‘Rental Family’ to Close 13th Middleburg Film Festival; ‘Eternity,’ ‘The Secret Agent’ Set as Spotlights
Additional Honorees Include Joel Edgerton, Kleber Mendoça Filho, Nina Hoss, Zoey Deutch, Noah Oppenheim and Kate Hawley
The Middleburg Film Festival announced additional programming today for its 13th edition which will run October 16-19, including Searchlight Pictures’ Rental Family as the Closing Film with director HIKARI attending to participate in a post-screening Q&A. Set in modern-day Tokyo, the film follows an American actor played by Brendan Fraser who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. “Rental Family is the perfect film to close this year’s festival. At its heart, it’s a moving story about the power of human connection – a theme that mirrors what we hope our audiences experience here in Middleburg – the joy of coming together to celebrate great cinema as a community,” said MFF Executive Director Susan Koch.
“Each year, our goal is to bring together extraordinary films and remarkable artists who inspire conversation and reflection. This year’s slate, our most ambitious yet, beautifully showcases the breadth of global cinema,” said MFF Founder and Board Chair Sheila Johnson. “We’re thrilled to share these stories with our community and to welcome such an inspiring group of acclaimed filmmakers from around the world,” she added.
Additionally, Eternity from A24 will screen as the Saturday Spotlight Film with Elizabeth Olsen appearing in conversation following the film. Directed by David Freyne and co-starring Miles Teller and Callum Turner, the film follows a woman on her way to an afterlife where souls have one week to choose where they spend eternity, and who they spend it with.
NEON’s The Secret Agent will screen as the International Spotlight film with Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho attending to accept the International Spotlight Award. Brazil’s official submission to the Academy Awards, the filmstars Wagner Moura, as a technology expert working at a prominent university attempting to flee persecution amid political turmoil. The film was widely celebrated at the Cannes Film Festival where it won Best Director for Mendonça Filho and Best Actor for Moura. The film was the most awarded film at Cannes where it won Best Director for Mendonça Filho and Best Actor for Moura as well as the FIPRESCI Critics Prize for Best Film in Competition.
The MFF Documentary Spotlight is The Cycle of Love which chronicles the story of PK, a 23-year old Delhi street artist from a poor “untouchable” family who in 1977 picked up a handful of paint brushes and a second-hand bicycle and set off on a 6000-mile cross-continent mission to find Lotta, the woman who had captured his heart on a visit to India. Directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, the film is an inspiring, true-life adventure about the search for self-belief and risking everything for what your heart tells you.
Joel Edgerton will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award for his role in Netflix’s Sundance breakout Train Dreams from director Clint Bentley. Based on the novella from author Denis Johnson, the film follows Edgerton’s Robert Grainier, a laborer in the American West. The film spans the period between the end of the Westward expansion through the 1960s and examines the human toll on the natural world and chronicles Grainier’s life as he grapples with the beauty and tragedy of the American dream. Edgerton is known for roles in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, Scott Cooper’s Black Mass, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, and Jeff Nichols’ Loving which earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
Nina Hoss is attending the Festival with her new film, Hedda, from Amazon MGM Studios, and will receive the Excellence in Acting Award. Hoss is one of Germany’s most celebrated actors for her powerful performances and extensive career. For her performance in HEDDA, she was honored with this year’s TIFF Tribute Performance Award. In 2023 she starred alongside Cate Blanchett in Todd Field’s Academy Award–nominated TÁR, for which she received Gotham Award and Independent Spirit Award nominations, and is known internationally for her roles in acclaimed films like Phoenix, A Most Wanted Man, and Barbara. In HEDDA, Hoss stars alongside Tessa Thompson in Nia DaCosta’s modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play. Hoss plays Eileen Lovborg, the gender-swapped version of the brilliant Dr. Lovborg, who is the former lover of Hedda.
Kris Bowers will return to MFF as the Featured Film Composer for a concert presenting a selection of his most acclaimed and award-winning scores performed by a 60-piece orchestra and choir, led by his longtime conductor and fellow composer Fabrizio Mancinelli. Bowers, who scored The Eyes of Ghana which is screening at the festival, won his first Academy Award for his documentary short film The Repair Shop, alongside Ben Proudfoot and earlier this year, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his score for The Wild Robot. He is known for his thought-provoking playing style, creating genre-defying film compositions that pay homage to his classical and jazz roots. His work can also be heard in films like Bob Marley: One Love, Origin, The Color Purple, Green Book and acclaimed television series such as Bridgerton, Secret Invasion, Mrs. America, and When They See Us.
Zoey Deutch will be presented with the Breakthrough Actor Award for her portrayal of Jean Seberg in Richard Linklater’s love letter to the French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague, which tells the story of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. Deutch recently appeared in Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 alongside Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette, as well as in Quinn Shephard’s Not Okay and Daryl Wein’s Something from Tiffany’s. She is also known for Ryan Murphy’s The Politician series, Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some, Claire Scalon’s Set It Up and Tanya Wexler’sBuffaloed as well as Graham Moore’s thriller The Outfit.
Receiving the Special Achievement in Screenwriting Award is Noah Oppenheim for his collaboration with Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow on the Netflix film A House of Dynamite which tells the story of when a single, unattributed missile is launched at the US and the race that begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond. Oppenheim is also the writer, executive producer, and creator of Netflix’s Zero Day. Previously he wrote Pablo Larraín’s Academy Award nominated Jackie, which won the Best Original Screenplay at the 73rd Venice Film Festival. He is also known for co-writing The Maze Runner, a trilogy that has grossed nearly a billion dollars worldwide. Oppenheim was previously the president of NBC News. He began his career in journalism leading Today, political talk shows and coverage of multiple presidential elections.
Continuing its long tradition of spotlighting behind the scenes artisans, MFF will once again offer several programs dedicated to the craft of filmmaking including costume designer Kate Hawley who will receive the Special Achievement in Costume Design Award for her exceptional work in Frankenstein, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz. Hawley’s costumes are key to recreating the gothic atmosphere and detailed aesthetic characteristic in this reinterpretation of Mary Shelley’s novel. Hawley and Del Toro have previously collaborated on such films as Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim.
Additionally, MFF will host the annual composers and songwriters panel featuring composers Lesley Barber (Diane Warren: Relentless, Billy Knight), Kris Bowers (The Eyes of Ghana), Nathan Johnson (Wake Up Dead Man) and Max Richter (Hamnet) and songwriters EJAE (Kpop Demon Hunters), Billy Idol & J. Ralph (Billy Idol Should Be Dead), Aiyana-Lee (Highest 2 Lowest), and Diane Warren (Diane Warren: Relentless).
Also previously announced, Wicked and Wicked: For Good’s Jon M. Chu, cinematographer Alice Brooks and editor Myron Kerstein will join Variety’s Jazz Tangcay for a discussion about their partnership across both films and be honored with Variety and MFF’s Creative Collaborators Award.
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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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