LA LA LAND and ARRIVAL to Open 39th Mill Valley Film Festival

Erik Anderson September 8, 2016

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SAN RAFAEL, CA (September 8, 2016) – Returning for its 39th year, the Mill Valley Film Festival (October 6 – 16, 2016), presented by the California Film Institute, announced today that the official Opening Night selections for 2016 are the Lionsgate release La La Land, and Paramount Pictures’ Arrival. Both films are fresh from their Telluride and Venice Film Festival premieres and will make their Bay Area premieres at the Festival.

La La Land
US 2016
Everything you love about classic musicals gets a pitch-perfect update in the cinematic, colorful, and enormously enjoyable La La Land. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling sing, dance, and crack wise their way through Damien Chazelle’s (Whiplash, MVFF 2014) exquisitely made love letter to dreamers and artists, to Hollywood, and to filmmaking itself.
Expected Guests: Emma Stone, Damien Chazelle
Thursday, October 6 at 7:00pm & 7:15pm at CinéArts Sequoia in Mill Valley

Arrival
US 2016
In award-winning director Denis Villeneuve’s (Sicario, Incendies) riveting and deeply thoughtful drama, five-time Oscar® nominee Amy Adams is a brilliant linguistics professor on a journey that leads her across time and space, to discover the force that unites all sentient beings on our planet and any others that may exist: the power of communication.
Expected Guest: Amy Adams
Thursday, October 6, 7:00pm at Century Cinema in Corte Madera

Following the two films, MVFF39 kicks off this year’s festivities with an Opening Night Gala, celebrating the glamor of cinema and our beautiful home in Marin County, at the Marin Country Mart. Enjoy fabulous food provided by Belcampo, Big Jim’s BBQ, El Huarache Loco, FarmShop, Fiorello’s, Gerard’s Paella, Johnny Donuts, Pizza Antica and Sol Food, refreshing beverages provided by Coppola Wines, Bartenders Unlimited, Lagunitas Brewing Company and Equator Coffee, and dance the night away to live music from Ethan Tucker Band. Opening Night sponsored by Wells Fargo
Thursday, October 6 at 9:00pm – 12:00pm at Marin Country Mart

About the Mill Valley Film Festival
For nearly four decades, the world-renowned Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) has maintained its position as a vital showcase of the global film community, attracting iconic red-carpet talent, burgeoning filmmakers, passionate audiences, and astutely curated premieres. An in-demand destination for film lovers, drawn by unmatched locale and a diverse program of mainstream studio features and new visions from independent voices from around the world, MVFF also hosts an exciting array of filmmaker and industry conversations, panels, parties, and live music performances, featuring the most acclaimed emerging and veteran actors, filmmakers, and musicians of our time. A destination event for cinephiles everywhere, and known for launching new films and creating awards season buzz, MVFF has earned a deserved reputation as a “filmmaker’s festival” by celebrating the best in American, independent, and world cinema alongside high profile and prestigious award contenders. Presented by the California Film Institute, this year’s Festival runs October 6 – 16, 2016. Opening Night Gala will be held at Marin Country Mart and Closing Night Party will be held at Cavallo Point. Delta Airlines the official MVFF39 airline.

Screening locations include: CinéArts@Sequoia and The Sweetwater Music Hall (Mill Valley), Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center (San Rafael), Cinemark Century Larkspur Landing and Lark Theatre (Larkspur), and Cinemark Century Cinema Corte Madera (Corte Madera).

About the California Film Institute
The non-profit California Film Institute celebrates and promotes film as art and education through year-round programming at the non-profit independent theatre, Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, presentation of the acclaimed Mill Valley Film Festival and cultivation of the next generation of filmmakers and audiences through CFI Education programs. For more information, visit http://www.cafilm.org

Author
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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

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.