biopic THE TRAITOR, based on the life of 1980’s Sicilian informant Tommaso Buscetta

Comedic heist tale THE WHISTLERS from Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu

Early confirmed films from the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival at MVFF42:

US Premiere of Grand Jury Prize winner BY THE GRACE OF GOD from François Ozon, an absorbing drama about three childhood friends involved in a Catholic Church abuse scandal

California Premiere of FLESH OUT from Italian director Michela Occhipinti about a Mauritanian woman forced to gain weight in preparation for her impending marriage

California Premiere of MARIGHELLA from Brazilian director Wagner Moura, a biographical film about Marxist-Brazilian writer, politician, and guerilla fighter Carlos Marighella

Offbeat Mongolian murder mystery ÖNDÖG from Sixth Generation Chinese director Wang Quan’an

North American Premiere of Hans Petter Moland’s film adaptation of Per Petterson’s best-selling character drama spanning generations OUT STEALING HORSES, starring Stellan Skarsgård

California Premiere of Golden Bear winner director Nadav Lapid’s SYNONYMS about an ex-Israeli soldier seeking to shed his national identity in Paris

West Coast Premiere of VARDA BY AGNÈS, an inspired career retrospective presented by Agnès Varda herself in her charming and bittersweet final film

Early Confirmed films from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and South x Southwest at MVFF42:

California Premiere of Australian Sophie Hyde’s ANIMALS, a best friends’ coming-of-age in Dublin story based on Emma Jane Unsworth’s novel starring Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat

California Premiere of Miia Tervo’s AURORA, about a commitment-phobic party girl in Finnish Lapland who falls for an Iranian refugee

Additional World Cinema Films:

Amateurs (Sweden) dir. Gabriela Pichler
Amra and the Second Marriage (Saudi Arabia) dir. Mahmoud Sabbagh
And Then We Danced (Sweden) dir. Levan Akin – US Premiere
Blackbird (UK) dir. Roger Michell – US Premiere
Blue Hour (Japan) dir. Yuko Hakota – California Premiere
Carmilla (UK) dir. Emily Harris
The Conductor (Netherlands) dir. Maria Peters – US Premiere
Days of the Bagnold Summer (UK) dir. Simon Bird – North American Premiere
The Gasoline Thieves (Mexico) dir. Edgar Nito
A Girl From Mogadishu (Ireland/Belgium) dir. Mary McGuckian – California Premiere
Noah Land (Germany/Turkey/USA) dir Cenk Ertürk
The Prince (Chile) dir. Sebastián Munoz
A Tramway in Jerusalem (Israel) dir. Amos Gitai