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CineSource Collective Narrative
Mill Valley Film Festival Finalizes I just received reports from various sources summarizing this year's just-completed Mill Valley Film Festival. It was quite a cornocopio of cinema intrigues and you may be interested in noting some of the titles for future reference:
The California Film Institute wrapped its 32nd Mill Valley Film Festival (October 8-18, 2009) after a very successful 11-day run in Marin theatres. Even with a tighter Festival and a reduced number of screenings, this year exceeded expectation with more than 90 sold out screenings and events, a 7.5 percent increase in box office totals and admissions of approximately 40,000. “We were proud to offer another very successful year of not only the most highly anticipated films of the awards season, but incredible independent features, documentaries, and a strong representation of locally produced films. The major issues of our time have not abated, and clearly great storytelling is still what resonates with our audiences,” commented Mark Fishkin, MVFF founder and director.
Award-winners aplenty Now in their fifth year, the Audience Awards were closer than ever with immense participation from the community, a reflection of the undeniable strength of this year's programming. After the ballots were counted, the Audience Award for favorite US feature went to Lee Daniels' Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. The award for favorite world feature ended in a tie and awarded to both Lone Scherfig's An Education (UK) and Jann Turner's White Wedding (South Africa). Rick Goldsmith and Judy Ehrlich's The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers garnered the award for favorite documentary feature and Stella and the Star of the Orient, directed by Erna Schmidt, won favorite children's feature. Michelle Esrick's Saint Misbehavin': The Wavy Gravy Movie and Ruedi Gerber's Breath Made Visible were awarded Special Mentions in the documentary category.
BAFTA/LA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles) annually presents an award to an exceptional short film in collaboration with the Mill Valley Film Festival. Thanks to support from Barbro Osher's ProSuecia Foundation, Swedish director Andreas Tibblin flew in from Sweden to accept the award for his film Good Advice, part of the shorts program 5@5: The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get. Certificates of Excellence go to Bragi Schut Jr.'s Charlie Thistle, Ilan Amit's Broken Time, and Morning Echo directed by Hope Dickson Leach.
Festival closes with style; lots of buzz for fest selections The 32nd Mill Valley Film Festival wrapped with style as the closing night films, Looking for Eric and The Young Victoria created a buzz among Marin film-goers. At the Smith Rafael Film Center critically acclaimed actress Emily Blunt introduced a packed house to her latest film The Young Victoria, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. She kindly introduced an additional screening that followed and attended the exciting Closing Night party aboard the California Hornblower for a San Francisco Bay Cruise with her friends and fiancé, John Krasinski.
There was strong audience buzz for many titles throughout the festival. In addition to the audience award winners, much of the program received raves, including many films without distributors. Soundtrack for a Revolution, The Red Machine, Red Cliff, The Swimsuit Issue, Hellsinki, The Strength of Water, and Skin-as well as Up In the Air, The Messenger, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and The Missing Person were among the talk of the festival.