The Mill Valley Film Festival opens tonight, filling the next 10 days with some of the most anticipated films of the rest of the year, as well as a selection of international films making its way to the Bay Area. In addition, the festival will also host the awarding of talents such as Woody Harrelson, Clive Owen, Uma Thurman, Jason Reitman and screen legend Anna Karina.
We'll have reviews coming in for the festival soon, but for the moment, here's a brief preview of what to look for.
Clive Owen gets a spotlight for bringing his latest work, the patriarchal drama The Boys Are Back, which opens the festival tonight. Owen plays a father who has to raise his two sons on his own after his wife's sudden death. As part of the program is a screening of Owen's breakout role in the gambling thriller Croupier.
Paired with fatherhood is Motherhood, Uma Thurman's latest film, where she enacts a portrait of modern motherhood as a single mom trying to balance a writing deadline, a new career choice, a toddler's birthday party and a little romance.
Another honoree is Woody Harrelson, who receives a tribute for his grand—but often underappreciated—career. Woody may be ruling the box office with Zombieland right now, but it's his other new film The Messenger that should be noted. Harrelson and Ben Foster play a duo of Casualty Notification Officers, the men assigned by the military to inform parents in person that their kids died in wartime (in this case, Iraq).
On the director's side, Mill Valley will spotlight Jason Reitman, the young filmmaker already responsible for two critically-acclaimed films. Reitman will present his latest, the George Clooney-starring frequent flyer flick Up in the Air.
Last but not least, French New Wave icon Anna Karina is making a return to the director's chair after more than 35 years with the drag queen Quebec road movie Victoria. Karina also wrote and stars in the film. Her last directing gig was also her first and only: 1973's Living Together.
(Ms. Karina is currently recovering from an accident and therefore will not be able to attend the tribute as planned, but Victoria will screen as scheduled. MVFF will hold a special tribute event for her in Spring 2010 instead.)
Festival Trailer
Aside from these awards, other high profile films playing include John Hillcoat's long-anticipated post-apocalyptic movie The Road—starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as father and son surviving in a harsh world as thought up by Cormac McCarthy—and Lee Daniels' Sundance hit Precious, the tearjerking story of an obese and illiterate black teen growing up in Harlem who's pregnant for the second time with her own father's baby.
Then there's Red Cliff, John Woo's much-awaited return to Asia, an epic project that is his first since 2003's unfortunate Paycheck. Woo himself will attend the screening. Ken Loach brings his Cannes entry Looking for Eric for its US premiere, which will be the closing night film alongside The Young Victoria.
Also worth looking at are Johnny To's pet project Sparrow and the sure to be a crowd favorite Zombie Girl: The Movie, which chronicles the making of Pathogen, the first feature-length zombie film made by a 12-year-old girl.
Other guests expected to attend include Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria), Stacy Keach (Imbued), Henry Selick (for a retrospective on Coraline), Ben Foster (The Messenger), artist-musician Trimpin.
Included below is the list of premieres:
World Premieres
Imbued, Rob Nilsson, US
Passengers, Michael Bond, US and Australia
Project Happiness, John Sorensen, US
Race to Nowhere, Vicki Abeles, US
The Red Machine, Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm, US
Tenderloin, Michael Anderson, US
North American Premieres
The Bass Player: A Song For Dad, Niall McKay, Ireland and US
Breath Made Visible, Ruedi Gerber, Switzerland and US
Hellsinki, Aleksi Mäkelä, Finland
Linoleum, Marcel Visbeen, Netherlands
This is the Husband I Want!, Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar, India
Victoria, Anna Karina, Canada
White Wedding, Turner Jann, South Africa
US Premieres
Hipsters, Valery Todorovsky, Russia
Jermal, Ravi Bharwani, Rayya Makarim and Utawa Tresno, Indonesia
The Letter for the King, Pieter Verhoeff, Netherlands
Looking for Eric, Ken Loach, UK
One Crazy Ride, Guarav Jani, India
Ricky, François Ozon, France
Shameless, Jan Hrebejk, Czech Republic
Shylock, Michael Shabtay, Netherlands
Storm, Hans Christian Schmid, Germany, Denmark and Netherlands
Surrogate, Tali Shalom Ezer, Israel
A Year Ago in Winter, Caroline Link, Germany
Go here for the schedule in calendar form or here for a complete list of all the films playing. Tickets are available for purchase online on their website.
