UTG on MVFF36: The 36th Annual Mill Valley Film Festival

September 17th, 2013

Brian Leak

The California Bay Area’s Mill Valley Film Festival was originally founded in 1978 by California Film Institute Director, Mark Fishkin. It has since sustained quality programming in a renowned celebration of the best in independent and world cinema for three and a half decades. Each year spotlighting the biggest names in film and screening some of that respective year’s most prominent titles (countless award-winning features and shorts), the MVFF is consistently a must-attend event.

This year, UTG has the pleasure of getting involved with the 11-day festival that annually “sells over 40,000 tickets and welcomes more than 200 filmmakers from around the world.” MVFF36 has an exciting array of cinema-related goodies this year including tributes to Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush, and Costa Gravas, as well as spotlights on Jared Leto, Dakota Fanning, and director Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave, Hunger, Shame). Apart from the aforementioned guests, Vera Farmiga and Andy Garcia will also be in attendance among many others.

Some notable (and highly anticipated) screenings include festival openers Nebraska and The Book Thief, Hayao Miyazaki’s (alleged) final directorial feature The Wind Rises, the predicted Oscar dominator 12 Years A Slave, and closing night gem, Ben Stiller’s adaptation of James Thurber’s 1939 short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. While these are just some of the more recognizable films to be featured in this year’s fest, MVFF36 will be screening over 80 other films spanning various genres from the world over. This includes a 30th anniversary screening of the always epic Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and a special 25th anniversary digital restoration of Miyazaki’s beloved 1988 film, My Neighbor Totoro.

After the break you can view the trailers for some of the more noteworthy films at this year’s festival and be on the lookout here at UTG for our review coverage over the course of MVFF36 (Oct. 3-13) and leading up to it in the next couple of weeks.