Montclair Film Festival announces complete 2021 lineup; Maggie Gyllenhaal to receive Breakthrough Director and Writer award

Erik Anderson September 24, 2021

Today, Montclair Film announced the full program for the 1Oth annual Montclair Film Festival (MFF), presented by Investors Bank, taking place October 21-30, 2021, in Montclair, NJ. This year’s festival will feature in-person screenings for fully vaccinated, masked audiences, as well as a selection of virtual programming on Montclair Film’s Virtual Cinema.

Maggie Gyllenhaal will attend the festival on Sunday, October 24 to present her new film THE LOST DAUGHTER alongside the film’s star Dagmara Domińczyk and will join Stephen Colbert in Conversation as part of the festival’s Storyteller Series, presented by Audible. For her work on the film, Ms. Gyllenhaal will receive the festival’s Breakthrough Director & Writer Award.

This year’s Fiction Feature Competition is GREAT FREEDOM, directed by Sebastian Meise; A HERO, directed by Asghar Farhadi; MEMORIA, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul; THE SOUVENIR PART II, directed by Joanna Hogg, and THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, directed by Joachim Trier. The festival’s fiction film highlights include Kenneth Branagh’s BELFAST; Mike Mills’ C’MON C’MON, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gaby Hoffman; THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN, directed by Will Sharpe and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy, Céline Sciamma’s PETITE MAMAN; Rebecca Hall’s PASSING, starring Ruth Negga, Tessa Thompson and André Holland, Pablo Larrain’s SPENCER, starring Kristen Stewart, among many others.

The festival’s Documentary Film Competition is comprised of BERNSTEIN’S WALL, directed by Douglas Tirola; A COP MOVIE, directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios; THE FIRST WAVE, directed by Matthew Heineman, FLEE, directed by Jonas Roher Rasmussen, and PRESIDENT, directed by Camilla Nielsson. The festival’s documentary feature highlights this year include CARTERLAND, directed by The Pattiz Brothers; COW, directed by Andrea Arnold; LISTENING TO KENNY G, directed by Penny Lane; PAPER & GLUE, a JR Project, and RIVER, directed by Jennifer Peedom and Joseph Nizeti, among many others.

The festival will also be partnering with OUT Montclair, a nonprofit organization created to raise awareness and provide support and solidarity for the LGBTQIA+ community of Montclair, offering educational and charitable activities and events to promote inclusivity and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, non-binary and gender-fluid youth and adults, to highlight LGBTQIA+ films for patrons and the community, and the Trans Affirming Alliance, to elevate transgender voices and provide a space for thoughtful engagement with new films and filmmakers, including a free panel discussion on Transgender Representation In Film, moderated by Celeste Fiore, Esq, the Founder and Chair of the Trans Affirming Alliance, on Sunday, October 24.

As was previously announced, the festival will open on Thursday, October 21, with a screening of Wes Anderson’s THE FRENCH DISPATCH. On Sunday, October 30, Jane Campion’s THE POWER OF THE DOG will screen as the festival’s Closing Film. Jeymes Samuel’s THE HARDER THEY FALL will serve as the Fiction Centerpiece on Friday, October 22, and the Documentary Centerpiece will be DIONNE WARWICK: DON’T MAKE ME OVER on Saturday, October 23, with director Dave Wooley and the legendary Dionne Warwick attending for a Q&A. The festival will present its Family Centerpiece screening on THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES on Friday, October 22, and will present a Special Screening of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW with a live floor show by The Ordinary Kids on Saturday, October 30.

“We have worked hard to bring the best in contemporary cinema to this year’s Montclair Film Festival and we could not be more excited to share these films with our audiences,” said Montclair Film Executive Director Tom Hall. “The past couple of years have proven once again that the global community of film can be the catalyst for bringing people together. And we need that connection with one another now more than ever. So, we will be welcoming vaccinated and masked patrons into newly renovated cinemas to ensure we can come together safely and with respect for one another.”

2021 MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL FILM COMPETITIONS

Montclair Film Festival Announces Complete 2021 Program

All competition and Audience Award winning films, along with the winner of the 7th annual David Carr Award for Truth in Non-Fiction Filmmaking, will be announced on Monday, November 1.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

The Documentary Feature Competition is a collection of the five most cinematic and engaging non-fiction films in our program.
BERNSTEIN’S WALL, directed by Douglas Tirola
A COP MOVIE, directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios

THE FIRST WAVE, directed by Matthew Heineman FLEE, directed by Jonas Roher Rasmussen PRESIDENT, directed by Camilla Nielsson

DOCUMENTARY SHORT COMPETITION
THE FIELD TRIP, directed by Meghan O’Hara, Mike Attie, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck HAPPINESS IS A JOURNEY, directed by Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan
THE ISOLATED, directed by Jason Giampietro
LARRY & ME, directed by Lisa Melmed
R.I.P. T-SHIRTS, directed by David Heilbroner, Kate Davis
TEN LEAVES DILATED, directed by Kate Hinshaw

Montclair Film Festival Announces Complete 2021 Program

FICTION FEATURE COMPETITION

The Fiction Feature Competition is a collection of the five finest, most ambitious, international and domestic auteur-driven films in our program.
GREAT FREEDOM, directed by Sebastian Meise
A HERO, directed by Asghar Farhadi

MEMORIA, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
THE SOUVENIR PART II, directed by Joanna Hogg
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, directed by Joachim Trier

FICTION SHORT COMPETITION
CHECKS AND BALANCE, directed by Brian Smail III
I’M LISTENING, directed by Mickey Sumner
LILI ALONE, directed by Zou Jing
NO LONGER SUITABLE FOR USE, directed by Julian Joslin SOME STILL SEARCH, directed by Nesaru Tchaas

FUTURE/NOW COMPETITION

The Future/Now Competition celebrates low-budget independent filmmaking by first or second time feature film directors who are creating innovative, challenging films. The winner will receive the Mark Urman Award for Fiction Filmmaking.
CLARA SOLA, directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesen

THE INNOCENTS, directed by Eskil Vogt
POPPY FIELD, directed by Eugen Jebeleanu
WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR, directed by Jane Schoenbrun
WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY?, directed by Aleksandre Koberidze

NEW JERSEY FILMS COMPETITION

The New Jersey Films Competition is a collection of non-fiction films made, produced, or featuring talent from New Jersey.
AMERICAN RIVER, directed by Scott Morris
KILI BIG, directed by Ida Joglar

LIFE OF CRIME 1984-2020, directed by Jon Alpert MAYOR MOHAMED, directed by Jeffrey M. Togman ONE PINT AT A TIME, directed by Aaron Hosé

NEW JERSEY SHORTS COMPETITION
COUSINS, directed by Mandy Marcus
DON’T GO TELLIN’ YOUR MOMMA, directed by Topaz Jones, rubberband. SAFE, directed by Ian Barling
SUPERSTAR, directed by Jordan Hidalgo

Tickets for the Montclair Film Festival are available Monday, September 27, for Montclair Film members, with public sales beginning Friday, October 1. Tickets and memberships may be purchased online at montclairfilm.org.

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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.