More people attended the Mill Valley Film Festival this month than ever before. Total attendance for the 11 days of films, celebrity tributes and events climbed to 61,000, eclipsing last year’s record of 60,000, festival organizers announced Tuesday.
The 37th iteration of the festival closed Sunday night with a screening of “Wild,” Jean-Marc Valle?’s adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling memoir starring Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, who was presented a lifetime achievement award by Pixar’s Andrew Stanton.
“Although it is impossible to be all things to all people, I think the 37th Mill Valley Film Festival came as close to achieving that goal as I could ever hope to achieve,” Mark Fishkin, festival founder and director, said in a statement.
The festival kicked of with a pair of films: the “The Homesman,” starring Hilary Swank, who attended the opening night screening, and “Men, Women & Children,” directed by Jason Reitman, who was also in Mill Valley for opening night festivities.
Actors Elle Fanning and Eddie Redmayne were presented festival awards for “spotlight presentations” of Fanning’s “Low Down” and “The Theory of Everything,” starring Redmayne as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. A festival award was also given to filmmaker Chuck Workman after a screening of his documentary, “Magician,” chronicling the life and career of Orson Welles.
Other highlights: Director Mike Binder took in the screening of his new movie, “Black and White,” the festival’s centerpiece presentation. Director Wayne Wang was here with chef Cecilia Chiang for a screening of his documentary about her, “Soul of a Banquet.” Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong was in the theater for a screening of writer-director Frank Whaley’s “Like Sunday, Like Rain.” Metallica’s Robert Trujillo premiered his new documentary, “Jaco,” about bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius. He also performed at a post-film concert at Sweetwater Music Hall.
“MVFF has become a festival that filmmakers around the world aspire to,” said Zoe Elton, director of programming. “Great connections get made here, Academy members make this their go-to festival for first-time screenings of important fall releases and newcomers get to hang out with seasoned vets.”
Here are the winners of the festival audience awards: “The Imitation Game,” the overall audience favorite; “The Theory of Everything,” “Marie’s Story,” “On the Way to School,” “The 100-Year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared,” “Whiplash,” “The Judge,” “Imperial Dreams,” “The Young Kieslowski,” “Capturing Grace,” “States of Grace,” “Free,” “Gardeners of Eden,” “Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants,” “The Boy and the World,” “Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed” and “The Tale of Princess Kaguya.”
