MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL
THE UNITED STATES' LARGEST FALL CELEBRATION OF INDIE AND INTERNATIONAL FILMS
AT 30, ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR

RENDITION; AUTISM: THE MUSICAL; LUNA: THE SPIRIT OF THE WHALE GARNER AUDIENCE AWARDS

After an eleven day run in Marin theatres, the 30th Mill Valley Film Festival wrapped another successful year on October 14. A burgeoning number of ticket-buyers enthusiastically participated in this high profile, prestigious cinematic celebration of the best American independent and world cinema, running October 4-14 at the CinéArts@Sequoia and 142 Throckmorton Theatre (in Mill Valley), Century Cinema (in Corte Madera) and at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center (in San Rafael). With more than 89 sold out screenings and events, this year’s Festival boasted a 12 percent increase in box office totals with admissions of approximately 40,000.

About the 30th edition Mark Fishkin, founder and director of the Festival, explains “within the diverse selection of this year's films were passionate stories of all kinds; life affirming to comic. There was also a pronounced theme. Perhaps it is a consequence of the tragedies of our times, but today's filmmakers, actors, financiers and distributors are now more interested in affecting change in positive and dramatic ways, often through a personal version. It gives me great hope that they are indeed trying to change the world through cinema. And it gives me great pleasure that this year's Festival honored and celebrated that sea of change.”

Festival Closes With a Flourish
Festival no. 30 wrapped up with panache as the closing night film, THE KITE RUNNER, brought out the crowds – so many so that a third screening of the film was added. All the screenings featured author Khaled Hosseini, screenwriter David Benioff and actor Khalid Abdalla in attendance. At the Q&As afterward, the actor and author expressed the universality of the film, explaining that the Afghan people want exactly the same things as the Closing Night audience wanted: housing, food, education, health care and the freedom to fly a kite.

Award-winners aplenty

Now in its third year, the Audience Awards are a means to give the film savvy Mill Valley audience a forum for expressing its voice. Prior to each feature screening (excluding films honored with galas and special events – like Opening and Closing Night selections and Spotlight programs), Festival-goers received voting ballots and were asked to rate the film on a 1 to 5 scale (5 being best).

After the ballots were counted, the Audience Award for narrative feature went to Gavin Hood’s RENDITION. The award for feature-length documentary went to Tricia Regan’s AUTISM: THE MUSICAL. Don McBrearty’s LUNA: THE SPIRIT OF THE WHALE garnered the award for best children’s film.

As a flagship festival for the Los Angeles Branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the Mill Valley Film Festival presents an award each year to short films of outstanding caliber. A BAFTA jury views the eligible films at the Festival and announces the winners on closing day. This year’s winner of the statuette is SHIPWRECKED by Devon Bolton. The two runners-up Jonathan Browning’s THE JOB and Bill Plympton’s SHUTEYE MOTEL.

US Indies coming soon to a theatre near you

Always a terrific showcase for US Indies, this year’s Festival proffered some terrific looks at upcoming theatrical fare. High profile actors and filmmakers were in abundant attendance this year – Tamara Jenkins and Laura Linney (a previous MVFF spotlightee) were with THE SAVAGES, Michael Schroeder was with MAN IN THE CHAIR, Tony Gilroy with MICHAEL CLAYTON, Todd Haynes with I’M NOT THERE, Marcia Gaye Harden with Alison Eastwood for RAILS & TIES and Ben Affleck and Amy Ryan for GONE BABY GONE. In addition to Jenkins and Linney, this year’s Opening Night showings also featured Ang Lee, James Schamus and Tang Wei for LUST, CAUTION.

Tributes and spotlight: Ang Lee, and Jennifer Jason Leigh feted

This year was the inaugural year for the new Mill Valley Film Festival Award, a specially designed sculpture by Mill Valley artist Alice Corning. The MVFF Award was presented to the recipients of the Tributes and Spotlights. Tributes are designed to recognize a career and legacy of work, while Spotlights highlight the exceptional talents of a film artist as exemplified by a current project.

Jennifer Jason Leigh was honored in this year’s Spotlight for the variety and intensity of her many acting roles. Following an interview with Leigh by the always quirky journalist Ben Fong Torres, the Festival screened her latest project, Noah Baumbach’s (THE SQUID AND THE WHALE/MVFF 2006) MARGOT AT THE WEDDING. After the screening, a Q&A with the filmmaker was a crowd pleaser.

The Festival proffered its tribute slot to acclaimed filmmaker Ang Lee. During the interview, hosted by Program Director Zoe Elton, Lee revealed numerous details of his life in movie making. The Festival has long been a supporter of Lee’s work, screening one of his first efforts, PUSHING HANDS, back in 1992. Following the discussion was a screening of his latest effort LUST, CAUTION.

30^th Anniversary pre-Festival: Spotlight on Emile Hirsch, INTO THE WILD

The stars shone early as the California Film Institute presented Sean Penn’s latest directorial accomplishment, INTO THE WILD, on September 13, at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center. The film’s star Emile Hirsch (IMAGINARY HEROES/ MVFF 2004) received the CFI Spotlight Award for ‘Breakthrough Performance of the Year’ for his role as Christopher McCandless. Both Penn and Hirsch were present for a lively Q&A.

Highlight from the music events

Following the screening of Julien Temple’s JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN, with the UK filmmaker in attendance, MVFF offered a lively look at the past with a special performance by Bay Area punk rock fave Pearl Harbour. Harbour was a close friend of Strummer as well as the ex-wife of Paul Simonon, The Clash’s bassist. Other Clash personnel in attendance were Moe Armstrong, The Clash’s roadie and an early Sandanista supporter, and Rudy Fernandez, the San Carlos resident that is the subject of The Clash hit “Rudy Can’t Fail.”

After the screening of Todd Haynes’ Dylan bio-pic I’M NOT THERE, a music concert celebrating the film and its unique soundtrack was produced by the film’s music supervisors Jim Dunbar and Randall Poster, and director Todd Haynes - Dunbar and Haynes were present for both screening and concert. Ben Fong-Torres served as emcee, introducing the many musicians. Most appear on the film’s soundtrack including Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, John Doe, Bob Forrest, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Mira Billotte and Doug Shaw of the band White Magic. The Mostly Dylan band, led by the show's music director, Tom Corwin, backed a number of longtime friends of the festival including Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman, Dan Hicks, Deborah Pardes, and other special guests, G.E. Smith and Keller Williams. The venerable Saturday Night Live alumnus, Don Novello (as Father Guido Sarduccii) introduced his SNL pal, GE Smith, after offering up hilarious wordplay on song lyrics – and, for the finale, singer Chris Isaak jumped on stage with the group to help end the show with “Knockin' on Heaven's Door.”

This year's Festival Sponsors

The Mill Valley Film Festival thanks all of its sponsors, including: Christopher B. and Jeannie Meg Smith, Qantas Airways, Maroevich, O’Shea & Coghlan, and Fireman’s Fund, as well as the addition of three new major sponsors: U.S. Trust, Sherman Clay, and Kerner Optical. Dolby, a longtime supporter of the Festival, received this year’s Distinguished Sponsor Award. Frantoio Ristorante is our returning major event sponsor, and we welcome new event sponsors Events Ondine and Gaylord India Restaurant. Additionally, the Festival would like to welcome back our returning major media sponsors: Comcast, CBS 5, the Marin Independent Journal, the Pacific Sun, SF Weekly, KGO Newstalk AM810, San Francisco magazine and WIRED magazine, as well as our new media sponsors KDFC, Marin Magazine, and Boxoffice Magazine. The Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous major foundation, individual and special support it receives from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Linda Gruber Foundation, Jennifer Coslett MacCready, the Marin Community Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bernard Osher Foundation, the County of Marin, the Miranda Lux Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As always, the Festival would like thank our ongoing membership sponsor, Tamalpais Bank. The Mill Valley Film Festival trailer, interstitials, and 30th year tribute were produced by Scheyer/SF, and the poster and Web site, mvff.com, were designed by MINE of San Francisco.

About the Festival’s producer - California Film Institute
The California Film Institute celebrates and promotes film as art and education through the presentation of the Mill Valley Film Festival, year-round exhibition at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center and building the next generation of filmmakers and audiences through CFI Education. For more information, visit cafilm.org or call 415.383.5256.

See you next year when the Mill Valley Film Festival celebrates 31 years!
Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a high profile, prestigious, non-competitive environment perfect for celebrating the best independent and world cinema. Presented by the California Film Institute, the 31st Festival runs October 2- 12, 2008. For additional information, please visit mvff.com, or call 415.383.5256.