Returning for its 37th year in Charlottesville, the Virginia Film Festival is set to have quite the exciting lineup of films. Beginning Oct. 30 and ending Nov. 3, the films on display at this year’s festival span a myriad of themes and genres, from crime-driven musicals to gripping family dramas. In its diverse range of genres and forms, the festival aims to create an inclusive viewing experience that will highlight various perspectives and engender engaging conversations.
The Virginia Film Festival is a staple event put on by the University and has been bringing impressive media to Charlottesville for decades. Beginning with “Anora” and ending with “The Last Showgirl,” the list includes 80 films in genres ranging from horror to crime to LGBTQ+ films. Keep reading for a glimpse into this year’s electrifying program.
“Anora” — A new interpretation of an old genre
VAFF is set to open on a high note at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Paramount with “Anora.” The film is the first of the festival’s Gala showings, a designation given to highly celebrated films. The comedic film tells the tale of a sex worker from Brooklyn who marries into a rich Russian family. However, her joy is threatened when her new husband’s buttoned-up family catches wind of their marriage and plans to put an end to it.
Ilya Tovbis, the artistic director for the Virginia Film Festival, described the film as a modern twist on a classic trope.
“It's essentially a completely modernized and very fresh look at a screwball romantic comedy that gives great agency and liberty to essential characters,” Tovbis said.
As the winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival — the first American-made film to win the award in over 20 years — the film has generated a great deal of excitement. This critical acclaim, coupled with a fast-paced plot that puts a twist on a classic trope, makes “Anora” a perfect start to a festival that will appeal to a young audience.
Star-studded features
In several films featured at this year's festival, audiences will recognize some familiar faces of well-known stars. “Emilia Pérez” — a Spanish-language, genre-bending, comedy-crime-musical directed by Jacques Audiard — features standout performances from Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez. In the film, a notorious narcotics trafficker named Emilia, played by Gascón, longs to quietly escape her life to leave the country and receive gender-affirming surgery. Gascón made history with this film as the first openly transgender actor to win the best actress award at Cannes.
The spotlighting of the film at the festival marks a shift towards a more inclusive film community and, by proxy, a more inclusive Virginia Film Festival.
Another highlighted film in the program that is certain to draw in students is Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” a long-awaited, star-studded film that tells the tale of making the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live. Additionally, one of its stars — actor Lamorne Morris — will also be presented with the VAFF Virtuoso Award, an honor recognizing an exceptional acting performance during the season.
Morris, known for other roles like Winston Bishop in the TV show “New Girl” and Kevin Sterling in the movie “Game Night,” will be in attendance to accept his award and will be participating in a question and answer session after the screening of the film.
Caroline Aldridge, a Virginia Film Festival programming intern and fourth-year College student, said that guests such as Morris who are popular among students have the ability to generate high levels of student interest in the festival.
“I think that he’s someone that our generation knows really well from ‘New Girl’,” Aldridge said, “so that’s always exciting when you have someone like that, that can bring in that student excitement as well.”
Exciting film series, both new and old
While some films like “Anora” and “Saturday Night” will be featured with Gala Screenings,” VAFF also curates various film series each year that specifically highlight certain genres or uplift the voices of underrepresented groups. This year, many of the festival’s recurring series will make a return — the “Black Excellence” category will feature films such as “The Black Sea” and “The Piano Lesson.” Another series, entitled “Virginia Filmmaking,” looks to publicize works made by local artists and will include films like “Catch a Killer” and “The Bitter Pill”.
The new series are not limited to genres, though. Another addition to this year’s program is “Voices of the Formerly Incarcerated,” which is a lineup focusing on uplifting the voices of previously incarcerated people via the film medium. The series will feature three documentaries entitled “InThrive: Incarceration Survivors’ Voices,” “Juvenile: Five Stories” and “Unlikely Allies.”
Tovbis, Aldridge and other VAFF leaders are quite excited for these new series to increase student involvement in the festival. While the free tickets that students get through Arts Dollars are quite the incentive, VAFF staff like Aldridge hope that it is the festival’s expansive genres that encourage students to get more and more involved in the festival year after year.
Highlighting excellence in horror
This year, the festival falls on the week of Halloween — a fact which did not go unnoticed by its producers when the program was being curated. The festival is playing into this timing, which has led to the creation of one of the festival’s new film series titled “After Hours,” which has a focus on fantasy and horror films — genres that have not been highlighted outright by VAFF in recent years according to Tovbis.
One of the crown jewels of this new series is “Nightb—h,” a film starring Amy Adams that has generated a great deal of buzz in the media as of late. As Adams’s character struggles with the cresting emotions that arise as she leaves her career behind to become a stay-at-home mother, her life shifts in quite an odd way, as she believes that she is turning into a dog.
Tovbis said that this addition of a horror and fantasy series is a change for the festival that will continue in future years. He said he hopes that the festival continues to highlight novel genres in order to bring new voices to the screen and new viewers to the audience.
“I think something that we’re trying to be very cognizant of as we curate the festival as we intend to keep it relevant in years to come is being increasingly inclusive, increasingly encompassing of different forms of filmmaking, of storytelling, and — by extension — also hopefully bringing in a broader selection of audiences that might have differing tastes.” Tovbis said.
“The Last Showgirl” — an emotional end to the festival
After a weekend of traditions and new inclusions, this year’s festival will close out with “The Last Showgirl.” Directed by Gia Coppola, this film tells the story of a performer whose life gets turned upside down when the show she has been in for the past 30 years closes. With an incredibly strong cast featuring the likes of Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista and many more, as well as an emotionally-driven plot, “The Last Showgirl” is an incredibly strong closure for the festival.
While the plethora of impactful films are usually a major draw for the festival, Aldridge said that the dialogues that they create are just as important. By diversifying the film offerings, Aldrige said these dialogues will hopefully become easier to facilitate.
“So much of the festival is just about having meaningful conversations across disciplines,” Aldridge said.
The Virginia Film Festival is taking major steps — both on- and off-screen — towards further inclusivity and increased involvement from the University and beyond. And with a revamped and quite remarkable program, people should certainly take advantage of having this wonderful festival in their backyard.
The full schedule for the Virginia Film Festival is available on their website. Tickets go on sale on Friday, October 11 at noon.
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