Issuu

MVFF

MVFF PROGRAM

MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL 10/1-10/11 2026 MVFF.COM

L AND A C KN OWL E DGME N T The California Film Institute and Mill Valley Film Festival are located in Marin County, California, on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary homelands of the Coast Miwok, Pomo, and Wappo peoples. This includes the Southern Pomo and Graton Rancheria Tribes. These tribes were removed or displaced from their lands. We recognize this history and the harm to present-day Coast Miwok, Pomo, and Wappo peoples and to their ancestors. The California Film Institute commits to moving forward from a place of authenticity and working with present-day tribes to elevate their stories, history, and present-day legacy through film.

A C CE S S IBIL I T Y At Mill Valley Film Festival, we’re dedicated to using venues that are accessible to all our attendees and invited guests. Do you have any accessibility requests for a screening or event? You can let us know by heading to mvff.com/access/ and filling out our Accessibility Request Form or by emailing accessibility@cafilm. org directly. There may be limitations, including events that don’t have closed captioning or audio description available, but we’ll do our best to assist you.

FROM THE DIRECTOR........................................ 4

SPOTLIGHT: ROSALIND ELEAZAR..................... 36

DONOR CIRCLE................................................... 6

SPOTLIGHT: SOPHIE OKONEDO........................ 38

SPONSORS.......................................................... 8

CLOSING NIGHT: THE DEBUT............................ 40

TICKETS + NAVIGATION.................................... 12

FILM NOTES........................................................ 42

OPENING NIGHT................................................ 14

MVFF49 AT-A-GLANCE (THE GRID)................... 248

SPOTLIGHT: LEE CHANG-DONG....................... 16

FAMILY FILMS...................................................... 253

TRIBUTE: SAM ROCKWELL................................. 18

SECTIONS............................................................ 254

SPOTLIGHT: ANDREW SCOTT............................ 20

¡VIVA EL CINE!..................................................... 255

SPOTLIGHT: VIRGINIE EFIRA.............................. 22

MVFF49 EDUCATION.......................................... 256

SPOTLIGHT: LA BOLA NEGRA........................... 24

CAFILM MEMBERSHIP........................................ 257

SPOTLIGHT: LÉA SEYDOUX................................ 26

EVENT PARTNERS............................................... 260

SPOTLIGHT: JAMES GRAY.................................. 28

MVFF49 STAFF..................................................... 262

SPOTLIGHT: BETH DE ARAÚJO.......................... 30

CAFILM BOARD OF DIRECTORS........................ 264

C ON S E N T T O BE P HO T OGR A P HE D

CENTERPIECE: I PLAY ROCKY............................ 32

California Film Institute (CAFILM) and its authorized representatives may photograph, film, and/or otherwise record attendees at any festival event. By attending, you consent to such photography, filming, and/or recording and to the unrestricted right to use such recordings—including your image, voice, and name—in any and all media, now known or hereafter devised, throughout the universe, in perpetuity, without compensation. Such use may include, but is not limited to, promotional, advertising, or other purposes deemed appropriate by CAFILM and its affiliates

TRIBUTE: LINDA PERRY....................................... 34

The Mill Valley Film Festival is presented by the California Film Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that also owns and operates the Smith Rafael Film Center and Sequoia Cinema, presents DocLands Documentary Film Festival, and offers CAFILM Education programs throughout the year. © Copyright 2025. All rights reserved. No portion of the Mill Valley Film Festival program may be duplicated in any form without written consent from the Mill Valley Film Festival and/or the California Film Institute.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Welcome to the 49th Mill Valley Film Festival. With our golden anniversary celebration just on the horizon, we decided this year to create and unveil a road map that’s a precursor to all the exciting new directions the festival will travel in the years ahead. Not only is this year’s edition bigger than ever, with 96 feature films, 80 shorts, and numerous Big Nights and Tributes, it’s also one of our most diverse programs yet. The 11-day lineup covers all sorts of subjects and includes 30 documentaries, nine feature-length animated films, and a robust international slate with standouts such as the Cannes hit La Bola Negra.

We’re also pleased to unveil a New Directors section and it features 26 films, including Josephine, San Francisco native Beth de Araújo’s Sundance award winner set in her hometown.

Of course, we will continue the MVFF tradition of packing the schedule with numerous awards contenders that’ll be elbowing for your attention– exciting features that range from Simon Stone’s Elsinore, starring actor/producer (and 2026 Spotlight awardee) Andrew Scott as actor Ian Charleson battling AIDS while preparing to play Hamlet, to Jesse Eisenberg’s electric closing-night feature The Debut with Julianne Moore portraying a novice actress clashing with a stage director, played by the incredible Paul Giamatti.

Opening night is always the moment when festivals come alive. And this year’s selection–Martin McDonagh’s bold and fearless Wild Horse Nine with yet another phenomenal performance from Daly City native and Oscar® winner Sam Rockwell–is no exception to that. (Rockwell will also be on hand to receive a Tribute.) MVFF’s Centerpiece is an upbeat knockout everyone will love, I Play Rocky with a breakout performance from Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone.

So sit back, and enjoy this 11-day odyssey through the best that global cinema has to offer.

Instrumental in guiding the fest this year is artistic director Rose Kuo, whose vision and vast knowledge base of cinema and Asian cinema, in particular, is reflected in this year’s slate. And then there are the opening and closing night films.

While films such as I Play Rocky lifts the spirits, other films visit dark spaces, notably The Life and Death of Wilson Shedd, a tough prison drama with incredible performances from Amanda Seyfried and Scoot McNairy that was written, directed and produced by actor Tim Blake Nelson.

Mark Fishkin Executive Director | Founder California Film Institute

Since our program has grown so much, we’ve even expanded upon the number of screenings at the Lark Theater in Larkspur to accommodate.

S ILV E R

BR ON Z E

NANCY ABODEELY

BAKER SISTERS FAMILY FUND

ELISABETH AND HOWARD JAFFE

WELLINGTON BOWLER

ANN PECKENPAUGH BECKER AND

RAY AND CARLA KALISKI

JEAN BOLTE AND CARL FREDERICK

DAVID BECKER

JOE KEON

VIRGINIA BRIA

SUSAN AND WILLIAM BEECH

PEGGY KEON

KEVIN AND CHRISTINE CHESSEN

SANDRA BLAU

ARIANNA KENYON-DAWSON

KENNETH BLUM & SARA SCHWARTZ

LORRIANA LEARD AND MICHAEL MAUZY

SUSAN BOLLE

LISA LORD

CHINA AND BRUCE BOTSFORD

CINDY AND JOHN MCCAULEY

NANCY BOUGHEY

MARIE MCGLASHAN

ROCCO AND ATHENA CAPOBIANCO

CAROL AND EZRA MERSEY

ANDREE AND JOHN JANSHESKI

JOE AND SUE CARLOMAGNO

JEAN NORELLI

AMY KEROES AND JEFF FISHER

LESLIE CHATHAM

ROBERTA O’NEALE

ELIZABETH KING

PHILIP CHENETTE

JASON AND CHERITY PAYNE

THOMAS KOEGEL AND ANNE LAFOLLETTE

JOY CHIK AND TOM LARSON

LINDA PHILIPPS

K.C AND STEVE LAUCK

TOM COHEN AND KRISTI DENTON COHEN

PAVEL RAMIREZ

LETTY LEDBETTER

CHRISTINA COOK

LAURIE REINSDORF

MAYS FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND

STEFANIE COYOTE

STEVE RIFFKIN

GISELLA MACKAY

EMMA DAWSON

JEREMY RISHEL

JON MCAULIFFE

SUZETTE DEVOGELAERE

ELLA SCHWARTZ

BECKY DRAPER

NANCY SIADEK

DICK ENERSEN

BETH STEINBERG

CHRISTOPHER FEY

GREG STERN

DENNIS P. FISCO AND PAMELA POLITE FISCO

SANDY SVERDLOFF

CATHERINE AND PETER FLAXMAN

MICHAEL TRAINA

ALEXANDER NOURAFSHAN

JEFFREY FRAENKEL

FREDRIC WALDER

DEBORAH AND PAUL SAGUES

JEFF FREEDMAN AND MARIE BOYLAN

HELEN WERDEGAR

JODIE SILBERMAN AND DONNA ISRALSKY FUND

BARBARA GALYEN

MEL AND PATRICIA ZIEGLER

JOEL AND SUSAN SKLAR

MARK GRACE AND STEVE JENSEN

PAUL ZAENTZ

JANICE LINK AND JESSICA LINK

ELLIOTT AND SHAYNA STEIN

MICHELLE GRIFFIN

JACQUI LOPEZ

MONA STEINBERG

TIMOTHY HUDSON AND NOELLE LEONG

HENRY O. TIMNICK

JOE AND CARA HUNT

MVFF49 exists because of the people and organizations who support CAFILM. Together they bring filmmakers to Marin, offer free programs to thousands of Bay Area students each year, and keep two historic theaters running year-round. Some of that support is financial, some of it is services, and some is the media reach to put a film in front of a new audience. Thank you all.

ALICE CORNING STEPHANIE DIMARCO AND JAMES HARLEEN

L E A DE R S HIP

SUZANNE FELSON GRISWOLD FAMILY FUND, BOB AND ALEX GRISWOLD

CAFILM DONOR CIRCLE

CHRISTOPHER B. AND JEANNIE SMITH

MARGARET E. HAAS FAMILY FUND

VICKIE SOULIER

RICHARD J. IDELL AND SUSAN KORNBLATT IDELL

JENNIFER COSLETT MACCREADY GRUBER FAMILY FOUNDATION NANCY P. AND RICHARD K. ROBBINS FAMILY FOUNDATION DANIEL KENYON AND MICHELLE MARCHETTA KENYON CHRISTINE A. SCHANTZ MICHAEL AND SUSAN SCHWARTZ FUND

BILL MCGLASHAN CATHERINE AND TED MCKOWN

IN V E S T OR

P L AT INUM

JIM BOYCE TRUST AND KRIS OTIS

KAMALA GEROUX-BERRY AND DAVID BERRY

DESTINO FUND BLAIRE AND BENNO DORER MOBLEY FAMILY FUND CONNIE OCLASSEN

KEN AND JACKIE BROAD FAMILY FUND DANDELION FUND TOM AND BARBARA HARRISON

GORDON RADLEY

KHR MCNEELY FAMILY FOUNDATION

RESONANCE PHILANTHROPIES

JAMES MOCHIZUKI CATHY AND ROBERT NOURAFSHAN MAGGIE O’DONNELL AND JOSH FLOUM JONATHAN AND DEBORAH PARKER PATRICIA TANOURY THE JIM AND AUDRA WEISS FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND

KENNETH AND VERA MEISLIN HARRISON MILLER AND CLARE MCCAMY ALICE MULLER DENNIS AND ZARA MUREN

DAYNA WEST

M A JOR F OUNDAT ION S UP P OR T NANCY P. AND RICHARD K. ROBBINS FAMILY FOUNDATION BAKER FAMILY FOUNDATION GRUBER FAMILY FOUNDATION

S IGN AT UR E

F E S T I VA L CIR CL E VAN AND LYDIA MAROEVICH

Official Technology Partner of MVFF49

Official Whisky Sponsor of MVFF49

M A JOR

Sponsored by

S P O T L IGH T

LEE CHANG-DONG: POSSIBLE LOVE A hesitant, complex relationship develops between two married couples when a wealthy, well-meaning pair (Zo-in Sung, Cho Yeo-jeong)—the wife is a documentary filmmaker— befriends working-class partners (Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon), victims of brutal economic injustice. Possible Love is about many things: the sudden revelations of memory, the secrets and lies of even good marriages, the abyss separating the rich and the poor. All four actors are superb with Jeon, who previously collaborated with writer-director Lee Chang-dong on Secret Sunshine (2007), particularly radiant. Lee has an uncanny and poetic sense of the cruelty lurking in all his characters and the extraordinary moments of illumination that occur in the lives of everyday people. The balance he achieves between optimism and pessimism, desperation and love is so subtly and dispassionately realized that it makes you believe there is such a thing as wisdom. —Larry Gross

EXPECTED GUEST

Lee Chang-Dong

SPOTLIGHT ON

Lee Chang-Dong

LEE CHANG-DONG is a celebrated South Korean filmmaker and novelist whose work has earned him a reputation as one of world cinema's most exacting humanists. His films include Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (1999), Oasis (2002, Silver Lion for Best Director, Venice), Secret Sunshine (2008), Poetry (2010, Best Screenplay, Cannes), and Burning (2018), which became the first Korean film to be shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Before turning to film, Lee was an acclaimed novelist and briefly served as South Korea's Minister of Culture and Tourism. With Possible Love, his first feature since Burning, Lee returns to the themes of longing, class, and quiet devastation that have defined his career. The Festival is proud to present (along with a retrospective screening of Poetry) and to shine a spotlight on his extraordinary career by presenting him with an MVFF Award.

Sponsored by

BLAIRE AND BENNO DORER

T R IBU T E T O S A M R OCK W E L L

WILD HORSE NINE There is something wonderfully strange about sending two CIA agents to Easter Island just ahead of the 1973 Chilean coup. In the hands of Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, MVFF40; The Banshees of Inisherin, MVFF45), that premise becomes a darkly funny, visually striking thriller, where political conspiracies, personal ghosts, and absurdity collide against one of the world's most breathtaking landscapes. John Malkovich is perfectly cast as Chris, a veteran agent approaching retirement whose old-fashioned sense of duty comes with a surprisingly tender heart and a tendency to talk too much, while Sam Rockwell is mesmerizing as Lee, his younger, more controlled partner. Their chemistry gives the film its pulse, shifting effortlessly between deadpan humor, genuine tension, and something unexpectedly moving. Around them, McDonagh has assembled an irresistible ensemble, including Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Tom Waits, Mariana di Girolamo, and Ailín Salas. With its wicked sense of humor and striking visual beauty, Wild Horse Nine is a thrilling ride from beginning to end. —João Federici SAM ROCKWELL will be honored with a special MVFF Tribute Program, featuring clips from his career and an in-depth conversation, followed by a screening of Wild Horse Nine, and preceded by an earlier screening of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, another Martin McDonagh film starring Rockwell, whose performance earned him an Academy Award®. Born in Daly City and raised in San Francisco, Rockwell began his acting career in the late 1980s, including winning a role in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989). Since then, he has established himself as a prolific actor, comfortable in both indie fare like Box of Moonlight (1996) and Hollywood vehicles such as Galaxy Quest (1999). Among a handful of his career highlights are Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Moon (2009), The Way Way Back (2013), Vice (2018, Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee), Jojo Rabbit (2019), Fosse/ Verdon (2019, Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Emmy nominee), Richard Jewell (2019), and The White Lotus (2025, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy nominee). Wild Horse Nine is Rockwell's latest collaboration with writer/ director Martin McDonagh, after the Broadway production of A Behanding in Spokane (2010) and the films Seven Psychopaths (2012) and Three Billboards.

EXPECTED GUEST

Sam Rockwell

MVFF AWARD

Tribute to Sam Rockwell

Sponsored by

THE GRUBER FAMILY FOUNDATION

S P O T L IGH T

ANDREW SCOTT: ELSINORE After playing composer Richard Rodgers in Blue Moon (MVFF48) and RAF meteorologist James Stagg in Pressure (2026), Andrew Scott hits the trifecta with his portrayal of Ian Charleson in this biopic focused on the actor’s last days. Despite starring in Best Picture Oscar®-winner Chariots of Fire (1981), the acclaimed performer struggles to break into film. Then a treasured opportunity to return to the stage arrives after a midperformance breakdown leads star Daniel Day-Lewis to leave the the National Theatre’s 1989 production of Hamlet. But is Charleson up to the challenging role? Recently diagnosed with AIDS, he struggles to combat the disease, maintain his privacy, and rehearse what is perhaps the most prestigious role in the English language. As Charleson experiences heartbreaking setbacks and second winds from unexpected avenues of support, Elsinore evolves into a triumphant drama of profound artistry and personal courage. Olivia Colman as the actor’s doctor and David Dawson as his close friend, filmmaker Derek Jarman, costar. —Sterling Hedgpeth ANDREW SCOTT will be presented with the MVFF Award for his performance in Elsinore, where he stars as actor Ian Charleson in his final, celebrated performance as Hamlet and also produces the film, his debut as a feature-film producer and a role that's one of his proudest credits.Scott is an award-winning Irish actor who makes his debut as a feature-film producer as well as stars in Elsinore. He found his breakthrough role on television as Moriarty in Sherlock (2010-2017), and also found success in that medium on Fleabag (2019), Black Mirror (2019, Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy nomination), and Ripley (2024, Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy nomination), a series he also produced. Among his films are Pride (2014, British Independent Film Awards Best Supporting Actor winner), 1917 (2019), Catherine Called Birdy (2022, Irish Film and Television Awards Best Supporting Actor nominee), All of Us Strangers (2023, British Independent Film Awards Best Lead Actor nominee), Blue Moon (2025, Best Supporting Actor Silver Berlin Bear winner), Wake Up Dead Man (2025), and Pressure (2026). He has received four Laurence Olivier Award nominations for his theater work, winning in 2005 for A Girl in a Car with a Man and in 2020 for Present Laughter. For the depth of his work as an actor and his rising profile as a producer, the Festival honors Andrew Scott with a Spotlight and MVFF Award.

EXPECTED GUEST

Andrew Scott

SPOTLIGHT ON

Andrew Scott

Sponsored by

JENNIFER COSLETT MACCREADY

S P O T L IGH T

VIRGINIE EFIRA: ALL OF A SUDDEN Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car MVFF44) delivers a rare work that celebrates unsentimentally the redemptive power of creativity and empathy. Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira) is a doctor in a Paris clinic testing innovative methods for treating those afflicted with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. One night, she attends the theater where she encounters work by a young Japanese woman, Mari (Tao Okamoto), that connects to her own. Marie-Lou speaks Japanese, Mari speaks French, and after the performance, the two women meet and form a bond that gradually becomes intellectual, creative, and spiritual. Hamaguchi delivers an epic yet intimate drama that uncovers hidden and unsuspected connections miraculously occurring between people who seem hopelessly separated by age, nationality, and differences in health and well-being. Humorous, painful, and constantly surprising, All of a Sudden is a masterpiece, dedicated to the proposition that the impossible can be made possible. —Larry Gross VIRGINIE EFIRA will receive the MVFF Award for Screen Artistry for her performance in All of a Sudden, where her ability to disappear fully into a role has made her one of European cinema's most sought-after leads. She began her career as a TV presenter in her native Belgium before making her cinema debut in the Belgian French co-production Les Barons (2009). After establishing her stardom with her first leading role in It Boy (2013), she went on to build a busy, critically acclaimed career, earning seven César Award nominations for Victoria (2016), Sink or Swim (2018), An Impossible Love (2018), Bye Bye Morons (2020), Benedetta (2021), and Just the Two of Us (2023), and winning Best Actress for Revoir Paris (2022). At MVFF48, audiences saw her opposite Jodie Foster in A Private Life (2025). For her role in All of a Sudden, she received Cannes' 2026 Best Actress Award.

EXPECTED GUESTS

Ryūsuke Hamaguchi Virginie Efira

SPOTLIGHT ON

Virginie Efira

Sponsored by

GORDON RADLEY

S P O T L IGH T

¡VIVA EL CINE!: LA BOLA NEGRA Some films announce themselves with confidence. Others quietly cast a spell. La Bola Negra does both. One of the most talked-about films to emerge from Cannes, where Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi shared the Best Director award, this sweeping drama is an astonishing act of cinematic ambition, weaving together three interconnected stories spanning nearly a century into a deeply moving meditation on memory, love, and the lives history tried to erase. Rooted in one of Federico García Lorca's last unfinished works, the film moves between wartime Spain and the present, gradually revealing the emotional threads connecting lives marked by bloodshed, persecution, and the quiet wounds left by intolerance. This beautifully constructed narrative asks us to stay attentive while rewarding every connection it reveals. With exquisite cinematography that often recalls the richness of a carefully composed painting, La Bola Negra is ambitious without ever losing its emotional core, quietly building toward one of the year's most moving and unforgettable cinematic experiences. —João Federici .

EXPECTED GUESTS

Javier Calvo Javier Ambrossi

La Bola Negra headlines this year's Spotlight presentation for ¡Viva el Cine!, CAFILM's celebration of cinema from Latin America and Spain alongside Latinx voices from the United States. Written, directed, and produced by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who will join the festival in person, the film is a striking showcase of the bold, inventive storytelling ¡Viva el Cine! was built to champion.

Sponsored by

DANIEL KENYON and MICHELLE MARCHETTA KENYON 24

S P O T L IGH T

MTG AWARD: MARIE KREUTZER MVFF AWARD: LÉA SEYDOUX: GENTLE MONSTER The lives of a musician and a police detective unexpectedly dovetail in Marie Kreutzer’s (Corsage, MVFF45) latest provocative drama when a search warrant for a filmmaker’s hard drives upends the life of his wife. Philip (Laurence Rupp) declares his innocence to musicologist and performance artist Lucy (Léa Seydoux, The French Dispatch, MVFF44), but each protestation reveals more deceptions as the investigation unfolds into his participation in a shocking corner of the dark web. While Lucy reels from the revelations and their impact on her young son, lead investigator Elsa (Jella Haase) confronts her own challenges as her dementia-ridden father harasses his caretakers. In their parallel experiences, Lucy and Elsa encounter the haunting and vivid travails of male privilege and entitlement, gaslighting, and patriarchal cruelty as they navigate a fragile landscape where home hides some of the worst manifestations of sexism and misogyny. With excellent support from Catherine Deneuve as Lucy’s mother. —Sterling Hedgpeth

EXPECTED GUESTS

Marie Kreutzer Léa Seydoux

MVFF AWARD

Léa Seydoux

MIND THE GAP AWARD

Marie Kreutzer

The evening’s Spotlight Program will feature the presentation of the Mind the Gap Award to director Marie Kreutzer and the MVFF Award to Léa Seydoux. MARIE KREUTZER will receive the Mind the Gap Award for her direction of Gentle Monster. The Austrian filmmaker, whose previous feature Corsage was Austria's submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, brings the same unflinching precision to Gentle Monster, a Cannes Competition selection that turns a difficult, deeply personal subject into a portrait of love tested by betrayal. Her fearless approach to storytelling continues to expand what's possible for women behind the camera. LÉA SEYDOUX will be presented with the MVFF Award for Fearless Performance in Gentle Monster. A magnetic screen presence for over two decades, with credits spanning Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Spectre, and The French Dispatch, Seydoux brings striking depth and raw vulnerability to one of the most demanding roles of her career as a wife confronting the unraveling of everything she believed about her husband.

S P O T L IGH T

JAMES GRAY: PAPER TIGER A maestro of intimate familial epics that mine the country’s past through personal New York stories, James Gray (MVFF45 Tribute) once again dismantles the notion of the American Dream, telling a harrowing tale of derailed ambitions in his finest film to date. The year is 1986, and true to the materialistic fixations of the Reagan era, Irwin Pearl (a towering Miles Teller) dreams of a better life for his perfectly content Queens family. But he and his wife Linda (a career-best Scarlett Johansson) get more than they’ve bargained for with the shady business prospect masterminded by Irwin’s over-confident excop brother Gary (Adam Driver in impeccable, larger-than-life form). Enter the ruthless Russian mafia, the Gowanus Canal, and a haunting, flawlessly calibrated tragedy that clutches the middle-class Pearls. Rooted in both Gray’s own novelistic oeuvre (Armageddon Time and Little Odessa especially come to mind), and the crime-thriller masterworks of the ‘70s, the quietly devastating Paper Tiger feels like a new classic. —Tomris Laffly JAMES GRAY will receive the MVFF Director Award for directing Paper Tiger, marking his return to MVFF. A singular voice in American cinema, Gray's films consistently combine intimate character work with sweeping ambition. James Gray made his directorial debut in 1994 at age 25 with Little Odessa, winning the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He went on to direct The Yards (2000), We Own the Night (2007), Two Lovers (2008), and The Immigrant (2013), all four of which starred longtime collaborator Joaquin Phoenix and all of which screened in Competition at Cannes. His later work includes The Lost City of Z (2016), starring Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattinson, and Ad Astra (2019), starring Brad Pitt, which premiered in Competition at Venice. Armageddon Time (2022), drawn from his own 1980s Queens childhood, premiered at Cannes in 2022. His latest film, Paper Tiger, starring Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller, and Adam Driver, premiered in Competition at Cannes. Gray was born in New York City and studied at USC's School of Cinema-Television.

EXPECTED GUESTS

James Gray Rian Johnson

SPOTLIGHT ON

James Gray

Sponsored by

NANCY P. AND RICHARD K. ROBBINS FAMILY 28

S P O T L IGH T

BETH DE ARAÚJO: JOSEPHINE Writer-director Beth de Araújo’s second feature, a dual winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, firmly establishes her as a filmmaker of note. As eight-year-old Josephine (Mason Reeves) and her father (Channing Tatum) jog through Golden Gate Park, their bond is evident—close, playful, rooted in shared activities. Whether playing soccer or hanging out, these two share a real connection. But Josephine runs on ahead of her father and witnesses something that she can’t entirely name: an attack, a struggle, a man, a woman, the woman screaming. As she watches from behind the safety of a tree, the violence fascinates even as it traumatizes her. As this riveting story unfolds, Josephine navigates her experience and its ramifications and complexities, while the adults around her struggle with how to help her. De Araújo elicits beautiful performances from her central actors, notably Tatum and newcomer Reeves, with cinematographer Greta Zozula’s astute eye adding to the profound experience of the film. —Zoë Elton BETH DE ARAÚJO will be honored with the MVFF Award for Bay Area Rising Star for directing Josephine, which won the Sundance Film Festival's Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and US Dramatic Audience Award. Born and raised in San Francisco and a UC Berkeley graduate, de Araújo returns home with a film shot largely in Golden Gate Park, marking her as one of the most promising new directors with deep Bay Area roots. A native of San Francisco, de Araújo earned her MFA at the American Film Institute, and her short films include Brown Bag (2014), Initiation (2015), Chevy Chase (2018), and I Want to Marry a Creative Jewish Girl (2019), adapted from her own Gawker essay. She made her feature debut with Soft & Quiet (2022) before Josephine, her second feature. Josephine is the recipient of the 2026 Mind the Gap Elton Creation Prize Special Jury Mention.

EXPECTED GUESTS

Beth de Araújo Mason Reeves

SPOTLIGHT ON

Beth de Araújo

Sponsored by

CHRISTINE A. SCHANTZ

CE N T E R P IE CE

I PLAY ROCKY A journeyman actor scrabbling together a subsistence existence valeting cars amidst failed auditions, Sylvester Stallone’s (Anthony Ippolitto) life changes when he catches the 1975 heavyweight title fight between reigning champ Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner. The overmatched challenger’s dogged determination inspires Stallone to write a screenplay with a hard-luck boxer as its hero. Veteran producers Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell) and Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne) love the script, but no studio wants to invest in a film without a star—and Stallone wrote the part of Rocky Balboa for himself. It’s a sticking point that he refuses to negotiate and so begins the behind-the-scenes story of Rocky, one of the greatest underdog movies in cinema history. AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone’s supportive wife Sasha, Matt Dillon as Stallone’s father Frank, and Jay Duplass as Rocky director John G. Avildsen are terrific in support in an irresistible film that mirrors Rocky’s ebullience and emotional payoff. —Sterling Hedgpeth

EXPECTED GUESTS

Peter Farrelly Anthony Ippolito

Sponsored by

T R IBU T E

LINDA PERRY LINDA PERRY burst onto the scene in the mid-‘90s like a supernova as the lead singer and songwriter of 4 Non Blondes. “What’s Up,” the San Francisco band’s lead single, not only became a worldwide smash, 32 years later it remains a generational anthem that stands as one of the ‘90s’ signature songs. Perry was poised to be a superstar, and then she left the band, turning her back on commercial stardom to become a star-making producer and songwriter, working with Dolly Parton, Christina Aguilera, Courtney Love, Pink, Joan Jett, The Chicks, Cheap Trick, Miley Cyrus, and others. In 2020 she received her fourth of five Grammy nominations, this one for Best Song Written for a Visual Medium, for “Girl in the Movies” composed for the Dumplin’ film soundtrack. Perry made her feature debut as a composer of film scores with Citizen Penn (2020), and went on to score To Leslie (2022), Out of My Mind (2024), and other film and television projects. In 2024, Citizen Penn director Don Hardy premiered Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, an acclaimed documentary that shone a spotlight on Perry’s personal and professional life. Most recently, Perry released Let It Die Here (2026), her first solo album in 11 years. The Festival salutes Linda Perry with a tribute celebrating her extraordinary career.

MVFF AWARD

Tribute to Linda Perry

EXPECTED GUESTS

Don Hardy

Sponsored by

TAMMY AND KURT MOBLEY

S P O T L IGH T

ROSALIND ELEAZAR: MISTY GREEN A talented singer and actress, Misty Green (Rosalind Eleazar) once starred on a hit TV show but now urgently struggles for one piece of career good luck to avoid becoming homeless. Chris Rock’s latest is more than your standard making-it-in showbiz tale: The writer/director’s vivid eye for atmosphere, locations, and the incidental striving, hopeful characters Misty encounters, along with Kira Kelly’s vivid sun-drunk cinematography, generates a strikingly truthful portrait of Los Angeles as a place where you can go from being Nobody to Somebody in the blink of an eye, only to return to oblivion a moment later. Daniel Kaluuya as Misty’s sweet but unstable brother; Anna Kendrick, her sharp-eyed BFF; Adam Driver, a sleazy club-crawling filmmaker; and Rock himself as a career-challenged director trying for a comeback are superb in support. But it is Eleazar’s sexy, funny, anguished performance that makes Misty Green a mesmerizing experience. —Larry Gross

EXPECTED GUEST

Rosalind Eleazar

ROSALIND ELEAZAR will receive the MVFF Award for Breakthrough Performance in Misty Green. Eleazar's standout turn marks her as one of the most exciting new talents to watch. Rosalind Eleazar is a British actress on stage, screen, and television. She made an auspicious feature film debut in the role of Agnes in The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019), followed by a filmed theatrical performance of Uncle Vanya (2020), I'm Not in Love (2021), Rose of Nevada (2025), and Frank & Louis (2026). On television, she is known for Slow Horses (2022-2026) and Missing You (2025). In her latest film, Misty Green, she plays the titular character at the heart of Chris Rock's film industry satire.

Sponsored by

S P O T L IGH T

SOPHIE OKONEDO: MOUSE With their third collaboration, filmmakers Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson continue to caress our deepest reserves of humanity and deftly intertwine heartbreak with humor; this time, through a tender portrayal of teen life in turmoil. The duo’s Ghostlight breakout Katherine Mallen Kupferer sensitively plays Minnie, a shy Arkansan braving a crushingly abrupt end to her lifelong best-friendship to the popular, multitalented Callie (Chloe Coleman) at the start of their once hope-filled senior year. Deeply lived-in observations on amity, family, and class glimmer everywhere in this uniquely perceptive coming-of-age tale, from Minnie’s bonds with the two mothers in her life—her own, bighearted veterinarian parent, Barbara (Tara Mallen), and Callie’s orderly and elegant mom, Helen (Sophie Okonedo, delivering another breathtaking performance this year along with Clarissa)—to the analog rhythms of high school before touchscreens and social media swarmed in. Attuned to the mysterious ebbs and flows of grief, Mouse is a gentle stunner. —Tomris Laffly

EXPECTED GUESTS

Kelly O’Sullivan Sophie Okonedo

SPOTLIGHT ON

Sophie Okonedo

SOPHIE OKONEDO will receive the Mind the Gap Award for Groundbreaking Work for her performance in Mouse. Her decades of fearless, transformative work continue to open doors for women in the industry. She made her big-screen debut in Young Soul Rebels and has since established a prolific presence in cinema and television, as well as an award-winning career in theater. This year alone, in addition to Mouse, she is starring in Clarissa, which also screens at the Festival. Among her film highlights are Dirty Pretty Things (2002); Hotel Rwanda (2004), for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar® nomination; Skin (2007); War Book (2014); Wild Rose (2018); Catherine Called Birdy (2022); and Janet Planet (2023). On television, she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress Role in a Drama Series for Ratched, and she had a recurring role on Slow Horses (2022-23). She won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in a 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun. Okonedo was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2010 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019.

CL O S ING NIGH T

THE DEBUT Julianne Moore is Mona, a mousy suburban housewife who yearns to perform a small but crucial role in her New Jersey hometown’s latest musical theater production. Paul Giamatti is Jerry, the gruff veteran director who must coax Mona to let out her inner diva. Proust said that between lovers, sooner or later every lie becomes true. In The Debut, his sharp, funny follow-up to his Oscar®-nominated A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg aims the sentimental clichés he loves about theatrical performance in order to get at the truth within. In addition to writing the screenplay and directing the film, Eisenberg composed the show’s music and lyrics. Moore and Giamatti lead an excellent ensemble of performers, including two-time Tony winner Bernadette Peters, Broadway stalwart Craig Bierko, Halle Bailey, Cara Buono, and Eisenberg in a cameo, in a true rarity: a pleasing piece of light entertainment with a head on its shoulders and plenty of heart. —Larry Gross

EXPECTED GUEST

Jesse Eisenberg

Sponsored by

VICKIE SOULIER

THE A-WORD: THE FUTURE OF AGING We’re all familiar with those slick hucksters hawking magical anti-aging elixirs they claim will extend lives and make us look and feel younger. Few, if any, work. Today, though, sees a new dawn emerging as vetted research scientists and innovators—some entrenched in the Bay Area—make significant breakthroughs that have the potential to add “quality” years to our lives. Greg Kohs, award-winning director of the 2008 documentary Song Sung Blue that inspired the 2025 Kate Hudson-Hugh Jackman film, explores exciting gains made in the biotech world and introduces us to groundbreakers making that happen, including San Francisco’s Celine Halioua, CEO/founder of a biotech startup that’s championing longevity medication that’s being tested on dogs. Kohs juxtaposes these encouraging developments with poignant testimonies from a close-knit community of residents in Maine whose stories suggest a positive outlook, an active lifestyle, and animal companions are key to making an extended lifespan worth living. —Randy Myers

DIRECTOR

Gary Kohs US 2026 83 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Sponsored by

ALL AMERICAN GIRLS

If you’ve ever pined for an American Girl doll or its tiny, perfect accessories, this documentary is right in your dollhouse. Director Christy Wegener (I Am Vanessa Guillen) pulls back the meticulously crafted curtain on the venture that quietly began as Pleasant Company and vaulted into the multimillion-dollar empire known as American Girl®. Featuring an exclusive interview with founder Pleasant Rowland, along with archival footage and insights from original staffers and diehard fans, this energetic deep dive examines the feminist and academic framework behind the characters and the triumphs and controversies that shaped the booming business. Get the backstory on how Rowland dreamed up the historical dolls and their intricate worlds. Meet the adults who keep aflame the passion that defined their childhoods in the ‘80s, ‘90s, and early 2000s. And revel in feisty memes and multimedia artwork that illuminate the brand’s unparalleled influence and ongoing cultural relevance. —D. Quinones

DIRECTOR

Christy Wegener US 2026 95 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

ALL OF A SUDDEN

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, MVFF44) delivers a rare work that celebrates unsentimentally the redemptive power of creativity and empathy. Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira) is a doctor in a Paris clinic testing innovative methods for treating those afflicted with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. One night, she attends the theater where she encounters work by a young Japanese woman, Mari (Tao Okamoto), that connects to her own. Marie-Lou speaks Japanese, Mari speaks French, and after the performance, the two women meet and form a bond that gradually becomes intellectual, creative, and spiritual. Hamaguchi delivers an epic yet intimate drama that uncovers hidden and unsuspected connections miraculously occurring between people who seem hopelessly separated by age, nationality, and differences in health and well-being. Humorous, painful, and constantly surprising, All of a Sudden is a masterpiece, dedicated to the proposition that the impossible can be made possible. —Larry Gross

DIRECTOR

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi France, Japan, Germany, Belgium 2026 196 min

Sponsored by

GORDON RADLEY

ÁRRU

In this inventive, visually arresting directorial debut from indigenous Sámi filmmaker Elle Sofe Sara, we follow Maia (Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska), a Sámi reindeer herder whose livelihood and ancestral lands are under imminent threat by an upcoming mining project. As a last-ditch effort, she contacts her estranged uncle for legal advice. But his return to their Sápmi home in Europe’s icy far north reopens deep familial wounds, and Maia faces an impossible choice of what to protect: her family or the land they rely upon to survive. The first ever feature film to do so, Árru weaves the joik, a traditional form of Sámi music, into the drama’s narrative, creating a singular, breathtaking audio-visual experience that brings Sámi culture to the big screen in a bold new way. —Sofia Felino

DIRECTOR

Elle Sofe Sara Norway, Sweden, Finland 2026 95 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

AVEDON

Academy Award®-winning director Ron Howard traces the man behind the camera and the iconic images that made Richard Avedon one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. From the stark white backgrounds that became his signature to his unforgettable portraits of cultural icons like Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe, Avedon redefined the visual language of fashion and celebrity. Yet beyond the glamour, the film delves into a childhood home built on staged happiness, revealing how those early experiences informed his personal life and artistic vision. With unprecedented access to personal archives, home movies, never-before-seen photographs, and interviews with his son John Avedon, fashion titan Calvin Klein, art dealer Larry Gagosian, and famous muses Isabella Rossellini, Twiggy, and Lauren Hutton, Avedon offers a rare glimpse into the deeply private artist whose extraordinary body of work continues to shape the worlds of photography, fashion, and culture. —Michelle Svenson

DIRECTOR

Ron Howard US 2026 104 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

DESTINO FUND

BEDFORD PARK

A car becomes the connective tissue of director Stephanie Ahn’s absorbing debut, gradually drawing two broken souls together and giving them the space to see one another. Korean American Audrey (Moon Choi) is in her 30s and obsessed with having a child. After her mother is in an auto accident, Audrey confronts Eli (Son Suk-ku), the man responsible for the crash. Ahn deftly steers the upheaval of their encounter into an increasingly intimate, if fumbling, relationship. The air between the characters is thick. The Korean concept of han waltzes across the screen with allure to spare: True sorrow outlives rage, taking the shape of endurance. With a quiet confidence, the director turns the film’s structure and interiors into an expressive world entirely her own; simmering emotional wells that sit within each character are potent and extreme. The winner of the 2026 Sundance US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature holds you tight and doesn't let go. —Ivonne Cotorruelo

DIRECTOR

Stephanie Ahn US 2026 121 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

BITTER CHRISTMAS

Who owns a story when an artist turns someone else's life into fiction? And what happens when that person recognizes themselves in the work? Pedro Almodóvar (The Room Next Door, MVFF47) returns with a playful, layered story about friendship, loss, and the slippery boundary between life and fiction. In parallel stories, Elsa, a filmmaker grieving her mother and struggling with debilitating migraines, retreats to Lanzarote, while Raúl, a celebrated filmmaker, transforms the life of his longtime collaborator Mónica into a screenplay. As fiction and reality begin to overlap, Almodóvar turns his camera toward the very act of creating, exploring memory, artistic ownership, and the complicated line between inspiration and appropriation. The director’s unmistakable visual flair is everywhere, with colors shifting between worlds and singer-songwriter Chavela Vargas's haunting music adding an emotional pulse. Full of wit, melodrama, beautiful performances, and Almodóvar's singular sensibility, Bitter Christmas is the latest invitation into the cinematic universe of one of our most beloved filmmakers. —João Federici

DIRECTOR

Pedro Almóvar Spain 2026 112 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

BOSS CAT

Twenty-something Sonja (Olivia Hargroder, superb in her feature film debut) is an ambitious, sassy, raging bundle of creative energy whose dreams of artistic self-expression are only matched by her desire for independence. Born with Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), she refuses to allow biology to be her destiny and defies all obstacles—and people— that block her way. But when her mom dies, Grandma Doris has other plans for Sonja—in a board-and-care facility. Sonja's anger and grief find an empowering outlet when her friend Hakim, a Sudanese refugee, introduces her to krump street dancing. First-time director Genevieve Clay-Smith collaborated with a fully inclusive cast and crew on this funny, fiery, and family-friendly film that provides a uniquely compelling and beautiful testament to the power of resilience, independence, and love. Produced by Bus Stop Films, a company dedicated to end-to-end inclusivity in film production. —K.D. Davis

DIRECTOR

Genevieve Clay-Smith Australia 2026 95 min

US PREMIERE

APPROPRIATE FOR GRADES 7-12 (AGES 12-17)

Sponsored by

BRAVE CAT

Kona is a young cat who dwells in the forest with her loving mother and her wise grandma. All forest creatures live together in harmony except for the solitary human who scouts the countryside with his ill-tempered hunting dogs, capturing animals for a travelingcircus.When he snares her mom, Kona embarks on a quest that takes her through the forest, over snowy mountains, and down to the ocean’s shore on a quest to find her parent. While she begins her journey alone, she soon finds help and companionship from Colin, an adorable—if pesty—pup, and brave Bernard, a runaway circus bear. Oscar®-winning Chilean animator Gabriel Osorio’s beautifully imaginative settings (inspired by the Patagonian landscape) and intricate handmade production design weave a family-friendly tale of bravery, determination, and forgiveness. Winner of the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival Annecy Presents Audience Award. —K.D. Davis

DIRECTOR

Gabriel Osorio Chile 2026 93 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Sponsored by

BRIAN

"Today is going to be a good day,” repeats Brian (rising star Ben Wang, superb) to his reflection in the mirror each morning before the usual day of disappointments and misunderstandings begins. Prone to frequent outbursts due to his mental health issues, the optimistic high-schooler and his good intentions often derail into comical calamity amidst run-ins with his brother, classmates, teachers, and therapist, who are all too familiar with his emotional flare-ups. When he accidentally self-sabotages his dreams of performing in the school play, Brian finds a new calling: running for senior class president. Armed with a sharply realized script from Late Night scribe Mike Scollins that deftly balances uproarious jokes with earned heartfelt insight, and a murderer’s row of crackling performances from some of comedy’s finest talents, director Will Ropp’s breakout hit of SXSW delivers one of the most memorable coming-of-age films in years. —Landon Zakheim

DIRECTOR

Will Ropp US 2026 94 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

BUNKER

Even the most beautiful love stories can start with a misunderstanding. In Florian Zeller’s (The Father, MVFF43) elegant psychological drama, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz are successful professionals (architect and editor, respectively) married to their work, and to each other. Their “misunderstanding” is a story Miguel (Bardem) recounts: On their first date his allergies, mistaken by Sofia (Cruz) for tears of empathy, led to their first kiss. Misunderstandings deepen when Miguel meets a tech billionaire (Paul Dano, chillingly familiar) who wants him to design a luxury bunker in Hawai’i—a project antithetical to the ideals the couple once shared. Tensions at home escalate when the blue-collar neighbor punctures a hole in the couple’s garden wall to build a window for his own garage. With an exquisite soundtrack by Volker Bertelmann (Conclave, MVFF47), Bunker asks us to consider the silos and walls we build, and the fears we have of knocking them down. – K.D. Davis

DIRECTOR

Florian Zeller Spain, France 2026 126 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

NANCY P. AND RICHARD K. ROBBINS FAMILY FOUNDATION 63

BURGUNDY

Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw are modern-day masters of creative nonfiction with their melancholic portrayals of one-of-a-kind traditions and the communities who proudly carry them. After focusing on truffle-sniffing canines and humans (The Truffle Hunters, MVFF43), and Argentine cowboys and cowgirls (Gaucho Gaucho, 2024), the duo turns their dreamy lens to the irresistible flavors of the Burgundy region and its colorful personalities of different socioeconomic realities. From a dapper vineyard worker with an Alain Delon flair, to a service old hand so committed to the delicious ingredients of his menu that you might just applaud his disarming theatrics, individuals that construct Burgundy’s many layers all aim to make a lasting impression like that last great bottle of wine you’ve slurped and can’t forget. A romantic cinematic journey that often winks at the pleasures and techniques of the French New Wave, Burgundy is here to caress your palate with its silky aromas and sophisticated aftertaste. —Tomris Laffly

DIRECTOR

Gregory Kershaw Michael Dweck France 2026 90 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Sponsored by

CARL SAGAN: WE ARE MADE OF STAR STUFF For many, cosmologist Carl Sagan was the face of space exploration, scientific inquiry, and insatiable curiosity, his enthusiasm contagious. Nanette Burstein’s fascinating documentary reveals the man behind the legend. Sagan’s involvement in the Voyager satellite program that was instrumental not only in discovering details about Earth’s neighboring planets but also paved the way for serious discussion about extraterrestrial life catapulted the university professor and NASA advisor into the stratosphere. But with additional fame as an iconoclast (author of Cosmos, activist against nuclear proliferation) came a heavy toll: a fractured family life and difficulty adapting to his role in it, until he met his soulmate, Anne. In this absorbing evocation of Sagan’s life, Burstein employs home movies, audio archives, candid testimonials, and extraordinary space photography to tell the story of a true globalist who loved being an ambassador for the human condition, the spread of knowledge, and our relationship with the universe. —Sterling Hedgpeth

DIRECTOR

Nanette Burstein US 2026 90 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

JIM BOYCE TRUST AND KRIS OTIS

CLARISSA

Through a fiery reimagining that transposes Mrs. Dalloway’s timeless story to contemporary Nigeria, Esiri brothers Arie and Chuko give new life to Virginia Woolf’s 1925 classic, an unparalleled study of existential feminine discontentment. A luminous, profoundly melancholic Sophie Okonedo plays the eponymous Lagos society woman, preparing for a high-profile party while the memory of a lazy yet passion-filled summer of her youth preoccupies her. In her astounding performance perched in the present but haunted by the intellectual and romantic echoes of the past, Okonedo sophisticatedly waltzes through the many grace notes of Clarissa, both presenting the perfect façade of her character and telegraphing the nostalgic undercurrent that’s been bruising her heart. Esiri brothers are surehanded in steering the tale’s immersive flashbacks seamlessly, while casting director Nina Gold’s touch is nothing short of miraculous across the two timelines. It’s radical work, deeply intentional in its heady interrogation of repressed desires, class divides, and sins of colonialism. —Tomris Laffly

DIRECTOR

Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri US, Nigeria 2026 125 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Sponsored by

JIM BOYCE TRUST AND KRIS OTIS

CLOSURE

Poland's Vistula River rushes along—an evocative image transformed into a visually haunting depiction of grief, encapsulating the indescribable hollowness that loss leaves behind within the living. Krzysztof was just 16 when he disappeared, last spotted by a CCTV camera as he stood on a bridge spanning the river. His father, Daniel, compulsively combs the water, refusing to give up. Following Daniel's dogged search for any trace of his missing son, the waterway becomes a space where hope and extreme grief collide. What elevates Closure is Michael Marczak's remarkable directorial precision and striking visual work, giving this nonfiction the dramatic force of a narrative film. A standout at Sundance and winner of Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival's highest honor, the Golden Alexander, it dives deep into the shadows of the human soul with its devastating exploration of loss, becoming the cinematic equivalent of a river that flows endlessly. — Ivonne Cotorruelo

DIRECTOR

Michal Marczak Poland, France 2026 105 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

COWARD

In his previous films Girl (2018) and Close (2022), celebrated Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont explored the delicate emotional bonds between vulnerable characters. His third feature ups the stakes, bringing those concerns to the battlefield, as he focuses on two young soldiers who fall in love amidst the carnage of war. Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne shared the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival for their unguarded portrayals of, respectively, Pierre, a shy young farmer struggling to find his voice and overcome his fear, and the proudly theatrical Francis, who spearheads a series of performances to entertain his fellow troops. This tender World War I drama subverts preconceived notions about masculinity and warfare, and Macchia (making his big-screen debut) is especially affecting as a young man who discovers an unexpected romance. Set against the brutality of combat, Coward draws inspiration from actual cross-dressing theater revues that took place during the Great War, examining how sexual identity, intimacy, and survival were interwoven during that bloody conflict. —Tim Grierson

DIRECTOR

Lukas Dhont Belgium, France, Netherlands 2026 125 min

US PREMIERE

CROCODILE

Hibiscus tea standing in for blood, shots of bodies vanishing from the landscape, cars that fly. The set is a small village in Kaduna, Nigeria. A group of teenagers brimming with cinephile passion plunges into a sea of adventure, creating small films that swap out their present for a future world. The village’s lack of electricity conspires against the creation of their work but doesn’t give the group dramatic pause as their films start gaining international traction and support. More than a decade since it began, the collective known as The Critics is still making films. In Crocodile, director Pietra Brettkelly alongside the Critics themselves, weaves the cinematic alchemy of a coming-of-age story with the pulse of a band of young dreamers who thread naked police brutality and a broken system into handstitched sci-fi magic. —Ivonne Cotorruelo

DIRECTOR

Pietra Brettkelly The Critics Nigeria, New Zealand 2026 101 min

THE DISCIPLE

Only one copy exists of hip hop royalty Wu-Tang Clan’s 2015 album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin—and that sold for $2 million at auction to an anonymous buyer later revealed to be fraudster Martin Shkreli. How that came to be is only one element of Joanna Natasegara’s captivating documentary that is essentially two films in one: the story of that notorious CD and of the man who conceptualized the idea that an album could be treated as the rarest of fine art. The first half of the film relates how Dutch-Moroccan rapper/producer Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh—a longtime Wu-Tang Clan fan—found his way into their inner circle, while the second delves into how Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and its unique circumstances came to be. Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA executive produced this wildly entertaining film that benefits from having an irrepressible narrator in Cilvaringz, who treats his own life as the stuff of legend, and the collision of art and commerce that the Shaolin affair came to represent.

DIRECTOR

Joanna Natasegara UK, US, Morocco 2026 105 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

THE DREAMED ADVENTURE

The winner of the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes, German director Valeska Grisebach’s first feature since 2017’s Western (MVFF40) deftly shape-shifts between genres. Yana Radeva plays Veska, a Bulgarian archeologist who runs into an old love, Said (Syuleyman Letifov), who is involved in some legally murky business dealings. When he goes missing, Veska investigates, leading to a labyrinthine border town mystery full of intrigue and local color. The Dreamed Adventure finds Grisebach once again working with a nonprofessional cast to create a film with the grit of a Western and the scope of Chinat own. One could happily get lost in the movie’s intoxicating atmosphere — or instead focus on Radeva’s layered performance as a woman enmeshed in a slow-burn thriller that she might not come out of alive. But above all, the drama creates a portrait of a little-seen world brought to vibrant life by Grisebach and actors who know the region’s riddles and dangers like the back of their weathered hands. —Tim Grierson

DIRECTOR

Valeska Grisebach Germany, France, Bulgaria, Austria 2026 162 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Sponsored by

ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG

In a village in southern Nepal, Pirati is the matriarch of a Kinnar community, a thirdgender tradition recognized in that country, where families form through chosen bonds of care rather than blood. When Apsara, one of Pirati’s daughters, disappears during a nightly patrol as the villagers keep watch for wild elephants, Pirati begins her own search. As the mystery opens wounds within the community, she wrestles with a difficult choice: remain with the family that gave her a home or pursue a new life with the man she loves. Around them, wild elephants move through the darkness, revered and feared, a haunting presence that echoes the film’s questions about belonging and otherness. Abinash Bikram Shah’s remarkable first feature is both a tense, immersive thriller and a tender portrait of chosen family, finding beauty in ritual, humor, desire, and everyday life. Noé Bach’s stunning cinematography makes the forest feel almost alive, while Frederic Alvarez’s haunting score draws us deeper into Pirati’s journey. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes, Elephants in the Fog announces a filmmaker with a remarkably assured vision. —João Federici

DIRECTOR

Abinash Bikram Shah Nepal, Germany, Brazil, France, Norway 2026 108 min

US PREMIERE

ELSINORE

After playing composer Richard Rodgers in Blue Moon (MVFF48) and RAF meteorologist James Stagg in Pressure (2026), Andrew Scott hits the trifecta with his portrayal of Ian Charleson in this biopic focused on the actor’s last days. Despite starring in Best Picture Oscar®-winner Chariots of Fire (1981), the acclaimed performer struggles to break into film. Then a treasured opportunity to return to the stage arrives after a midperformance breakdown leads star Daniel Day-Lewis to leave the National Theatre’s 1989 production of Hamlet. But is Charleson up to the challenging role? Recently diagnosed with AIDS, he struggles to combat the disease, maintain his privacy, and rehearse what is perhaps the most prestigious role in the English language. As Charleson experiences heartbreaking setbacks and second winds from unexpected avenues of support, Elsinore evolves into a triumphant drama of profound artistry and personal courage. Olivia Colman as the actor’s doctor and David Dawson as his close friend, filmmaker Derek Jarman, costar. —Sterling Hedgpeth

DIRECTOR

Simon Stone UK 2026 104 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

JENNIFER COSLETT MACCREADY

EVEREST: THE OTHER SIDE

Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson became extreme sports stars in 2018 when they were the first to ski down Lhotse, the Everest-adjacent, fourth tallest mountain in the world. For their next challenge, the couple intended to scale Everest’s rarely attempted north face and then ski down from the summit. After a tragedy, Morrison presses on alone. His tenacity and spiritual intensity in overcoming grief, not to mention the awesome physical obstacles posed by Everest makes him one of those rare true-life adventurers whose exploits go farther than fiction. Everest: The Other Side captures Morrison’s extraordinary and risky 2025 ascent in images made all the more compelling because co-director Jimmy Chin is climbing next to Morrison, facing many of the same perils. Chin’s cinematography—along with that of Clair Popkin and Christopher Murray—and Morrison’s epic determination add up to a thrilling documentary. —Larry Gross

DIRECTOR

Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi US, China, Nepal 2026 115 min

Sponsored by

JIM BOYCE TRUST AND KRIS OTIS

EVERYBODY DIGS BILL EVANS

“Sometimes an intermission is part of the music,” jazz pianist Bill Evans’ (Anders Danielsen Lie) mother Mary (Laurie Metcalf) advises him. Grieving the loss of his bass player Scott LeFaro in a car accident only days after a triumphant 1961 engagement at New York’s Village Vanguard, Evans stops playing and retreats to his uncomprehending parents’ Florida home, unable to relate even to his girlfriend Ellaine (Valene Kane). Grant Gee’s (Joy Division) drama is a stunning achievement that unreels with the rhythm of improvised jazz, capturing the musician’s isolating discombobulation. Except for a handful of deeply color-saturated flash forwards limning other key points in Evans’ life, Piers McGrail’s cinematography is a moody black and white, further evoking the pianist’s mournful state. Lie and his supporting cast are terrific, including Bill Pullman as Evans’ retired blue-collar dad Harry who hides a well of bitterness beneath a veneer of voluble good cheer. A superb character portrait, it’s easy to see why Everybody Digs Bill Evans. —Pam Grady

DIRECTOR

Grant Gee Ireland, UK 2026 102 min

NORTH AMERICA PREMIERE

EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET

On the morning of Eid al-Fitr, as Muslims prepare to celebrate the end of Ramadan, tenants in a small Glasgow district notice an Immigration Enforcement van outside their windows. When two longtime neighbors are detained, text alerts set off a chain of events that quickly transforms the street into the site of an extraordinary act of solidarity. Blending crowdsourced mobile phone footage, archival material, interviews, and creative dramatizations featuring performances by Emma Thompson and Kate Dickie, the documentary captures the real-life standoff between residents and authorities. Taking on a nonconformist structure, the film conveys both the urgency of the moment and the deeper histories of migration, racism, and activism that shaped the city. At once deeply local and universally resonant, it is a testament to what can happen when a community refuses to look away. Winner of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance. —Michelle Svenson

DIRECTOR

Felipe Bustos Sierra UK 2026 98 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

EVERYTIME

Austrian writer/director Sandra Wollner‘s Cannes Un Certain Regard Award winner begins with a calmly observed domestic situation. Divorced mom Ella (Birgit Minichmayr) gets ready to go on vacation while managing her squabbling daughters, teenage Jessica (Carla Hutterman) and precocious Melli (Lotte Schirin Keiling), with Jessica preferring to get high in the company of her cute boyfriend Lux (Tristán López). Before they can leave, tragedy devastates the family. A year later, the survivors take the interrupted journey to the sun-drenched Spanish resort Tenerife, and the drama becomes a unique, immersive exploration of what it means to experience grief. Woolner and her gifted cinematographer Christopher Oke (who shot 2024’s similarly themed and widely acclaimed Aftersun) penetrate the unassuming surface of things to create a disquieting, disorienting atmosphere of dreamlike, almost Lynchian uncertainty, anchored by Minichmayr and Keiling's brilliant performances. Everytime asks us, in superbly subtle fashion, to reimagine the ways in which it is and is not possible to live through loss and resume living an everyday life. —Larry Gross

DIRECTOR

Sandra Wollner Austria, Germany 2026 119 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

EXTRA GEOGRAPHY

Idiosyncratic besties Flic and Minna are a pair of committed overachievers at their stately British boarding school for girls, spending their days playing lacrosse and aspiring to a pitch-perfect Oxbridge-bound future. But surely, thriving at a top university would demand one to be more “worldly”—as in, seasoned in romance. Once our novice wooers decide to practice falling in love with the next random person they see (who’s no other than their fretful geography teacher, Miss Delavigne), Molly Manners’ infinitely witty debut unfolds cheekily around the high-stakes canvas of adolescence with great empathy and a droll sense of humor. Extraordinary newcomers Marni Duggan and Galaxie Clear are instant stars in this winsome coming-of-age tale for the ages, as proudly British as high tea, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. Timeless and unmistakably authentic in its unique lens into girlhood, Extra Geography is a lasting addition to the growing canon movies about female friendships. —Tomris Laffly

DIRECTOR

Molly Manners UK 2026 94 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

FATHERLAND

Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski (MVFF41 Tribute) continues his ongoing examination of the emotional wounds and ruins of postwar Europe with this indelible drama. Joining the poetic ranks of his Oscar®-winning Ida (2013) and Oscar-nominated Cold War (MVFF41) in an unofficial trilogy, his latest black-and-white elegy traces the relationship between renowned writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his accomplished actress-writer daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller, among the finest performers working today), across a lyrical journey in a fractured Germany of 1949 where the exiled Mann is to receive the Goethe Prize. It’s the height of the Cold War, and the land that carries the duo’s roots is both deeply divided and consumed by unspoken guilt. A reflective and unforgettable study of identity, family, and country, Fatherland is simply a stunner in effortlessly braiding the makings of a classical road movie with an artistic statement on generational remorse. —Tomris Laffly

DIRECTOR

Pawel Pawlikowski Poland, Germany, Italy, France 2026 82 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

FJORD

Winning his second Palme d’Or after 2007’s chilling masterwork 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu delivers one of the most urgent movies of the year. And he does so through a query both timeless and of today: Is there a world in which we can be free of biases when pursuing truth and justice, or are we always a little blindsided by our belief systems? The audience will certainly wonder and self-interrogate in following Mungiu’s atmospheric legal thriller about a devout religious couple with ambiguous values (superstars Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, both brilliant and against type) and their five children, disrupted by Norway’s inflexible child protection laws. An incisive courtroom procedural and a searing family drama that refreshingly checks all forms of moral pandering at the door, Mungiu’s latest is as cool, imposing, and silently deep as the fjord that lends this gorgeous enigma its backdrop. —Tomris Laffly

DIRECTOR

Cristian Mungiu Romania, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark 2026 146 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Support provided by

P R O

E B

S U E C I A

F O U N D A T I O N

FLIES (MOSCAS)

Olga lives by routine. Alone in a vast Mexico City apartment complex, she has built a carefully controlled world, until financial necessity leads her to rent a room to Tulio. But the “solo” tenant secretly brings along his nine-year-old son, Christian. What begins as an intrusion slowly becomes an unexpected bond that opens Olga to a world she has kept at a distance. With Flies (Moscas), Fernando Eimbcke (Duck Season, Olmo) finds extraordinary poetry in the everyday, letting a child's curiosity and openness transform a life. Funny and deeply tender, the film moves effortlessly between humor and melancholy without ever forcing an emotion. Shot in luminous black and white, the apartment blocks, streets, and ordinary spaces take on an almost neorealist beauty, recalling the humanism of Bicycle Thieves while remaining unmistakably Eimbcke's own. Teresita Sánchez gives a wonderfully restrained performance, finding humor and vulnerability in a woman learning, perhaps for the first time, how to let someone into her life. Winner of two Berlinale awards, Flies is a quiet delight that sneaks up on you. —João Federici

DIRECTOR

Fernando Eimbcke Mexico 2026 99 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

GENTLE MONSTER

The lives of a musician and a police detective unexpectedly dovetail in Marie Kreutzer’s (Corsage, MVFF45) latest provocative drama when a search warrant for a filmmaker’s hard drives upends the life of his wife. Philip (Laurence Rupp) declares his innocence to musicologist and performance artist Lucy (Léa Seydoux, The French Dispatch, MVFF44), but each protestation reveals more deceptions as the investigation unfolds into his participation in a shocking corner of the dark web. While Lucy reels from the revelations and their impact on her young son, lead investigator Elsa (Jella Haase) confronts her own challenges as her dementia-ridden father harasses his caretakers. In their parallel experiences, Lucy and Elsa encounter the haunting and vivid travails of male privilege and entitlement, gaslighting, and patriarchal cruelty as they navigate a fragile landscape where home hides some of the worst manifestations of sexism and misogyny. With excellent support from Catherine Deneuve as Lucy’s mother. —Sterling Hedgpeth

100

DIRECTOR

Marie Kreutzer Austria, Germany, France 2026 114 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

101

GIANTS DO FALL

It’s a classic David vs. Goliath scenario: A group of fed-up, alarmed citizens, living on key stretches of land in Louisiana and Appalachia's Rust Belt where factory pollution and fracking have become de rigueur, square off against big business and politicos. The mobilized and impassioned group prove to be a formidable foe, demanding answers and accountability as they find themselves thrust into a role they never imagined they’d play: accidental activists. Giants Do Fall relates the devastating personal toll incurred by communities near petrochemical factories and fracking sites, and also how historical racism and corruption reflect another facet of these environmental disasters. Beyond that, Megan Ponder and Stiv Wilson’s documentary serves as an inspirational testament to the collective power and might ordinary citizens can wield when they unite around a common cause to protect what they cherish and hold dear. —Randy Myers

102

DIRECTOR

Megan Ponder, Stiv Wilson US 2026 94 min

WORLD PREMIERE

103

A GIRL UNKNOWN (WU MING NÜ HAI)

Born in the wake of China’s controversial one-child policy, six-year-old Wang Juan (Cao Ruofan) finds her life completely upended by her mother’s pregnancy. The young girl is soon taken from her rural home—where kite-flying and swimming fill her days—and brought to the home of a discordant, childless couple. Abandoned in an unfamiliar city with her new legal guardians, Juan strives to find a sense of belonging, a struggle that only worsens when she’s uprooted twice more before turning 18 years old. Anchored by a powerful performance from Resurrection’s Li Gengxi, who plays teenage Juan, Zou Jing’s confident debut is an achingly tender coming-of-age drama. And while it never shies away from the harrowing realities of the political directive that dehumanized and haunted so many, A Girl Unknown also reaffirms the undeniable, striking hopefulness of a young person’s belief in love and self. —Kate Bove

104

DIRECTOR

Zou Jing China, France 2026 125 min

US PREMIERE

105

HOLD ONTO ME

(Kpάtα Mε)

Winner of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Audience Award, Myrsini Aristidou’s sensitive debut resonates with deeply felt authenticity and lasting emotional power. Precocious 11-year-old Iris is used to being on her own. Left alone while her mother vacations with a boyfriend and ignored by her peers, Iris distracts herself by doing what she does best: getting into trouble. When local law enforcement detains her, an unforeseen figure emerges to bail her out, the father she has never known. Though his interests appear selfish, they bond through a shared talent for scams and desire for connection, beginning a delicate dance of testing trust and discovering each other. With an exquisite eye for detail and the confident casting of expressive Maria Petrova, a non-actor, in the role of Iris, Aristidou balances fragility and longing with effortless control, announcing herself not just as a filmmaker to watch, but one worthy of awe. —Landon Zakheim

106

DIRECTOR

Myrsini Aristidou Denmark, Greece, Cyprus 2026 102 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

107

I PLAY ROCKY

A journeyman actor scrabbling together a subsistence existence valeting cars amidst failed auditions, Sylvester Stallone’s (Anthony Ippolitto) life changes when he catches the 1975 heavyweight title fight between reigning champ Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner. The overmatched challenger’s dogged determination inspires Stallone to write a screenplay with a hard-luck boxer as its hero. Veteran producers Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell) and Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne) love the script, but no studio wants to invest in a film without a star—and Stallone wrote the part of Rocky Balboa for himself. It’s a sticking point that he refuses to negotiate and so begins the behind-the-scenes story of Rocky, one of the greatest underdog movies in cinema history. AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone’s supportive wife Sasha, Matt Dillon as Stallone’s father Frank, and Jay Duplass as Rocky director John G. Avildsen are terrific in support in an irresistible film that mirrors Rocky’s ebullience and emotional payoff. —Sterling Hedgpeth

DIRECTOR

Peter Farrelly US 2026 128 min

Sponsored by

108

109

THE ILLUSION OF AN EVERLASTING SUMMER

Filmed over 25 years, this intimate documentary casts a tender and fearless eye over the lives of two inseparable cousins, Guillermina and Belinda, as they grow up in the rural Argentine Pampas. Celebrated photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti, in her prize-winning directorial debut, crafts a time capsule as fluid and heartrending as Boyhood and Seven Up! From carefree days playing dress-up and imagining vast futures, the girls mature before our eyes, dancing like no one is watching and ripening under the sun. In a blink, they tip into adulthood, effervescence fading under the weight of responsibility and narrowing options. Like a magic trick, though, their own daughters spring up to reclaim the joy of childhood as the camera keeps rolling. The heart of the narrative is the passage of time, but the film’s real power is how indelibly it captures women’s quiet resilience and the universal language of female friendship. —D. Quinones

110

DIRECTOR

Alessandra Sanguinetti Argentina, US 2026 94 min

US PREMIERE

111

IN WAVES

Some things arrive in waves: sunlight, joy, the pounding surf, but also loss and grief. Director Phuong Mai Nguyen’s animated adaptation of AJ Dungo’s award-winning 2019 graphic novel unfolds as a story of young love between two teenagers: AJ, a shy skateboarder and aspiring artist (voiced by Will Sharpe), and Kristen (Stephanie Hsu), a self-confident surfer. The usual fears of parental reproach and peer pressure challenge their growing intimacy that is further tested by the emergence of a life-threatening illness. Nguyen’s exquisite visual sensibility is on display on multiple levels: through the vibrant colors of present-day SoCal life, the black-and-white line drawings from AJ’s sketchbooks, and the soft tones of an imagined past life among a group of native Hawai’ians living at the water’s edge. A soundtrack from French composers Oklou and ROB beautifully complements the imagery to an exquisitely indelible effect. —K.D. Davis

112

DIRECTOR

Phuong Mai Nguyen France 2026 91 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

113

INK

Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting MVFF19, Slumdog Millionaire MVFF31) returns in a hot-off-the-presses story charting the rise and fall of Sir Albert “Larry” Lamb, (in)famous Rupert Murdoch acolyte and creator of the titillating “Page 3” topless model feature that rocketed The Sun to British tabloid superstardom in the 1970s. The tale begins as Australian transplant Murdoch approaches Lamb, offering him a lucrative post as The Sun’s managing editor on the condition that he takes the paper in a new direction: bigger, louder. Agreeing, Lamb assembles a gang of frustrated writers and together, this “ship of undesirables” sets sail to overtake Fleet Street’s print industry with bluster, bravado, and plenty of boobs. Based on James Graham’s Tony Awardwinning play and starring Claire Foy, Brian Gleeson, Guy Pearce (as Murdoch), and Jack O’Connell (Godless, Unbroken) as Lamb, Ink has the brisk pacing and spirit of the finest American meet-the-press movies, with a knowing wink to Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. – K.D. Davis

DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle UK, France, US 2026 116 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

CONNIE OCLASSEN

114

115

IRON BOY (LE CORSET)

Christophe is just on the cusp of adolescence, working every day on his family’s financially embattled farm. There is love between him and his distant father, his tougher older brother, pixiesh baby sister, and long-suffering mother, but when balance issues require that Christophe wear an iron corset 24/7, his life goes into a tailspin and makes him an outcast. Two people come to his rescue: a middle-aged church musician who encourages him to play the organ, and a Huck Finn-like female schoolmate who teaches him to take risks and gives him his first hilariously unexpected kiss. Director Louis Clichy, an animator on Wall-E and Up, employs delicate hand-drawn watercolor imagery and casts his son Gary as Chrisophe’s voice, in this feature co-written with Frank Salome. With Iron Boy, Clichy delivers a tender, funny rite-of-passage story that honestly confronts the distress that every adolescent endures. —Larry Gross

116

DIRECTOR

Louis Clichy France, Belgium 2026 89 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

117

ISABEL

Isabel (Marina Person) knows wine, but she knows even better what she does not want: another day working for a demanding boss who treats wine as business rather than pleasure. Dreaming of opening her own natural wine bar, she begins navigating the unpredictable territory between desiring a different life and making it happen. Gabe Klinger finds humor, melancholy, and unexpected pleasures in Isabel's attempts to take control of her future, creating a warm and engaging portrait of a woman who keeps moving even when things don't go according to plan. Set in São Paulo's lively wine and restaurant scene, the city becomes an essential part of the story, captured on gorgeous, grainy 16mm film. Marina Person, who also collaborated on the screenplay, gives a wonderfully charismatic performance as Isabel, full of wit, determination, and humanity. With its great soundtrack, vibrant art direction, and love for life's imperfect pleasures, Isabel is an inviting toast to starting over. — João Federici

118

DIRECTOR

Gabe Klinger Brazil, France 2026 84 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

119

JAIL TIME RECORDS

Traveling through an overcrowded prison labyrinth in Douala, Cameroon, you’ll find a mercurial village full of petty thieves, murderers, and political scapegoats. A New Bell Prison ‘barker’ winds us through a chaotic din of bullies, hagglers, and sleepers, past guards pumping iron, into a closet-sized sanctuary where something magical happens. This is Jail Time Records, a music label founded by the film’s co-directors, former prisoner Steve Happi and his partner, Dione Roach. What began as an in-house recording studio is now a vital platform for artists—both incarcerated and free—using music to forge second chances amid poverty, corruption, and an overburdened judicial system. This directorial debut is unlike most prison documentaries, moving between the grit of daily survival and sudden bursts of rap, song, and dance, creating a shared stage of extraordinary expression. The label may not be able to engineer freedom from systemic failure, but it does offer hope for redemption and a different future for those who want it. - Michelle Svenson

120

DIRECTOR

Steve Happi, Dione Roach Cameroon, US 2026 94 min

121

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

Jean-Michel Basquiat burned brightly in his 27 years—and still does in a legacy both artistic and personal reflected in this touching and at turns heartbreaking and buoyant documentary (the only one officially approved by Basquiat’s estate and family) centered around reminiscences by the painter’s surviving sisters, Lisane and Jeanine. The siblings relate stories of life at home in the family’s Brooklyn brownstone, their brother’s early interest in drawing, and the difficulties that arose when their parents separated. To augment these memories and catalog his rise in the art world, the film employs exceptional archival footage and key voices of contemporaries, including Fab 5 Freddy, Kenny Scharf, and Arthur Jafa. As these artists express what Basquiat meant to them and to the downtown NYC demimonde, Lisane and Jeanine speak to how affable, kind, gregarious, and flawed their sibling was. The result is very much a multidimensional portrait of the artist, but even more, the portrait of an endlessly fascinating man. —Rod Armstrong

DIRECTOR

Viridiana Lieberman, Quinn Whitney Wilson US 2026 95 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Sponsored by

122

123

JOSEPHINE

Writer-director Beth de Araújo’s second feature, a dual winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, firmly establishes her as a filmmaker of note. As eight-year-old Josephine (Mason Reeves) and her father (Channing Tatum) jog through Golden Gate Park, their bond is evident—close, playful, rooted in shared activities. Whether playing soccer or hanging out, these two share a real connection. But Josephine runs on ahead of her father and witnesses something that she can’t entirely name: an attack, a struggle, a man, a woman, the woman screaming. As she watches from behind the safety of a tree, the violence fascinates even as it traumatizes her. As this riveting story unfolds, Josephine navigates her experience and its ramifications and complexities, while the adults around her struggle with how to help her. De Araújo elicits beautiful performances from her central actors, notably Tatum and newcomer Reeves, with cinematographer Greta Zozula’s astute eye adding to the profound experience of the film. —Zoë Elton

DIRECTOR

Beth de Araújo US 2026 119 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

JOSEPHINE is the recipient of the 2026 Elton Creation Special Jury Prize

Sponsored by

CHRISTINE A. SCHANTZ

124

125

LA BOLA NEGRA

Some films announce themselves with confidence. Others quietly cast a spell. La Bola Negra does both. One of the most talked-about films to emerge from Cannes, where Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi shared the Best Director award, this sweeping drama is an astonishing act of cinematic ambition, weaving together three interconnected stories spanning nearly a century into a deeply moving meditation on memory, love, and the lives history tried to erase. Rooted in one of Federico García Lorca's last unfinished works, the film moves between wartime Spain and the present, gradually revealing the emotional threads connecting lives marked by bloodshed, persecution, and the quiet wounds left by intolerance. This beautifully constructed narrative asks us to stay attentive while rewarding every connection it reveals. With exquisite cinematography that often recalls the richness of a carefully composed painting, La Bola Negra is ambitious without ever losing its emotional core, quietly building toward one of the year's most moving and unforgettable cinematic experiences. —João Federici

DIRECTOR

Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo Spain, France 2026 155 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

DANIEL KENYON AND MICHELLE MARCHETTA KENYON 126

127

LA GRADIVA

French teenagers take a summer class trip to Naples, Italy, in this marvelous coming-of-age film, which garnered the Cannes Critics Week Best Picture award for first-time feature filmmaker Marine Atlan and her co-writer Anne Brouillet. The focus is on three kids—gorgeous rich-kid seducer James (Mitia Capellier-Audat), his charismatic but angry buddy Toni (Colas Quignard), and shy but observant nerdy outsider Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin) —and their teacher Mercier (Antonia Buresi). It’s hard to convey how subtle mysterious, and completely intelligent this drama is—a dark but never dour or depressing investigation of the perils of adolescent fantasizing about sexual romance and family history, as well as the enduring effects of class antagonism and resentment. It’s a drama that conveys 2026’s complete sexual fluidity: Everyone is androgynous to a greater or lesser degree, and everyone is both promiscuous and frightened in unexpected ways. With marvelous sundrenched Italian landscapes photographed by Pierre Mazoyer and Atlan, a controlled ironic tone, and a superb ensemble. La Gradiva is one of the most assured directorial debuts in years. —Larry Gross

DIRECTOR

Marine Atlan France 2026 145 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Support provided by

128

129

LADY

Filmed in the chaotic streets of Lagos, Nigeria, Olive Nwosu's first feature is a striking neo-noir that crackles with tension. One of the traffic-choked city’s few female cab drivers, Lady is independent, isolated, and mistrustful, surviving by staying laser-focused on her own business. Her foundation is shaken by the sudden reappearance of Pinky, the sister-like childhood friend who abandoned Lady years ago and became a sex worker. Tempted by the promise of money, time with Pinky, and a possible path out of a nation on the brink of political and social combustion, Lady reluctantly accepts a job driving Pinky’s crew of glamorous, reckless coworkers through the dangerous netherworld of Lagos nightlife. Writer-director Nwosu, fresh among Africa’s new wave of auteurs, shines with her debut. The cast, which won the Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble at Sundance, is phenomenal, crafting a moving portrayal of the unexpected sisterhood that finally breaches Lady’s armor. —D. Quinones

DIRECTOR

Olive Nwosu United Kingdom, Nigeria 2026 93 min

Support provided by

130

131

THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH

Deep in the breathtaking rainforests of Indonesia, an existential battle rages, to save Earth’s third-largest tropical rainforest from massive destruction caused by the palm oil boom, and with it, the future of the planet. This visually stunning, emotionally unsettling documentary captures the passion and purpose of Native people battling multinational corporations to save their homeland. Disturbing scenes reveal how illegal logging for the world’s most sought-after vegetable oil takes a devastating toll on lives and our planet’s climate. Filmed over nine years with a mostly Indonesian crew, David Booth Gardner captures activists overwhelmed by the race to save their lush jungles and endangered tigers, rhinos, elephants, and orangutans from smuggling, poaching, and the displacement of villagers, all under the watch of hovering drones. Inspiring and unnerving, this doc opens our eyes to these faraway battles, encouraging us all to lean in, speak up, and get involved in fighting corporate depredation for our global consumption. Executive produced by Louie Psihoyos (The Cove) and produced by the Oceanic Preservation Society. —Brendan Peterson

DIRECTOR

David Booth Gardner US 2026 102 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

132

133

LAURA

A young woman’s beauty and charm enchant a trio of men—including Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews), the detective investigating her murder in Otto Preminger’s suspenseful classic noir. Among McPherson’s suspects in the killing of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) is effete, middle-aged columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), who schooled her in sophistication and claims she represented “the best part of myself.” Another is Laura’s beguiling but ne’er-do-well fiancé Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), who is also her Aunt Ann’s (Judith Anderson) kept man. Laura’s story unfurls through Waldo’s flashbacks, McPherson growing more and more captivated with Waldo’s version of Laura even as the real woman remains elusive. Preminger both produced and directed this adaptation of Vera Caspary’s novel, blending an attractive cast, sleek production design, and Joseph LaShelle’s Oscar®-winning gorgeous black-and-white cinematography into an indelible drama. Threading through it all is David Raskin’s theme and score, its haunting air adding another evocative layer to the mystery at the heart of the film. —Pam Grady

DIRECTOR

Otto Preminger US 1944 88 min

The new season of the You Must Remember This, launched on September 15, is called "The Bisexuals," and it’s about torch singer—and accused murderess —Libby Holman, and her sexually-fluid group of friends and lovers from the 1920s to the end of the 1960s, which included Montgomery Clift, Tallulah Bankhead, Josephine Baker, Nicholas Ray, Laura star Clifton Webb, and many more. In celebration of You Must Remember This’s new season, the podcast’s award-winning creator and host Karina Longworth introduces the Festival’s screening of Laura, her opening remarks sure to deepen our appreciation and understanding of Otto Preminger’s classic 1944 noir.

134

135

THE LIBERATION

Part slow-burn psychological thriller, part heart-wrenching family drama, The Liberation is filmmaker Guy Nattiv’s fictionalized portrayal of his grandmother’s life in the 1980s, and a visually lush deconstruction of the horrors of generational pain. Carrie Coon is at the top of her craft as Rita, a woman unravelling against the stress of her dead-end job, ever-demanding family, and the long-buried trauma she carries as a Holocaust survivor. When a chance encounter brings the free-spirited, charismatic Ricki (Lily James) into her orbit, Rita tastes the kind of freedom that life never afforded her through the all-female cult she steadily becomes a part of, cutting ties with her family as a result. While Rita’s teenage daughters (Bella Ramsey and Odessa Young) and her husband (Tracy Letts) see through the sinister undercurrents of Ricki’s tenets, they are woefully unprepared for the impossible task of rescuing a prisoner who doesn't want to be free. —Sofia Felino

136

DIRECTOR

Guy Nattiv US 2026 120 min

137

THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF WILSON SHEDD

The following program contains realistic and graphic depictions of capital punishment. Viewer discretion is advised. A relationship begins that pushes a couple down a rabbit hole of need, survival, promised freedom, and unexpected tragedy in writer/director Tim Blake Nelson’s powerful prison drama. Karen (Amanda Seyfried) volunteers as a creative writing teacher at the local penitentiary, a small window of escape from her abusive, unemployed, drunkard husband. Through reading the personal stories of the inmates, she forges an unexpected connection with one of them, Wilson Shedd (Scoot McNairy). Neither Karen nor Wilson are what they appear to be, and through Southern Gothic, nonlinear storytelling, the films peels the onions of their characters and hidden torments. Nelson (who also appears as the prison’s warden) does not just deliver a tale of two haunted souls but also provides a steely eyed, unblinkered gaze on capital punishment. The Life and Death of Wilson Shedd is a potent film that address real-world issues with compassion, poignancy, and vividness. —Sterling Hedgpeth

138

DIRECTOR

Tim Blake Nelson US 2026 121 min

CALFIORNIA PREMIERE

139

A LONG WINTER

140

Program note:

DIRECTOR

With an intimate tale of tender heartbreak, 45 Years (MVFF38) and All of Us Strangers filmmaker Andrew Haigh transports his observant temperament and distinctive lens into the unsteadiness of domestic life to the Mountain West of the early 1950s. Based on a short story by Colm Tóibín, a perfect literary match for Haigh’s melancholic rhythms, A Long Winter follows young Mike (Fred Hechinger, with his finest turn in a rapidly bourgeoning career) and his resolute father (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) in the overwhelming aftermath of Mike’s brother leaving for the Korean War, and his mother (Caitríona Balfe) disappearing in a snow storm. While the icy temperatures settle in across an increasingly fruitless search, something slowly begins to thaw within Mike as he becomes aware of his own passions and sexual longings. Juxtaposed against the relentless majesty of snow-clad heights, Haigh’s painterly interiors and soulful depths gorgeously articulate repressed, unspoken emotions that refuse to continue hibernating. —Tomris Laffly

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Andrew Haigh UK, Canada 2026 117 min

141

LOOK BACK

Look Back charts the unlikely friendship of two middle-school girls. Fujino (Natsuki Deguchi) is popular and outgoing, from a happy family, while Kyomoto (Aju Makita) is agoraphobic and nearly mute. They bond over a shared love for drawing manga. Kyomoto idolizes Fujino but is the purer artist, and they must gradually face the challenges of maturity and the vicissitudes of the marketplace. Look Back started as an award-winning manga by Tatsuko Fujimoto and then became a hugely admired 60-minute anime drama by writer-director Kiyotoka Oshimaya. Writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda (After Life, Shoplifters MVFF41), a Japanese cinema master for more than 30 years, shapes Look Back into a live-action drama, a nostalgic celebration of the transparent pleasures of being young, and a poignant meditation on the insoluble tension between friendship and creative self-expression. The luminous presence of Deguchi and Makita, and Senzo Ueono’s subtly muted color cinematography assist in making this one of Kore-eda’s most memorable films. —Larry Gross

142

DIRECTOR

Hirokazu Kore-eda Japan 2026 100 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

143

LOVE OF YOUR LIFE

When career nurse Mimi (Margaret Qualley, Blue Moon MVFF48) finds the love of her life, it's exhilarating, profound, and wonderfully crazy. But as things are upturned by the pandemic, all bets are off. Qualley and director Rachel Morrison (MTG Award 2025, The Fire Inside) explore the uncharted emotional territory facing Mimi as she abruptly leaves home and cuts herself off from the life she’s known, even long-time best friend Jason (Patrick Schwarzenegger). Over time, she travels to Portugal and—after an interlude with Felix (Aaron Pierre) begins to soften her heart—onward to London. Morrison’s fluid storytelling takes us on a journey both geographic and emotional that takes place over several years and locations before Mimi returns to the East Coast. One of the first films to explore the emotional landscape of the effects of the pandemic, it’s a story that dives beneath the surface of feelings and experiences that are uplifting and heartbreaking, challenging and sometimes just messy—and are deeply relatable. —Zoë Elton

DIRECTOR

Rachel Morrison US 2026 106 min

Sponsored by

TAMMY AND KURT MOBLEY

144

MOON

145

THE MAN I LOVE

In late 1980s New York, Jimmy (Rami Malek), a theater artist living with AIDS, throws himself back into his work, rehearsing a new stage production while surrounded by lovers, family, friends, and fellow artists. Ira Sachs brings us into a world where fear and extraordinary creative energy exist side by side, capturing a generation determined to keep making art, falling in love, having sex, laughing, and living. Rather than turning the AIDS crisis into a conventional illness story, Sachs finds its presence in the relationships, silences, bodies, and choices of the people who lived through it. Malek gives Jimmy a magnetic, mercurial presence, while Tom Sturridge, Rebecca Hall, and Luther Ford bring intimacy, affection, and shifting loyalties into his world. Music becomes another language, with performances revealing what Jimmy cannot always say. Following Peter Hujar’s Day (MVFF48), Sachs returns to New York with a deeply sensual portrait of art, desire, community, and survival. —João Federici

146

MILQUETOAST

DIRECTOR

Ira Sachs US 2026 96 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

147

THE MELTDOWN (EL DESHIELO)

The year is 1992, and the backdrop is Chile’s transition from Pinochet to democracy. In her long-awaited sophomore feature, director Manuela Martelli (Chile ‘76, MVFF45) returns to the country's disappeared, spinning out a political allegory through the perspective of nine-year-old Inés (Maya O’ Rourke), the story consistently framed at her eye level. A ski resort owned by Ines’s grandmother gleams against the frozen Andes. In grainy footage, an iceberg traverses the Atlantic Ocean and the screen, bound to a grandiose yet reluctant promise to remain unmelted. With an icy formal elegance, Martelli turns the shrill scrape of skis against snow into an eerie accomplice to Inés, after a guest's disappearance forces the child into the adults’ pact of silence. This Cannes premiere is unnerving, like the immaculate white landscape that surrounds it—a world beginning to thaw but still holding much of the iceberg that lies beneath its surface. — Ivonne Cotorruelo

148

ROOFTOP LEMPICKA

DIRECTOR

Manuela Martelli Chile, Spain, Mexico, US 2026 108 min

NORTH AMERICA PREMIERE

149

MINOTAUR (MINOTAURE)

The year is 2022 and the backdrop is Putin’s corruption-drenched Russia in Leviathan Oscar®-nominee Andrey Zvyagintsev’s latest, his first feature since 2017’s astounding Loveless (MVFF40). A bone-chilling reimagining of both Claude Chabrol’s La femme infidèle and Adrian Lyne’s Unfaithful, Zvyagintsev’s thriller follows the essentials of the source material: Amid various work pressures, a powerful businessman (Dmitriy Mazurov) learns that his increasingly distant wife (Iris Lebedeva) is cheating on him. But the filmmaker also puts a masterfully nihilistic spin on the story’s machinations, wondering, with his ingenious inquisitiveness and observantly still camerawork, if any authority in his motherland would care about unspeakable acts of crime when the country is at war with Ukraine, and a sense of lawlessness has seized the higher-ups. The winner of the Grand Prix at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Minotaur gifts us a parting note that feels like a silent scream with echoes that inhabit the soul. —Tomris Laffly

150

BUKRA

DIRECTOR

Andrey Zvyagintsev France, Latvia, Germany 2026 140 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

151

MISS REPRESENTATION: RISE UP

A hostile environment confronts girls online with every scroll, click, and swipe. In this digital landscape, relentless harassment, manipulated content, and deepfakes target their mental health, privacy, and self-esteem, while algorithms actively steer young men toward an aggressive online "manosphere" that normalizes anti-female hostility. Serving as a follow-up to Jennifer Siebel Newsom's 2011 documentary Miss Representation, this film brings together emerging female voices with insights from leaders including Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Amy Klobuchar, and Gretchen Carlson. Together, they expose how technology, politics, and corporate decision-making fuel a digital culture where misogyny continues to thrive. Ultimately, the film amplifies the voices of women demanding accountability from governments and tech companies while safeguarding the future of the next generation of female leaders. —Michelle Svenson

152

BUKRA

DIRECTOR

Jennifer Siebel Newsom US 2026 90 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

153

MISTY GREEN

A talented singer and actress, Misty Green (Rosalind Eleazar) once starred on a hit TV show but now urgently struggles for one piece of career good luck to avoid becoming homeless. Chris Rock’s latest is more than your standard making-it-in showbiz tale: The writer/director’s vivid eye for atmosphere, locations, and the incidental striving, hopeful characters Misty encounters, along with Kira Kelly’s vivid sun-drunk cinematography, generates a strikingly truthful portrait of Los Angeles as a place where you can go from being Nobody to Somebody in the blink of an eye, only to return to oblivion a moment later. Daniel Kaluuya as Misty’s sweet but unstable brother; Anna Kendrick, her sharp-eyed BFF; Adam Driver, a sleazy club-crawling filmmaker; and Rock himself as a career-challenged director trying for a comeback are superb in support. But it is Eleazar’s sexy, funny, anguished performance that makes Misty Green a mesmerizing experience. —Larry Gross

DIRECTOR

Chris Rock US 2026 104 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Sponsored by

154

BUKRA

155

MOUSE

With their third collaboration, filmmakers Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson continue to caress our deepest reserves of humanity and deftly intertwine heartbreak with humor; this time, through a tender portrayal of teen life in turmoil. The duo’s Ghostlight breakout Katherine Mallen Kupferer sensitively plays Minnie, a shy Arkansan braving a crushingly abrupt end to her lifelong best-friendship to the popular, multitalented Callie (Chloe Coleman) at the start of their once hope-filled senior year. Deeply lived-in observations on amity, family, and class glimmer everywhere in this uniquely perceptive coming-of-age tale, from Minnie’s bonds with the two mothers in her life—her own, bighearted veterinarian parent, Barbara (Tara Mallen), and Callie’s orderly and elegant mom, Helen (Sophie Okonedo, delivering another breathtaking performance this year along with Clarissa)—to the analog rhythms of high school before touchscreens and social media swarmed in. Attuned to the mysterious ebbs and flows of grief, Mouse is a gentle stunner. —Tomris Laffly

156

BUKRA

DIRECTOR

Kelly O’Sullivan US 2026 120 min

157

MUSK

Elon Musk’s remarks—that it’s possible our contemporary reality is actually a computer simulated video game designed by a superior intelligence—inspired veteran filmmaker Alex Gibney in making this epic, four-hour documentary about the mercurial billionaire. Gibney focuses on Musk’s early success as a Silicon Valley start-up whiz and how he took financial control of Tesla while exaggerating his role in designing it, but also gives us the genuinely impressive story of the evolution of SpaceX. The darker side involves Musk’s brutally callous treatment of the many women who bore his children, and the way his paranoia about criminal liability drove him to become one of the most powerful power brokers in right-wing politics. When Gibney gets to the DOGE phase of Musk’s career and his alliance with Donald Trump, he confirms his starting thesis by demonstrating how the aesthetics of videogame reality are the best model for Musk’s approach to restructuring the United States government. Musk is now the wealthiest person in human history, and Gibney shows how the spreading influence of AI gives Musk unparalleled power to collect data on any and every person on this planet. This cum ulative portrait of Elon Musk is dispassionate, mesmerizingly complex, and terrifying. —Larry Gross

158

BUKRA

DIRECTOR

Alex Gibney US 2026 232 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

159

MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART II - EXILE

At the close of the five-and-a-half hour My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow, the last remaining holdouts of non-state news media in Russia were driven into exile. Already labeled “foreign agents,” harassed, jailed, and sometimes killed, they fled the country within days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. This likewise iPhone-shot, epic, and thrillingly urgent sequel records their fates since. The largely young female protagonists scatter first to Istanbul, then throughout Europe and beyond. Officially banned at home, stubbornly independent TV Rain persists in reaching millions of Russians from a new HQ in Latvia, even as constantly shifting politics imperil every refuge. Meanwhile, spies, threats, poisoning, further forced relocations, long-distance liquidation of personal assets, and other bitter pills constitute these brave colleagues’ reminders of “home.” Nonetheless, they keep reporting truths whose expression could exact the ultimate price...even as other nations (including our own) edge towards freepress crackdowns. —Dennis Harvey

DIRECTOR

Julia Loktev Russia, US 2026 355 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Sponsored by

160

161

NAZA

Venice Special Jury Prize winner NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (No Other Land, 2024), with producers The Guardian and Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest, MVFF46), offers an unprecedented, unflinching, and unfiltered view of Israel’s war on Gaza through the first-person perspectives of those responsible for carrying out air strikes. Its focus is “Nezek Agavi,” or NAZA, the Israeli military term for “collateral damage,” and specifically the number of civilian casualties estimated, with the aid of AI, before a strike is launched. Masterfully constructed as a series of night scenes to preserve its subjects’ anonymity, and filmed on rooftops overlooking Tel Aviv, NAZA creates an unsettling contrast between the ordinary safety of people in their apartments and the devastation contemplated and carried out elsewhere. The result is a dispassionate yet shattering examination of the human calculations behind modern warfare. —K.D. Davis

162

DIRECTOR

Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor UK 2026 80 min

163

NO HANDS: THE WILD RIDE OF THE SCHWINN BICYCLE COMPANY

No Hands: The Wild Ride of the Schwinn Bicycle Company is exactly that. It's a wild ride about an enduring American brand; it's a history of our nation, of the world, and of a family throughout the last century. This testament to the endurance of the American dream, narrated by Lance Armstrong, is both nostalgic and edifying — a unique look at how one company's fortunes rose and fell alongside the country's own — but the film really shines when the spotlight turns to a group of Marin County mountain bikers à la Robin Williams who screech onto the scene, kicking up dust and showing us how the real ruff-riders roll. This is a local film with international insight that'll have you getting misty over banana seats or eyeing that old 10-speed out in the garage and fantasizing about riding it down the south side of Mount Tam. —Claire Holl

164

DIRECTOR

Daniel Clarke US 2026 78 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

165

ODYSSEY

What if the United States hadn't pulled the plug on Apollo, as Apple's For All Mankind imagined? Built from 2,500 hours of restored archival footage, director Avi Belkin masterfully constructs a riveting thriller around the fateful Apollo 13 mission. Unfolding through the intimate perspective of astronaut Jim Lovell and his family, and executive produced by Tom Hanks, the film tracks his lunar dreams to that distressing message: "Houston, we've had a problem." Driven by a stark, chilling sci-fi score that pulsates from the vacuum of the cosmos to a frantic Mission Control, a united planet holds its breath as geopolitical divisions briefly recede—a fragile unity the real Apollo program wouldn't outlive. A country fractured by Vietnam, social unrest, anti-science sentiment, and mounting costs shuttered America's lunar program soon after Odyssey's splashdown. Half a century on, a new Space Race of global powers and private titans has turned our eyes back to the Moon, leaving us to ponder: What if we'd never stopped? —Michelle Svenson

166

DIRECTOR

Avi Belkin US 2026 88 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

167

ON BEHALF OF MY SON (VICENTINA PEDE DISCIPULAS) What does it mean to apologize for something you cannot undo? Gabriel Martins' drama follows a 75-year-old mother after the death of her son, a bus driver whose final journey leaves dozens of lives shattered. Vicentina begins visiting the families of the victims, carrying an apology that may be impossible to accept. But as she moves from one family to another, a more difficult question emerges: Can an apology meant to ease one person's pain ever belong to someone else? Rejane Faria gives one of the year's most empathetic performances, finding extraordinary humanity in Vicentina's silences, hesitations, and small gestures. A native of Contagem in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, Martins brings the texture of his home region to a story that could happen anywhere. Delicate, searching, and quietly moving, On Behalf of My Son moves between laughter and tears, leaving us with questions about grief, responsibility, forgiveness, and what it means to live with what cannot be changed. —João Federici

168

DIRECTOR

Gabriel Martins Brazil 2026 148 min

169

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM

It is a film we thought we’d never get to see: a documentary culled from footage shot by Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One director William Greaves in August 1972 of the surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance, all gathered together at Duke Ellington’s New York apartment to reminisce about and debate their movement’s legacy. At long last, Greaves’ son David completes his late father’s passion project, 50-year-old footage becoming 2026’s signature cinematic event. Once Upon a Time in Harlem is a tapestry of intimate, electric conversation between actors, writers, and others who helped shape the creative flowering of Black artists in the 1920s and ‘30s. But what’s remarkable— and also sobering—is how much of their exchanges touch on the racism and economic inequality still plaguing America in the 21st century. Much like the Oscar®-winning Summer of Soul, this nearly forgotten hangout brings history alive and emerges as a vital cultural landmark. It’s a party like no other—one full of brilliant personalities and bracing ideas. —Tim Grierson

170

DIRECTOR

David Greaves, William Greaves US 2026 100 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

171

THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK It’s hard out there for an aging pickpocket like Harry (a flawless John Turturro in an instantly iconic coat), an analog man facing a digital world where people no longer carry cash. Gracing the streets of New York with his traditional elegance, Harry finds a kindred spirit in his partner-in-crime Ben (Steve Buscemi), and lovingly cares for his nonverbal wife, before he accidentally antagonizes the wrong sort: the spoiled scion (Will Price) of a crime family. In sending Harry on a five-borough odyssey to salvage the situation, Noah Segan’s elegiac knockout gently mourns the adrift qualities of a bygone era, while romantically portraying the city’s diverse communities that our desperate, GPS-less protagonist relies on for acts of kindness. There is poetry in Segan’s mournfully textured lens, accompanied by jazzy beats and timeless Big Apple ballads. A love letter to one of cinema’s favorite towns, Segan’s unassuming character study joins the ranks of great NYC movies. —Tomris Laffly

172

DIRECTOR

Noah Segan US 2026 88 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

173

PAPER TIGER

A maestro of intimate familial epics that mine the country’s past through personal New York stories, James Gray (MVFF45 Tribute) once again dismantles the notion of the American Dream, telling a harrowing tale of derailed ambitions in his finest film to date. The year is 1986, and true to the materialistic fixations of the Reagan era, Irwin Pearl (a towering Miles Teller) dreams of a better life for his perfectly content Queens family. But he and his wife Linda (a career-best Scarlett Johansson) get more than they’ve bargained for with the shady business prospect masterminded by Irwin’s over-confident ex-cop brother Gary (Adam Driver in impeccable, larger-than-life form). Enter the ruthless Russian mafia, the Gowanus Canal, and a haunting, flawlessly calibrated tragedy that clutches the middle-class Pearls. Rooted in both Gray’s own novelistic oeuvre (Armageddon Time and Little Odessa especially come to mind), and the crime-thriller masterworks of the ‘70s, the quietly devastating Paper Tiger feels like a new classic. —Tomris Laffly

DIRECTOR

James Gray US 2026 115 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

NANCY P. AND RICHARD K. ROBBINS FAMILY 174

175

PETE TOWNSHEND: BEHIND BLUE EYES

After the wild success of The Who’s Tommy sent the band into the stratosphere, songwriter and guitarist Pete Townshend had a window to take the group even higher. Or thought he did. He conceived an even grander rock opera, a sci-fi story called Lifehouse. He wrote the songs, recorded demos, penned a film script, and secured financing for a movie, only to see it all fall apart. Nearly 60 years later, Lifehouse remains an obsession as Townshend relates in this insightful, energetic documentary that is both the story of the opera that wasn’t and a history of The Who. A wealth of concert footage and music video adds sonic flair while both new and archival interviews chart The Who’s changing fortunes. The most telling of these are the reminiscences of the now octogenarian Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey, who recall not just the band’s heyday and an aborted opera but the deep, abiding, battling friendships that made The Who what it was and kept it going for so many decades. —Pam Grady

DIRECTOR

Frank Marshall, Nigel Sinclair UK, US 2026 102 min

Sponsored by

176

177

POETRY

A frail woman in her mid-60s, Mi-ja (Yun Jeong-hie) is raising her teenage son Jong-wook (Lee Da-wit), and works as a housekeeper and nurse to bitter, bedridden Mr. Kang (Kim Hee-ra). In the film’s first movement, she faces two catastrophes, beginning with a doctor’s visit that reveals she’s suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. Rather than tell anyone, Mi-ja registers in an amateur poetry class. Then she discovers Jong-wook was among a group that raped a classmate, leading to her suicide. To keep the boys out of prison, a bribe must be paid to the victim’s poverty-stricken mother, but Mi-ja lacks the money to pay her share. As these two crises develop, she continues to work on writing a single poem. In lesser hands, all this could have easily turned into something overly sappy and cloying. But with his fifth feature, writer/director Lee Chang-dong eludes those risks, thanks to Yun’s luminous, often funny performance and his own uncanny gift for staging scenes with dispassionate, often wordless, subtlety. Both a lament for the frailty of human lives and a celebration of our insatiable appetite for creativity and beauty, Poetry is exquisite. —Larry Gross

178

DIRECTOR

Lee Chang-dong South Korea, France 2010 139 min

179

POSSIBLE LOVE (GANEUNGHAN SARANG) DIRECTOR

A hesitant, complex relationship develops between two married couples when a wealthy, well-meaning pair (Zo-in Sung, Cho Yeo-jeong)—the wife is a documentary filmmaker—befriends working -class partners (Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon), victims of brutal economic injustice. Possible Love is about many things: the sudden revelations of memory, the secrets and lies of even good marriages, the abyss separating the rich and the poor. All four actors are superb with Jeon, who previously collaborated with writer-director Lee Chang-dong on Secret Sunshine (2007), particularly radiant. Lee has an uncanny and poetic sense of the cruelty lurking in all his characters and the extraordinary moments of illumination that occur in the lives of everyday people. The balance he achieves between optimism and pessimism, desperation and love is so subtly and dispassionately realized that it makes you believe there is such a thing as wisdom —Larry Gross

Lee Chang-dong South Korea, US 2026 164 min

Sponsored by

BLAIRE AND BENNO DORER

180

181

A PRAYER FOR THE DYING

Dara Van Dusen’s feature debut is a visually compelling Western set in 1870 in Friendship, Wisconsin. In the settlement—a place with not much more than a general store, a church, and a handful of smallholdings—everyone ekes out the barest of existences, including Jacob (Johnny Flynn), the town’s sheriff, preacher, and undertaker. When an outbreak of diphtheria threatens the community’s stability, he and the village doctor (John C. Reilly) navigate the threat as best they know how: initially, by concealing it, hoping it will subside. But Jacob finds himself torn between his roles as a leader, a husband and father, and a Civil War veteran navigating the haunting memories of his service, as another threat, a wildfire, looms on the horizon. With striking cinematography and sound design, Van Dusen creates a world both familiar and eerily apocalyptic, driven by great central performances. It’s a notable achievement for a firsttime filmmaker. —Zoë Elton

182

DIRECTOR

Dara Van Dusen Norway, Greece, UK, Sweden 2026 95 min

183

QUEEN AT SEA

What happens when love is no longer enough to protect someone you care for? Amanda (Juliette Binoche), already struggling with her own life, finds herself at the center of an impossible family dilemma. Her mother Leslie (Anna Calder-Marshall) is living with advanced dementia, while her devoted stepfather Martin (Tom Courtenay) refuses to accept that their intimate life must come to an end. When Amanda calls the authorities, a deeply private question becomes a matter for the police, carers, and institutions, setting the family on a path none of them can control. Sara (Florence Hunt), Amanda’s teenage daughter, brings another perspective as three generations of women navigate very different stages of love, desire, independence, and loss. Writer/director Lance Hammer handles this delicate subject with remarkable restraint, never offering easy answers or clear heroes or villains. The central trio finds humor, tenderness, frustration, and love in the smallest moments. Winner of the Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize, Queen at Sea also earned Silver Bears for Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay. —João Federici

184

DIRECTOR

Lance Hammer UK, US 2026 121 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

185

QUERIDA FÁTIMA

A decade after the murder of her 12-year-old daughter, Lorena Gutiérrez refuses to let Fátima's story disappear. Camping outside Mexico's National Palace, she waits for an audience with the country's first female president, carrying a question that has nagged at Lorena for years: What does justice look like when nothing can bring back your child? Lorena is among the directors of this documentary that transforms personal grief into a deeply intimate act of remembrance and resistance. The film moves between Lorena's recollections, her family's struggle, and the stories of other mothers who have also lost daughters to violence, creating a portrait that is as much about love and memory as it is about the search for accountability. Most importantly, Fátima emerges as no mere statistic, but as a girl with dreams, a daughter remembered with tenderness and determination. This triple Guadalajara International Film Festival award winner is a powerful testament to a mother who never imagined becoming an activist but found in that fight a way to keep her daughter's memory alive. - João Federici

186

DIRECTOR

Rodrigo Reyes Lorena Gutiérrez Jesus Quintana Su Kim Dawn Valadez Mexico, US 2026 83 min

US PREMIERE

187

REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION

Filmmaking seems to run through Pegah Ahangarani’s veins. Her parents are both noted for their work behind the camera, while she’s been a screen actor since childhood, finding stardom at age 15 in 1999’s The Girl in the Sneakers. But in this unique decades-spanning nonfiction, the focus is not on professional history, but on the collision between personal and political spheres. Assembled entirely from preexisting footage and errata, it charts the often-cruel fates of immediate family, relatives, and mentors from before the 1979 Iranian Revolution—which many hoped would bring liberation—through successive crackdowns on dissent under the Islamic Republic. Some ultimately fled the country; others were less fortunate. Complete with harrowing glimpses from the midst of protests violently quelled by police, this first-person account laments a homeland that’s suffered under authoritarian control for the now-exiled director’s entire life. It’s a graceful tally of serial rebellions and disillusionments that won Cannes’ Golden Eye award this spring. —Dennis Harvey

188

DIRECTOR

Pegah Ahangarani Czech Republic, Spain 2026 95 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

189

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

A Star Wars story unlike any before it touches down at MVFF a decade after its release! Director Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One blends the spectacle of George Lucas’ classic with the grit of a wartime adventure. Taking viewers back to just before the original 1977 Star Wars (a.k.a. Episode IV – A New Hope), it reveals the hidden story of the Rebel spies who stole the plans to the Galactic Empire’s dreaded Death Star. Garnering two Academy Award® nominations and earning more than $1 billion worldwide, Rogue One introduces new heroes led by Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso and Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor (whose story continued in the acclaimed Disney+ series Andor). Connecting directly to the movie that started it all, the film culminates in one of the most exhilarating finales in the saga. Also starring Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, and Forest Whitaker, Rogue One remains a stirring story of sacrifice, rebellion, and hope—and a singular chapter in the Star Wars universe. —Zaki Hasan

DIRECTOR

Gareth Edwards US 2016 134 min

Sponsored by

190

191

ROSE

In the village, they call him a soldier, as well as an outsider and a misfit. Concealing many secrets and a facial scar, he excels at hard work in his quest to become part of the community. But beneath the soldier’s identity is a woman discovering a new sense of freedom and independence by living as a man, possibilities that would otherwise be denied to her. Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall, MVFF46) delivers a performance of searing psychological intensity as a 17th-century war veteran. Markus Schleinzer’s third feature, after Michael and Angelo, is a stark historical drama; its striking black-and-white imagery reinforces its questions about gender, identity, and the price of belonging, revealing how simply being perceived as a man can open doors otherwise closed to women. Formally stunning and visually painterly, this human and deeply unsettling portrait turns a historical story into a provocative reflection on freedom, identity, and the lengths we go to claim our own lives. —Ivonne Cotorruelo

192

DIRECTOR

Markus Schleinzer Austria, Germany 2026 93 min

193

SAD GIRLZ

Fernanda Tovar, in her narrative debut feature, winner of the Crystal Bear for Best Film in the Generation 14plus at the Berlinale, crafts a moving coming-of-age drama about friendship, teenage girlhood, and trauma. Rocio Guzmán gives a standout performance as La Maestra scraping by as best she can to understand how to be a good ally to her friend Paula (Darana Álvarez). Friends and swimmers Paula and La Maestra navigate life with the same confidence they show in the pool. Dreams cast a quiet spell over the early stretches of the film, though its premonitory title, Sad Girlz, suggests that the girls’ carefree world will not remain untouched. One night when they go to a party, something happens to Paula. As their journey deepens and complicates their bond, these two remarkable young women provide a sense of warmth that makes Sad Girlz linger in the heart long after the credits roll. —Ivonne Cotorruelo

DIRECTOR

Fernanda Tovar Mexico, Spain, France 2026 90 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

Fernanda Tovar is the 2026 recipient of Mind the Gap's Elton Creation Prize, a $10,000 award for a first- or second-time female or nonbinary feature filmmaker. The prize celebrates exciting new voices in cinema that demonstrate creativity of vision and exceptional use of the film medium. SAD GIRLZ is the recipient of the 2026 Elton Creation Prize

194

195

SPLISH SPLASH FOREVER! (PLITSCH PLATSCH FOREVER!)

Pre-teens Pola and Polly are inseparable friends who spend the long summer days at Splish Splash, the local pool, where Polly’s mom runs the concession stand. When the pool shuts down for lengthy repairs, Polly’s family departs Switzerland for Canada in search of steady work, leaving Pola heartbroken about losing her BFF and angry at her village for closing the coolest spot in town. With the help of Rosalie, the smartest (and geekiest) girl in her class, Pola plots to reopen Splish Splash, recruiting friends—and former enemies—to her side. Her grassroots-style civic activism goes all the way to the top, and even Mayor Petrović-Stucki can’t get the girls off her back or out of her office. Featuring some wildly creative costumes, musical dance numbers, and fabulous young talent, Splish Splash Forever! is an upbeat and infectiously inspiring story of activism, kid-style, and the enduring power of friendship. —K.D. Davis

DIRECTOR

Natascha Beller Switzerland 2026 87 min

NORTH AMERICA PREMIERE

APPROPRIATE FOR GRADES 5-8 (AGES 10-13)

Support provided by

196

197

THE STORY OF DOCUMENTARY FILM

Mark Cousins’ own documentary practice (A Story of Children and Film, I Am Belfast, The Eyes of Orson Welles, and more) is consistently witty, erudite, and lyrically beautiful. No one is better prepared than he is to undertake this stupendous, 18-hour project than he is. Cousins’ 120-year history begins with clips from silent era giants that include the Lumière Brothers, Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North), and Dziga Vertov (Man with a Movie Camera) and ends in our own 2020s decade, where he observes that we’re in the world of “the everyday documentary” covered by 4.4 billion phone cameras and one billion surveillance cameras. Wryly, he asks, “Is life today a documentary waiting to be edited?” At one point, Cousins quotes Chilean documentarist Patricio Guzmán (The Battle of Chile, Nostalgia for the Light): “I am convinced that memory has a gravitational force. It is constantly attracting us. Those who have a memory can live in the fragile present moment. Those who have none don’t live anywhere.” We realize that in relating his Story of Documentary Film, Mark Cousins has, at the same time, fashioned an epic memory poem about the modern world. And he is helping us to survive and even flourish in it. —Larry Gross

198

DIRECTOR

Mark Cousins UK, US 2026 946 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

199

STREET SMART

After receiving a tribute at MVFF38, prolific filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) returns to the festival with her latest directorial effort Street Smart. Co-written by Hardwicke and Nic Sheff, whose 2008 memoir Tweaked inspired Beautiful Boy (MVFF41), the drama draws inspiration from Sheff’s lived experience and Hardwicke’s deep affinity for Venice Beach and the diverse community that calls it home. Desperate to escape her volatile home life, Ali (Isabelle Fuhrman) takes a leap of faith and hops on a cross-country bus to Venice Beach with little more than the clothes on her back and her trusty guitar. With no money and no connections, her prospects are grim until a vivacious band of unhoused young adults take her under their wing. Ali and her friends are no strangers to disappointment and tragedy, but it is their tender companionship and shared moments of joy that shine through in this compassionate and vibrant portrait of unhoused society we rarely get to see onscreen. --Sofia Felino

200

DIRECTOR

Catherine Hardwicke US 2026 108 min

201

A TALENT FOR MURDER

In Anton Corbijn’s playful thriller, Oscar winner Helen Mirren delivers a fiendishly juicy portrayal of the legendary mystery author Patricia Highsmith in an imaginary scenario with a wicked sense of humor. Based on Joanna Murray-Smith’s play, Switzerland (adapted for the screen by the playwright herself), the story follows the famously tough Highsmith while the retired author receives a visit from over-ambitious publishing rep Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich, unpredictable at every turn) at her handsome Swiss Alps home. The year is 1995 and the talented Mr. Ridgeway has but one mission: convince Highsmith to conjure up a final Tom Ripley murder mystery, poised to be a bestseller. As the equally stubborn and deliberate Ridgeway and Highsmith face off across a mazy creative process where their unknowable instincts often clash, the line between reality and fiction blurs in unimaginable ways, spilling both the blood and the beans as stylishly as a Highsmith novel. —Tomris Laffly

DIRECTOR

Anton Cobijn UK, Italy 2026 106 min

Sponsored by

JIM BOYCE TRUST AND KRIS OTIS Support provided by

202

203

TANGLES

“My mom is awesome!” exclaims young Sarah about her mom, Midge. From a daughter’s memories of her mother wielding her flashlight like a lightsaber as she vanquished nighttime demons lurking in Sarah’s bedroom; to winter walks in the Maine woods, stealing maple sap from the tree farm; through Sarah’s adolescence, coming out as queer, with Midge marching alongside her at LGBTQ+ rallies—awesomeness to the bone. Then things get tangled: small changes of behavior, easy to dismiss at first (“it’s just menopause”) until the signs are too evident to ignore. Leah Nelson’s beautifully rendered animated film, based on Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir (Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me), stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Samira Wiley, Bryan Cranston, Beanie Feldstein, Wanda Sykes, and Seth Rogen voicing Sarah’s lovingly tangled extended family, struggling to support each other as one of them slips away too fast. —K.D. Davis

204

DIRECTOR

Leah Nelson Canada, US 2026 102 min

205

TENDER LOVING CARE

Following Hard Truths (MVFF47), legendary auteur Mike Leigh returns with another tragicomic look at modern life filled with compelling characters and sharp social commentary. Following a nasty breakup, Amy (Widow’s Bay breakout Kate O’Flynn) packs up her life and moves back in with Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson), her lifelong best friend and colleague in social work. Through visits with their diverse array of clients and Amy’s aging parents (Marion Bailey and Paul Jesson), the two women grapple with precarious work-life balance, burnout, and many shades of heartbreak…but nothing a nice glass of wine can’t fix. Tender Loving Care is a powerful meditation on the nature of compassion: who we decide is deserving of care, if and how we can help those who refuse it, and the dear costs paid by those we expect to spend it freely. —Sofia Felino

206

DIRECTOR

Mike Leigh UK 2026 107 min

207

TENZING

When Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston) ascends the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, the first person to do so, he is not alone. With him is climbing partner Tenzing Norgay (Genden Phuntsok), a Nepalese guide and veteran of expeditions to reach the top. Documentary filmmaker Jennifer Peedom’s (Sherpa, Mountain) first narrative feature relates the story of a loving husband and father who was never accepted by the European teams or the local Sherpa clans, but who navigated both cliques and cultures to become an essential element in achieving mountaineering’s greatest milestone. Amidst the epic Himalayan landscapes, every crevasse, every impossible face, and every blizzard presents a life-or-death scenario that Tenzing meets with patience, serenity, and love for the mountain in whose shadow he’s lived for decades. Willem Dafoe adds robust support as Colonel John Hunt, the head of the British expedition team. —Sterling Hedgpeth

DIRECTOR

Jennifer Peedom US, Australia 2026 128 min

CALIFORNIA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

NANCY P. AND RICHARD K. ROBBINS FAMILY FOUNDATION

208

209

THIS BRIGHT LIGHT

Tamarin Luchessa seemed destined to burn brightly. An Olympic-bound rhythmic gymnast, her course was derailed by a diabetes diagnosis as a teenager. Her life became marked by medical crises, personal struggles, and eventually a kidney and pancreas transplant that altered her personality in ways even her family and friends could not recognize—only for her original self to return when the organs later began to failSonoma County filmmaker Alexandra Lexton (Fools’ Paradise (lost?), MVFF47; The Lure of This Land, MVFF42) follows Tamarin’s mother, Cindy, from the mysteries of cellular memory into more ethereal terrain, where mediums, intuitives, and signs from beyond suggest our connections may extend past the physical body. Moving between science and spirit, this deeply personal docudrama chronicles a motherdaughter pact to help others, offering a loving reflection on life and death. —Michelle Svenson

210

DIRECTOR

Alexandra Lexton US 2026 82 min

WORLD PREMIERE

211

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

While Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri’s, Mildred Hayes may go down as cinema history’s ultimate anti-heroine, Officer Dixon deserves kudos as her outclassed nemesis-turned-ally. In the film’s memorable ensemble, Mildred is played with unbridled cynicism and priceless, profane sarcasm by the inimitable Frances McDormand. She’s an inconsolable grieving mother with a triple- billboard-sized grudge and a fathomless rage demanding to be reckoned with. The ones doing the reckoning are the local police force: the beloved but ineffective Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and his hotheaded junior officer Dixon, a dimwitted, heavy-drinking momma's boy with a penchant for brutality, notably played by Sam Rockwell (MVFF49 Tributee and Oscar® winner for this performance)—with both hilarious and incendiary consequences. British playwright-turned-film-maker Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths, MVFF35; Wild Horse Nine, MVFF49 Opening Night) brings his singular brand of violence and black humor to this renegade masterpiece that surprises at every turn. But one thing remains constant: Hell definitely hath no fury like a Mildred Hayes ignored. Just ask Officer Dixon. —Joanne Parsont

DIRECTOR

Martin McDonagh US, 2017 115 min

Sponsored by

216

217

THE UNROOTED BLOOM

Alongside co-director Cassidy Friedman (Voices Beyond the Wall, Circles), visionary Bay Area poet, educator, and community activist Amber Allen-Peirson turns the camera on her own life in this deeply moving quest for belonging. A biracial woman living in Marin County, Allen-Peirson grapples with the complexities of her identity—of the nuances of living as a person with both Black and white roots in a nation founded on division. Using poetry to narrate a striking collage of archival footage and vérité moments from her present, Allen-Peirson deftly captures the ways in which she’s pulled in an overwhelming number of directions in her personal and professional lives. Torn between carrying on a legacy of fighting for what she believes in and simply trying to exist in an ever-demanding world, Allen-Peirson demonstrates that belonging can bloom through a life examined—in the pursuit of clarity. —Kate Bove

218

DIRECTOR

Cassidy Freeman, Amber Allen-Peirson US, Ghana 2026 76 min

WORLD PREMIERE

219

WE ARE ALL STRANGERS

Some films stay with you long after you leave the theater. We Are All Strangers is one of them. Anthony Chen's tender and quietly funny family drama follows a young couple facing an unexpected pregnancy while their parents, from very different social worlds, find an unexpected connection of their own. As marriage, money, responsibility, and the pressures of adulthood begin to reshape their lives, two generations are forced to reconsider what family really means. What makes the film so special is the warmth Chen finds in even the most difficult moments. There is sadness, certainly, but also an abundance of humor, tenderness, and unexpected grace. We Are All Strangers is the concluding chapter of Chen's informal “Growing Up” trilogy, following Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019). Beautifully observed and deeply human, this is a film that makes you want to know these people, sit beside them, laugh with them, and stay much longer. — João Federici

220

DIRECTOR

Anthony Chen Singapore 2026 157 min

WEST COAST PREMIERE

221

WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS

With her trademark command of complex social issues and deeply human storytelling, veteran documentarian Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble) examines the Harlem Park Three—teenagers wrongfully sentenced to life in prison for the 1983 murder of a Baltimore middle schooler. Inspired by Jennifer Gonnerman’s New Yorker reporting, the investigative documentary tracks how police coerced 13 and 14-year-old witnesses into fabricating testimony, and how the state's case collapsed 36 years later in 2019, when those same witnesses formally recanted. Interweaving archival footage, graphic novel-style animation, and tense legal depositions, the film moves past the courtroom to capture the profound emotional toll on the trio, boys who became men behind bars, separated from their families and the world outside. Exploring the possibility of reconciliation between the exonerated and a key childhood witness, Porter ultimately asks what justice, accountability, and healing can look like in the wake of America's longest combined wrongful conviction. —Michelle Svenson

222

DIRECTOR

Dawn Porter US 2026 112 min

223

WHERE THE SILENCE IS HEARD

Gabriela Pena and Picho García’s deeply personal documentary delves into what isn’t expressed—the silences, unspoken fears, and absences that shape both Pena’s family history and her relationship with her mother. At the film’s outset, Pena moves to Valparaíso, the Chilean port city her family was forced from decades earlier amid the Pinochet regime. While reconnecting with her grandparents, the filmmaker takes on the formidable project of renovating the now-dilapidated house her family left behind. As she strips the former home to its core, Pena also digs into her relationship with her mother and how the physical distance between them could actually be a means of getting closer. Beautifully lensed and rivered by personal memories and archival footage, this achingly intimate family portrait explores how intergenerational trauma shapes how we love, all as one woman attempts to find peace before a new generation joins the story. —Kate Bove

DIRECTOR

Gabriela Pena, Picho Garcia Chile, Spain 2026 94 min

NORTH AMERICA PREMIERE

Support provided by

224

225

WICKER

Playing to the peak of their immaculate powers, Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, and Peter Dinklage bring grand charm, delight, and whimsy to this altogether unique and fantastical folk romance for the ages. Mocked by the eccentric, coupled townsfolk for her spinsterish manner, a fisherwoman (Colman) in this medieval world that is both wonderful and strange beseeches the local basket maker (Dinklage) to weave her a husband. He does, bringing to life the wicker man (Skarsgård) of her dreams, creating a cascading sensation throughout the village. Lushly designed, carefully crafted, and skillfully paced, this adaptation of Ursula Willis’s beguiling short story generated its own percolating buzz when it premiered at Sundance. Husband-and-wife directing duo Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson imbue their fractured tale with the liveliness and wit of master storytellers, weaving their mythical yarn with precision and captivating magic that is all too rare. —Landon Zakheim

DIRECTOR

Eleanor Wilson, Alex Huston Fischer US 2026 105 min

BAY AREA PREMIERE

Sponsored by

226

227

YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER

Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali's turn as a devout Muslim who quietly makes his living as a professional killer headlines this elevated blend of exemplary action, taut thriller, and moving drama resulting in a stunning work. In writer-director Bassam Tariq’s stirring fable, Ali’s Latif returns from his latest murder to a family in crisis and grief. Mourning the loss of his wife, Latif is left to care for his three children, including a newborn in desperate need of breast milk, while facing judgment from his community, pressure from a dangerous colleague, and the wrath of a potential new target, a fundamentalist gun-toting Christian zealot played by a sublime John Cho. Bolstered by a muscular directorial vision and impactful performances, Tariq’s emotional tale of vengeance, honor, and family offers incredible sweep and stunning skill that will linger in the bones and the soul. —Landon Zakheim

228

DIRECTOR

Bassam Tariq, Alex Huston Fischer US 2026 111 min

229

SHORTS: ALL THE YOUNG PUNKS

“All the young Punks, Laugh your life 'Cause there ain't much to cry for.” Disappear into corner stores, shark-filled waters, or love at first sight to find something new. Learn the language of the birds as you meet your match and find your people, or just your insides outside of you. These dynamic youth-produced shorts explore grief, community, and coming of age to tell stories both personal and universal. CARD TRICK (Sam Moffett, US, 4 min), I LOVE MY GUTS (Jahan Zubair, US, 5 min), CICADA (Matthew Glazunov Oleksandrovich, Ukraine, 2 min), A BAY TO LIVE ON (Jacob Stoelting, Lily Robbins, Dominic Kim, Gideon Palestrant, US, 5 min) IT’S MY FAULT (Collective Work, Germany, 2 min), MY MOTHER TOLD ME NOT TO TALK TO...STRANGERS (Joshua Najera, US, 3 min), THE DOLL (Julia Sonata, Germany, 3 min), HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Logan Robert Bermudez, US, 1 min), Purge (Jiahn Son, South Korea, 13 min), MAKING SPACE (Collective Work, Romania, 1 min), CONSTELLATIONS OF THE SEA (Addie Akina Knoll, US, 13 min), WINDWARD (Luna Barreiro, Renn Smith, Flynn Rossington, Alex Powell, US, 5 min), CHIRP TALKER (Audrey He-Qing Cheng, Taiwan, 4 min), WE ARE THE LAND (Jude Beccaris, Riedy, Larkin Archibald, William Uhlhorn-Thornton, US, 6 min), CHASING DRAGONFLIES (Jaba Keh, US, 10 min), OUT OF THE BLUE (Vivian Nguyen, US, 3 min), GROW UP (Dari Justin, Australia, 4 min), OPPRESSION (Collective Work, Romania, 1 min). —Osinachi Ibe (Advisory: Some violence, smoking, depictions of eating disorders, and mature language)

89 min

APPROPRIATE FOR GRADES 9-12 (AGES 14-17)

Sponsored by

230

231

SHORTS: CITY OF THE DEAD

“In the city of the dead fall in love an' fall in bed.” You won’t find another shorts collection this full of laughs, surprises, and human connection than these shorts that orbit around a very grave subject. John and Dan Bell’s IT’S A WONDERFUL NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (US 2025, 8 min) is an irresistible mashup of Frank Capra and George Romero. Director Kit Steinkellner devises a surprise development for a young couple which forces them to wonder ARE WE STILL MARRIED? (US 2026,12 min). Two young nuns embark on a holier-than-thou competition that evokes some heavy emotions in Isabella Garcia’s IN HER YOU’LL FIND SANCTUARY (US 2026, 10 min). In Joël Gibbs’s animated THE HIGH KING’S DAUGHTER (Ireland 2025, 5 min), a lush period romance about social class evokes something tender and mythic. In Simone Stadler’s THE SPANISH LESSON (US 2025,12 min), a surprise student has some deeper resonance. In Claire Harris Matson and Drew Brandon Jones’s very funny BEING DEAD SHOULD BE EASY (US 2025, 14 min), a shiva is the perfect place to discuss planning one’s own mortal passing. And in Aleksandr Terekhov’s reflective MONUMENT (Poland 2026, 8 min), a grieving daughter finds comfort from an unexpected source. Don’t miss this one-of-akind program! —Sterling Hedgpeth

69 min

Sponsored by

232

233

SHORTS: COLLEGE ANIMATION SHOWCASE 1 Something unprecedented is happening in college and university film departments as a new wave of female and nonbinary animators make their mark in school as they prepare to enter the industry. MVFF is proud to present this stellar showcase featuring student (and a few professors’) films reflecting family, friendship, life, death, and cultural identity. Films from CSU Long Beach, UCLA, CalArts, Calif. College of the Arts and UC Santa Cruz include: IN CHIAPAS (Kiana Reid and Madeline Finkel, US, 2025, 3 min), SCISSORS (Yanzhang Jessica Song, US, 2026, 7 min), STORYBOOK APOCALYPSE (OR, THE SHIP’S CAT) (Gina Napolitan, US, 2025, 7 min), TÊTE À TÊTE (Soyeon Kim + Students, US, 2024, 3 min), SWIMMING IN THE COLORADO RIVER NAKED (Tati Slepica, US, 2025, 2 min), GODDAMN’S GREAT BIG ADVENTURE: THE DATING CRISIS!! (Lulu Mckown, US, 2025, 2 min), NORMAL GLASSES (Ava Azarmi, Matthew Lei, US, 2026, 4 min), SUPERSPICE (Adriana Lopez, US, 2025, 4 min), MAMALONACITAS (Isis MejiaDuarte, US, 2025, 7 min), THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY (Sydney Agans, US, 2025, 6 min), CARELESS (Grace Capooth, US, 2025, 4 min), 2392 MILES (Kai Ho, US, 2025, 5 min), THE WHITE ELEPHANT (Thet Chal, US, 2025, 7 min), PYLONS (Haiqing Qi, 2026, 3 min), HOT SPRING THERAPY (Julie Zheng, US, 2025, 4 min), UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN (Yuxin Cindy Chen, US, 2025, 8 min). —K.D. Davis

81 min

Sponsored by

234

235

SHORTS: COLLEGE ANIMATION SHOWCASE 2 A new wave of female and nonbinary animators are on the move from college and university campuses into the professional world. This family-friendly showcase of superbly crafted shorts includes works (by students and even a few professors) from CSU Long Beach, UCLA, CalArts, and UC Santa Cruz, addressing kid-friendly topics like animals, family, friendship, big dreams, and outer space. Films include: WHEN YOU GIVE A CAT A LEMON (Mei Lin Lee-Stahr and Calleigh Hoang, US 2025, 2 min), THESE ARE TOTALLY REAL ANIMALS (Marissa Brennan, US 2025, 2 min), TO BE LOVED (Amarise Defranco, US 2025, 4 min), SEAGULL COFFEE (Sally Pan, US 2026, 4 min), FAMILY DINNER (Huayi Yu, 2025, US 4 min), MOUSLING (Katharine Doescher, US 2025, 4 min), TOGETHER APART (Claire Seckler, US 2025, 6 min), A NEW NORMAL (Asavari Kumar, US 2022, 2 min), STICKER (Jisoo Chong, US 2026, 2 min), STAND ALONE (Soyeon Kim, US 2025, 5 min), IKARI (Tamao Inanabe, 2024, US 3 min), I’M STUCK IN A MASCOT SUIT IN ANOTHER WORLD (Grace Valencia, US 2025, 4 min), NOODLE FIGHT (Claudia Liu, 2026, US 4 min), LITTLE GREEN MEN (Tyler Munoz, US 2024, 9 min), LUCKY PENNY (Jaimi Qiu, US 2025, 2 min), HAPPY PORTRAIT (Pearl Lu, US 2026, 2 min), CAT AND MOUSE (Kaya Evelyn Glasner, US 2026, 5 min). —K.D. Davis

66 min

APPROPRIATE FOR GRADES 1-5 (AGES 6-10)

Sponsored by

236

237

SHORTS: IF MUSIC COULD TALK

"If music could talk, which means whatever your mind can bring.” This collection of documentary short films invite a sense of curiosity and quest, seeking to grasp human thought, motive, and expression. In Nita Blum and Jonathan Pickett’s A NEW INFERNO (US 2026, 16 min), paramedics race to save the lives of heatstroke victims using a radical new treatment. With an experimental sensibility, Karla Condado’s MIRIAM (Mexico 2025, 19 min) copes with grief as the filmmaker reads personal letters to her aunt who was a victim of femicide. Along the picturesque coastline of Brittany, France, bright orange novelty Garfield phones wash ashore in Zack Grant’s eccentric SILLY LITTLE PLASTIC CAT (France/US 2026 12 min). In SWING SWISH SWAY (US 2026, 7 min), TT Takemoto's colorful and tangible reconstruction of history is inspired by Filipina-American Rose Bamberger, founder of Daughters of Bilitis, San Francisco’s own first lesbian activist group. Free-spirited and expressive, Charlie Eguia’s HAPPINESS FOR A HERDER (US/Mongolia 2026, 16 min) follows a group of nomadic herder families in Mongolia. —Diana Sánchez Maciel

70 min

Sponsored by

238

239

SHORTS: LET’S GO CRAZY

“A great meeting of rhythm and face, a humming of values and a children’s place.” Gather round with these shorts centered on girls who uncover something new about the world and their social circles. In Dalya Keleş’s GRAVITY (Turkey 2026, 16 min), 12-year-old Deniz finds that being a girl changes dynamics among her boy schoolmates in her small rural town. In Isabel Pask’s comedic SCOUT’S HONOR (US 2025, 14 min), selling girl scout cookies is a hidden path for two friends to achieve a much larger goal… or so they think. A mysterious pair of shoes provides a gateway to discovery for a mother and daughter in Adelle Yan’s THE SHOE THIEF (US 2026, 12 min). A teenager preparing for a “purity ball” faces some harsh realities about religious expectation, self-worth, and personal expression in Lisa Cole’s FILTHY (US 2026, 19 min). Actor Morena Baccarin (Firefly) makes her directing debut with SELF-TITLED (US 2026, 13 min), a tale about the lessons a young girl learns from her father over the years, and how they resonate in her unknown future. Join us for stories that interlace joy, catharsis, and discovery. —Sterling Hedgpeth

74 min

Sponsored by

240

241

SHORTS: REMOTE CONTROL

“Big business, it don't like you, it don't like the things you do. You got no money, so you got no power.” In this selection of short-form films, protagonists assert their power and try to rewrite the narrative against powerful forces they face. In Maia Wikler’s documentary WILD EAST (Canada/US 2026, 36 min), environmental activist Gabi Paun risks his life to expose illegal logging in Romania’s ancient forests, taking on timber mafias and IKEA while revealing the hidden cost of the world’s appetite for cheap furniture. In the fictional FLESH IMPACT (US 2026, 17 min), director Maggie Gyllenhaal assembles a notable cast (Ellen Burstyn, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard) to tell a revisionist history of Marilyn Monroe, who faces down studio pressure to assert her voice and influence, in a speculation on a career that might have been. Then in FREE JOAN LITTLE (US 2025, 38 min), award-winning filmmaker Yoruba Richen excavates a groundbreaking true-life 1975 case that galvanized Black Power activists, feminists, and prison reformers around one young Black woman’s historic fight for justice and the right to defend herself against sexual violence. Be sure not to miss this memorable, eclectic trio of legends and their stories. —Michelle Svenson

89 min

Sponsored by

242

243

SHORTS: STAY FREE

“But go easy Step lightly Stay free.” As we grow older, we tend to abandon all inherent free spirit and audacity. This collection of short documentary films brings those feelings flooding back, allowing us to live vicariously through these bold, intrepid, and resilient characters. In THE RIGHT FIT (US 2025, 12 min), Max Mollring and Nicolas Collins introduce the owner of a one-of-a-kind small business in San Rafael. Intimate and observational, Hao Zhou's AT THE STAGE WHEN (China 2026, 15 min) follows a young urban couple experiencing societal pressure around parenthood. Composed of black-and-white 35mm photographs, A TOWN CALLED NEEDVILLE (US/Canada 2026, 5 min) traces filmmaker Audrey Lane's inpatient stay at an all-women’s mental health facility in Texas. A collaboration between Ukrainian painter Alla Hurenko and directors Natalie Shirinian and Elizabeth Baudouin, ROOM OF THE ABSOLUTE (US, Ukraine 2026, 18 min) is a time capsule and portrait of resilience in the face of relentless destruction in Ukraine. It is 1980 in Yuba City, California, in Reaa Puri’s HARVEST PARTY AT CAMP TWO (US 2026, 16 min), and a group of Young Punjabi Sikh farmworkers throw the biggest party their small town has ever seen. —Diana Sánchez Maciel

66 min

Sponsored by

244

245

SHORTS: WHAT’S MY NAME

“What the hell is wrong with me? I'm not who I want to be.” These short films from around the world compel their characters to rethink who they are and what they may want. Petch Kitwattanachai’s OF VEINS AND WIRES (Thailand 2026, 16 min) imagines a future where artificial means can replace human procreation. In Erin Cramer’s ENJOY YOUR VISIT (US 2026, 19 min), an African American actress cosplays as a slave at a tourist-based historical site. The gay couple in Mehdi Davachi’s ITALIANO (Iran 2026, 20 min) reevaluates their relationship to their repressive Persian culture when the prospect of leaving their homeland arises. And in Jasmine Bisette’s THE DOCTOR AND THE FLOATING BRIDGE (France 2026, 19 min), a Korean expatriate doctor must confront his mixed feelings about his former home when he meets a very special patient. Life and sense of self are never exactly how they appear in these provocative and moving stories. —Sterling Hedgpeth

74 min

Sponsored by

246

247

T HUR SDAY O C TOBER 1 5:00pm

SEQUOIA 1

SEQUOIA 2

6:00

RAFAEL 1

RAFAEL 2

RAFAEL 3

S AT UR DAY O C TOBER 3 LARK

BAMPFA

OAC

12:00

OPENING NIGHT: Wild Horse Nine 6:00

7:00 8:00 9:00

11:00am 1:00

SEQUOIA 1 Look Back 12:00

2:00 3:00

10:00

4:00

Giants Do Fall 3:00

5:00 6:00 7:00

F R IDAY O C TOBER 2 10:00am

SEQUOIA 1

SEQUOIA 2

RAFAEL 1

RAFAEL 2

11:00 12:00 2:00 3:00 4:00

The Man I Love 1:15

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 4:00

5:00 7:00

RAFAEL 3

LARK

BAMPFA

OAC

Fjord 12:30

Possible Love 6:00

8:00 9:00

Tribute Sam Rockwell 7:00

The Liberation 4:00

Isabel 4:30 Extra Geography 6:00 Flies 7:30

10:00

Rehearsals for a Revolution 8:30

V E NUE S PLEASE NOTE:

248

Times, dates, and venues are subject to change or adjustments. Consult mvff.com for up-to-the-minute information.

SEQUOIA CINEMA 25 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER 1118 Fourth Street, San Rafael LARK THEATER 549 Magnolia Avenue, Larkspur BAMPFA 2155 Center Street, Berkeley OUTDOOR ART CLUB 1 W Blithedale Avenue, Mill Valley

RAFAEL 3

Poetry 11:30

The Story of Documentary Film: Until the 1940s 11:00

Everest 4:00

Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff 7:00

Odyssey 3:30

Elsinore 7:00

Everytime 3:00

Union Town 6:00

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother 9:00

Árru 2:15

LARK

BAMPFA

OAC

My Undesirable Friends: Part II - Exile 1:00 Laura 3:00

La Gradiva 5:00 Ink 7:00 Brian 8:30

SUN DAY O C TOBER 4 SEQUOIA 1

SEQUOIA 2

RAFAEL 1

RAFAEL 2

12:00

Tenzing 12:00

The Only Living Pickpocket in NY 12:00

2:00 3:00

Panel: AI Landscape 2:30

The A-Word: The Future of Aging 2:00

All of a Sudden 1:30

4:00 5:00

Fjord 3:30

9:00

LARK

BAMPFA

The Story of Documentary Film: 1950s - 1960s 11:00

OAC

Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes 7:30

Sad Girlz 6:00

La Bola Negra 6:30 Coward 7:30

Panel: MTG Directors Talk 11:00 MTG Summit - Brunch 12:00

The Meltdown 2:30

Burgundy 4:45

7:00 8:00

RAFAEL 3

Panel: MTG Staying Power In Film 10:00

11:00

6:00

MVFF.COM

RAFAEL 2

Tender Loving Care 1:00

10:00

1:00 A Talent for Murder 7:00

RAFAEL 1

9:00

10:00am

Tenzing 3:00

6:00

8:00

My Undesirable Friends: Part II - Exile 11:00

No Hands: The Wild Ride of the Schwinn Bicycle Co. 12:00

1:00

Queen at Sea 6:00

SEQUOIA 2

Love of Your Life 5:00

La Gradiva 4:00

Happy Hour MTG 4:00

A Girl Unknown 8:00

10:00

249

M O N DAY O C TOBER 5 10:00am

SEQUOIA 1

SEQUOIA 2

RAFAEL 1

RAFAEL 2

11:00

2:00 4:00 6:00 7:00

LARK

BAMPFA

OAC

12:00 1:00

Shorts: What's My Name 3:15

When a Witness Recants 5:00

Member Screening: Love of Your Life 5:00

Gentle Monster 7:00

Paper Tiger 7:00 A Prayer for the Dying 8:15

10:00

4:00

Coward 4:00

SEQUOIA 2

RAFAEL 1

RAFAEL 2

11:00

7:00 8:00

Shorts: Stay Free 8:00

1:00 2:00

Giants Do Fall 12:30

3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00

9:00 10:00 250

Fatherland 7:30

Panel: Made in San Francisco 1:30

The Last Place on Earth 4:00

Avedon 4:30

7:00 8:00

Paper Tiger 2:00

Jean-Michel Basquiat 6:30

Josephine 7:00

Naza 7:30

RAFAEL 2

The Last Place on Earth 1:00

I Play Rocky 7:00

RAFAEL 3

LARK

BAMPFA

OAC

LARK

BAMPFA

OAC

Musk 1:00 Shorts: City of the Dead 2:30

Brave Cat 4:00

Everybody to Kenmure Street 4:00

I Play Rocky 7:00

Everest: The Other Side 7:00

Lady 5:00

A Long Winter 8:00 Shorts: What's my Name 9:00

10:00

T HUR SDAY O C TOBER 8 RAFAEL 3

LARK

BAMPFA

OAC

Shorts: Stay Free Jail Time Records 3:00

SEQUOIA 2

RAFAEL 1

RAFAEL 2

1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00

The Illusion of Everlasting Summer 6:00

Shorts: City of the Dead 9:00

6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00

RAFAEL 3 The Story of Documentary Film: 1990s-2000s 11:00

Everest: The Other Side 2:00

5:00

Hold Onto Me 4:45

On Behalf of My Son 8:00

SEQUOIA 1

12:00 1:00

2:15

10:00am 11:00

Doc Talk Once Upon a Time in Harlem 2:00

RAFAEL 1

The Story of Documentary Film: 1980s-1990s 11:00

9:00

The Story of Documentary Film: 1970s-1980s 11:00

12:00

SEQUOIA 2

6:00

Elephants in the Fog 5:45

Everytime 8:45

Look Back 3:15

5:00

T UE SDAY O C TOBER 6 SEQUOIA 1

Josephine 12:00

3:00

Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff 3:00

9:00

10:00am

SEQUOIA 1

2:00 Elsinore 3:30

8:00

10:00am 11:00

Minotaur 1:00

3:00 5:00

RAFAEL 3 The Story of Documentary Film: 1960s-1970s 11:00

12:00 1:00

W E D N E SDAY O C TOBER 7

Everybody Digs Bill Evans 6:00

Avedon 2:00 A Long Winter 3:30

Tribute: Linda Perry 6:00

Mouse 7:30

Naza 1:30

Shorts: Let's Go Crazy 2:30

Rehearsals for a Revolution 4:30

Rose 7:30

Clarissa 7:00

Flies 3:00

Querida Fátima 6:00

Shorts: If Music Could Talk 8:30

Union Town 7:00

251

F R IDAY O C TOBER 9 10:00am

SEQUOIA 1

SEQUOIA 2

RAFAEL 1

RAFAEL 2

11:00 12:00

Querida Fátima 12:00

1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00

Mouse 3:00

5:00

8:00

Bunker 7:00

Musk 1:00

Burgundy 3:15

Bitter Christmas 4:00

9:00

The Disciple 8:00

RAFAEL 3 The Story of Documentary Film: 2000s-2010s 11:00

6:00 7:00

SUN DAY O C TOBER 11

Misty Green 7:00

The Only Living Pickpocket in NY 6:00

Miss Representation: Rise Up 8:30

10:00

Shorts: If Music Could Talk 2:15

Rose 5:00

LARK

BAMPFA

OAC

12:00

Street Smart 3:00

Bedford Park 6:00

Shorts: Let's Go Crazy 8:00

12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00

SEQUOIA 1 A Talent for Murder 12:00

8:00 9:00 10:00

252

La Bola Negra 1:00

Wicker 5:00

6:00 The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd 7:00

RAFAEL 1 The Dreamed Adventure 11:15

Ink 3:00

5:00 7:00

SEQUOIA 2

Threeasfour: Full Circle 3:30

Secret Screening 7:00

RAFAEL 2

2:00 3:00

Iron Boy 12:00

Shorts: College Animation Showcase 1 2:30

Fatherland 5:00

LARK

The Story of Documentary Film: 2010s-2020s 11:00

Where the Silence is Heard 11:00

In Waves 3:00

This Bright Light 2:00

5:00

When a Witness Recants 3:30

6:00

Crocodile 9:00

We Are All Strangers 7:30

Shorts: All the Young Punks 11:00

Boss Cat 2:00

Shorts: College Animation Showcase #2 1:30

RAFAEL 2

RAFAEL 3 Iron Boy 11:00

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 1:00

Shorts Award Program 12:30

The Debut 5:00

OAC

Conversation with Kane Parsons

12:00

Conversation with David Thomson & AO Scott

1:00

Sunday October 11 is Family Day at MVFF – join us for movies and more, for families of all kinds and kids of all ages at Sequoia Cinema and the Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley. Mix and match, pick and choose –you won’t want to miss this amazing assemblage of films and fun! 11am–12:30pm (SEQ 2): ALL THE YOUNG PUNKS 11:15–12:45pm (SEQ 1): SPLISH SPLASH FOREVER! 1:30pm–3pm (SEQ 2): COLLEGE ANIMATION SHOWCASE 2 2pm–3:30pm (SEQ 1): BOSS CAT NOON–4pm (OAC): Family Day Marketplace (free admission!)

On Behalf of My Son 7:00

OAC

Bunker 11:30

All American Girls 3:00

A Girl Unknown 3:00

Closure 6:30

The Dreamed Adventure 6:30

The Debut 5:00

10:00

Animation is Film 11:00

Sad Girlz 1:00

BAMPFA

9:00

FAMILY F IL M DAY BAMPFA

LARK

Shorts: Remote Control 1:30

8:00

Elephants in the Fog 7:00

The Unrooted Bloom 4:45

Rose 7:30

Splish Splash Forever 11:15

RAFAEL 1

7:00

Minotaur 3:30

Tangles 6:00

SEQUOIA 2

4:00

Everybody Digs Bill Evens 9:15

RAFAEL 3

SEQUOIA 1

1:00

Tender Loving Care 12:00

S AT UR DAY O C TOBER 10 11:00am

11:00am

For more fun, head to the Outdoor Art Club for family-friendly entertainment, activities, refreshments and a chance to meet the filmmakers!

FAMILY FILMS

MVFF Family Films are for kids and folks of all ages who enjoy a great story and often a good laugh. Our selection this year has something for everyone! FAMILY FILM DAY TITLES - SUNDAY OCT. 11 BOSS CAT COLLEGE ANIMATION SHOWCASE 2 SHORTS: ALL THE YOUNG PUNKS SPLISH SPLASH FOREVER! FAMILY FRIENDLY FILMS AROUND THE FESTIVAL BRAVE CAT HOLD ONTO ME IRON BOY

Family Films Sponsored by

Family Films

253

! V I VA E L CINE !

M A IN S L AT E

For 14 years, ¡Viva el Cine! has spotlighted films from Latin America and Spain, alongside Latinx voices from the United States. This year’s selection explores memory, family, and the ways the past continues to shape the present, bringing together intimate stories and distinctive voices from Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, and the US. Together, they offer a vibrant portrait of contemporary cinema that crosses cultures, generations, and borders.

The heart of the Festival, Main Slate celebrates the extraordinary breadth of contemporary cinema with a handpicked selection of the year's most compelling American and international feature films.

New Directors shines a spotlight on the next generation of cinematic voices, showcasing bold and distinctive first and second features from emerging American and international filmmakers.

RE TROSPECTIVES

Retrospectives celebrate landmark films and visionary filmmakers through a carefully curated selection of timeless classics, anniversary screenings, and beautifully restored masterpieces.

DOCUME N TA R IE S

Our Documentary section presents an extraordinary selection of timely, thoughtprovoking, and deeply human stories from American and international filmmakers.

A NIM AT ION

This new section brings together animated films from around the world that explore bold stories, complex ideas, and striking visual worlds.

S HOR T F IL M S

Our Short Films programs bring together an exceptional collection of fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental works, capturing the limitless possibilities of short-form filmmaking.

Sponsored by

DANIEL KENYON AND MICHELLE MARCHETTA KENYON

BITTER CHRISTMAS

C A F IL M E DUC AT ION

CAFILM Education has offered free education programs to Bay Area schools for more than 30 years, welcoming thousands of students to participate in the Festival each year by viewing new films and meeting filmmakers from around the world. We continue this tradition with two free programs available exclusively to K-12 schools in the Bay Area and across the country.

T I CMKVEFTF S I GT AT 4 9 + ENDA UV CA I O NI O N

S CHOOL S CR E E NING S

A selection of narrative features, documentaries, and shorts programs is carefully curated from the general Festival program and offered for free to all participating schools as weekday matinees in the theater and throughout the Festival online. Screenings are followed by Q&As with filmmakers and subject experts, and supplemented by free curriculum resources including filmanalysis toolkits, lesson plans, and discussion guides to help teachers incorporate the films into their class curriculum.

F IL MM A K E R S GO T O S CHOOL

For those schools and students unable to travel to the theater, we offer an additional interactive experience through our Filmmakers Go to School program. Throughout the Festival (and often beyond), CAFILM Education staff brings filmmaker guests into the community to meet with students in their classrooms and school auditoriums, or at nearby venues, for in-depth discussions about the art and craft of filmmaking. For more information about CAFILM Education programs or how to get your school involved, visit cafilmedu.org.

MVFF49 Education Support provided by Nancy P. and Richard K. Robbins Family Foundation Fenwick Foundation | Baker Family Foundation Marin Charitable | Destino Fund | Letty Ledbetter

Photo: Tommy Lau

S P E CI A L S UP P OR T

P R O

E B

S U E C I A

F O U N D A T I O N

T I CEKVEETNST + PNAARVT IN G EAT ION RS

BEST DAY BREWING

GOOD EARTH NATURAL FOODS

MOLLIE STONE'S

THE BURREN HOUSE

ILLUMINATE EVENTS

OLLIE'S PIZZA TRUCK

CLUBHOUSE CARAVAN

HOUSE OF BAGELS

THE POET & THE BENCH

COPPERFIELDS

JAM BARS

ROYAL GROUND COFFEE

LAOS KITCHEN

ST HILDIE'S SPIKED SELTZER

LOS MOLES

SOUVLA

MAKE IT HOME

TRADER JOE'S

MARIN EVENT LIGHTING

WEST END NURSERY

MARIN KOMBUCHA

WHOLE FOODS

CORPORATE MEDIA SYSTEMS COSTCO CRACKERJACK DJS DJ JOHN ROK PREMIER 6 EVENTS EAST BROTHER BEER FRATM PIZZERIA GATHERED BY DEE CATERING

MILL VALLEY REFUSE SERVICE

E X E CU T I V E

T I C K EMTVSF F+ 4 N AT I O N 9A SV T AI G FF

MARK FISHKIN Executive Director + Founder

PETER MATHENY-SHUSTER Projectionist

OP E R AT ION S

SEAN BREVIK Projectionist

JULIET POKORNY GM Operations MVFF

DANE CALLIHAN Deputy Director

STEVE YAMANE Projectionist

RINA NEIMAN Guest Services Manager

CLAIRE HOLL Executive Assistant to Mark Fishkin

P R OGR A MMING

ABDIMALIK AHMED Guest Services Coordinator

ROSE KUO Artistic Director

AILEEN FOWLER Theater Operations Line Manager II

LIANA BENDER Chief Development Officer

JOÃO FEDERICI Senior Programmer

ALEXANDRA LAUBER Special Projects

BEAU BLANCHARD Associate Director of Institutional Giving

STERLING HEDGPETH Programmer • Retrospectives + Shorts

ALYSSA TINOCO Badge Coordinator

DE V E L OP ME N T

MAUREEN GALLIANI Major Donor Stewardship Manager CHRISTINE FUJIKI Development Operations and Communications Manager DERRICK DOVER Development Membership Manager CHRISTINE HARVEY Development Database Associate CASSIE CONKLIN Donor Support Associate RYAN GEE Development Associate

F IN A N C E

CARMEN CROCKETT Finance Manager

S MI T H R A FA E L F IL M C E N T E R + S E Q UOI A CINE M A DAN ZASTROW General Manager NORMAN MELLO IT Manager

MICHELLE SVENSON Programmer • Documentaries LANDON ZAKHEIM Programmer IVONNE COTORRUELO Programmer TOMRIS LAFFLY Programmer DIANA SÁNCHEZ MACIEL Programmer • Documentary Shorts KAREN DAVIS Emeritus Senior Programmer • Family Films ZOË ELTON Mind the Gap Founder | Curator at Large

C A F IL M E DUC AT ION ANGELA COLABELLA Director of Education

FRANCISCO ASHWANDEN Projectionist

DIANA SÁNCHEZ MACIEL Education Program Manager

GRIFFIN COULLARD Projectionist

JOHNNY ALVAREZ Education Coordinator MVFF49

AMY CURRUL Theater Operations House Manager ANGELA OSTARELLO Box Office Representative ANIE DEE Box Office Customer Support BRITTNY ECKERT Box Office Customer Support CASEY HERMANN Line Manager CHRISTINA FAHEY Box Office Representative COLA ENGEL Theater Operations House Manager CRAIG WALTON Production Team CURTIS DUNN Box Office Manager DAN ZASTROW Technical Director DARWIN SAQUILAYAN Line Manager DAVID DUNHAM Box Office Representative

DEVON EDWARDS Assistant Theater Ops Manager

NATALIA DELGADO Theater Operations House Manager

BLAKE TUCKER Events Associate

GEOFF ALLEN Assistant Manager Festival Operations

NATALIA MARIA GUECHEVA Theater Operations House Manager

BLAIR HUNT Event Assistant

HEATHER WILSON Box Office Representative

NATHALIE CUPEN Theater Operations House Manager

JILLIAN HOLSTAD Volunteer Manager

NORA LIGOTTI Theater Operations House Manager

JOHANNA WONG Assistant Box Office Manager

NORMAN MELLO IT Manager

JOSIE STRICK Theater Operations House Manager

PATRICK DUCEY Box Office Representative

SHAYNA YASUHARA Marketing & Audience Engagement Manager

KARYN BARNETT Theater Operations Manager

PAUL HEGARTY Production Manager

COURTNEY BUFFINGTON Design + Brand Manager

KELLAND LI Box Office Representative

PAUL KELLOGG Production Team

KATIE WOODRUFF Community Outreach, Promotions & Publicity Assistant

KIM MORAN Box Office Customer Support

SAGE BANDICOOT Box Office Representative

KRISTIN BAKER Line Manager

SONIA TORRES Box Office Representative

LAUREN DATHE Theater Operations Line Manager

TIFFANY COLLINS Box Office Representative

MACKENZIE WARDLOW Guest Services Coordinator

TOLO BICKFORD Line Manager

MELISSA DUCKLESS Production Team

EVENTS

MICHAEL KIRBY Theater Operations House Manager MIRANDA TALUSIK Theater Operations Production Assistant MITCH VAUGHN Box Office MONICA YAP Box Office Representative NATALIA BENESZ Line Manager

YVONNE FOX Senior Event Producer MIMI CUNNINGHAM The Party Queen - Opening and Closing Nights DAMIAN BURFORD Hub Manager J ENNIFER CERIO MFR Lounge Coordinator DANTE HAY Mill Valley Filmmaker Lounge Associate ROMY DALMACIO Mill Valley Festival Hub/Filmmaker Lounge Associate

RACHEL GOLD Events Assistant MARIELL RAHMANI Event Contractor

M A R K E T IN G + P UBL ICI T Y SHELLEY SPICER Director of Publicity & Marketing

KATE BOVE Publicity & Media Relations Asssociate PAM GRADY Managing Editor

WRITERS

ROD ARMSTRONG KATE BOVE IVONNE COTORRUELO K.D. DAVIS ZOË ELTON JOÃO FEDERICI PAM GRADY TIM GRIERSON LARRY GROSS DENNIS HARVEY CLAIRE HOLL ZAKI HASAN STERLING HEDGPETH OSINACHE IBI TOMRIS LAFFLY RANDY MYERS BRENDAN PETERSON D. QUINONES DIANA SÁNCHEZ MACIEL

E X E CU T I V E DIR E C T OR

F OUNDING BO A R D

MARK FISHKIN

RITA CAHILL MARK FISHKIN LOIS KOHL SHORE

AFV DI GI RAT C ATFI ICL K M EBTOSA R+ DN O E CI O T ONR S

2 0 2 6 BO A R D WELLINGTON BOWLER CHRISTINA COOK (TREASURER) BLAIRE DORER RICHARD J. IDELL (SECRETARY) DANIEL KENYON AMY KEROES JACQUI LOPEZ JENNIFER COSLETT MACCREADY (CHAIR) KURT MOBLEY CATHY NOURAFSHAN MAGGIE O’DONNELL (PRESIDENT) JONATHAN PARKER (CO-VICE PRESIDENT) CHRISTINE A. SCHANTZ SUSAN SCHWARTZ DR. JOEL SKLAR (CO-VICE PRESIDENT)

E ME R I T U S BO A R D ANN BREBNER (1923–2017) RITA CAHILL SID GANIS BRUCE KATZ (1947–2022) GARY MEYER GORDON RADLEY CHRISTOPHER B. SMITH HENRY TIMNICK

HONOR A R Y A DV I S OR Y BO A R D HONORABLE BARBARA BOXER STEWART BOXER DRUSIE DAVIS JEFF FISHER PETER FLAXMAN ROBERT GREBER LINDA GRUBER PEGGY HAAS MICHAEL KLEIN ROXANNE KLEIN KC LAUCK ANDREW MCGUIRE MARY POLAND ERIC SCHWARTZ MICHAEL SCHWARTZ SKIP WHITNEY (1952-2026)