Recently, I meant to thank a donor to our organization. Only he beat me to the punch, thanking me and all of us at the Mill Valley Film Festival and CAFILM for the work that we do.

“When an organization can add value to a community’s appeal we all benefit” the donor told me.

Not only is this a wonderful accolade, but in a sense, it describes, in general, what we do and we do this through film. We affect a lot of communities along the way, whether it’s parents bringing their youngest child to one of our family films, or an older sibling going through one of our summer programs, or whether it’s you, seeing an impactful film that stimulates your creativity or that you appreciated for its art or for the way it informs you about the world.

We open our 47th edition with Conclave, an Oscar® hopeful starring Ralph Fiennes as a weary cardinal arranging for the titular gathering to determine the next pope. In a way, MVFF is its own conclave. We do this with our festival awards and tributes, which this year includes, among others, a salute to Jude Law’s career and a celebration of Amy Adams, who stars in our closing night film Marielle Heller’s (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, MVFF41) Nightbitch.

But our community is involved, too. While we bring you films like Sean Baker’s (Red Rocket, MVFF44) Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora and Jacques Audiard’s (Dheepan, MVFF36) ensemble winner Emilia Pérez that showcase the work of veteran directors and the first features of up-and-coming auteurs, such as Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson and Lin Jianjie’s Brief History of a Family, you become the arbiters of what is best in fest. Long before the critics or the Academy weighs in with year-end accolades, our Mill Valley Film Festival goers will have weighed in with their audience award ballots. Perhaps there is no wisp of white smoke to announce the winners, but I like to think they create their own kind of fire.

We have plenty of reasons to celebrate in this, our 47th year, the anniversary in which we celebrate our first festival not just as the owner but operator of the Sequoia Cinema. 

I am optimistic about the future. Film is here to stay. And there are people out there who not only want film to stay and the industry to stay, but also want to see films that affect people’s lives, that give them not only joy, but allow them to engage in subjects that they may not even know they were interested in and feel emotions that very few other mediums can give them.

Cinema is one of the greatest mediums in the world and I am overjoyed to be able to share it with our Mill Valley Film Festival community. Thank you to our board, sponsors, partners, and our audience for making these 11 magical days possible. Happy viewing!