The Middleburg Film Festival continues to set the highest bar for movie lovers in the DMV, and the 14th edition is shaping up to be one of the best. The first round of announcements was made for this year’s festival, which is set to run from October 15th to October 18th. Kicking off the event on Thursday is Jesse Eisenberg’s phenomenal The Debut, starring Academy Award winner Julianne Moore, who will be in attendance with Eisenberg for a post-screening Q&A. Moore stars alongside Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Bernadette Peters, Havana Rose Liu, and Eisenberg in the film about New Jersey housewife Mona Friedman, who lands a small role in a community theater production and transforms into a zealous method actor willing to do anything to protect the artistic integrity of her part.
The Centerpiece Film is another crowd-pleaser, I Play Rocky, starring Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone in the story of the making of Rocky, as Sly struggles to get his screenplay made while refusing to relinquish his dream of playing the title role himself. The film is directed by Oscar-winning Green Book director, Peter Farrelly. Actors Jay Duplass and P.J. Byrne, who portray Rocky director John G. Avildsen and producer Irwin Winkler, will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.
Léa Seydoux will be in attendance to receive the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award for her performance in Gentle Monster, from writer/director Marie Kreutzer. The film stars Seydoux as a concert pianist whose life is shattered when her husband is arrested and accused of an unspeakable crime, forcing her to confront how little she may know about the man closest to her while protecting their young son. Also in the cast are Jella Haase, Laurence Rupp, and legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve.
Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch tabloid drama Ink will also be at the festival, with two of its major figures receiving accolades. Academy Award nominee Daniel Pemberton will receive the Distinguished Composer Award for his tremendous Ink and Project Hail Mary scores. Ink star Jack O’Connell will also be on hand to receive the Spotlight Actor Award for his performance as Larry Lamb, whom Murdoch hired to run The Sun tabloid in 1969.
Jordan Firstman will receive the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award for his directorial debut, Club Kid, which he wrote, directed, and stars in. The film about a New York City club promoter whose hard-partying lifestyle is upended by the arrival of the young son he never knew he had, was nominated for two awards at Cannes.
Finally, Oscar winner Oliva Colman will be a Special Guest at Middleburg with two films, followed by post-screening panels. The first is the romantic fairy tale Wicker, from writer/director duo Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson (Save Yourselves!) and co-starring Alexander Skarsgård. Colman stars as an outcast fisherwoman who commissions a local basketmaker to create her a husband out of wicker, played by Skarsgård, sparking outrage in her small seaside village.
Colman also appears alongside a breathtaking Andrew Scott in Elsinore. She plays trailblazing doctor Margaret Johnson, who helped care for Chariots of Fire actor Ian Charleson, who, while gravely ill with AIDS, delivered a celebrated final performance as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre. Also attending with Elsinore is Academy Award-winning makeup and Hair designer Nadia Stacey, who will be presented with MFF’s Distinguished Makeup & Hair Design Award.
For more on the Middleburg Film Festival, visit here. Tickets go on sale in early October when the full slate is announced.
You can find early reviews of Elsinore, The Debut, Ink, I Play Rocky, and Gentle Monster here now!
