We’ll put just about anyone in The HotSeat—visiting performers, interesting professionals, local tastemakers—as long as they don’t mind answering a few of our hard-hitting questions (asking about a go-to Bodo’s order is the height of journalism, folks). Here are a few of our favorite answers from 2024. Grad student/lecturer Chandler Jennings Most embarrassing moment: A […]
We’ll put just about anyone in The HotSeat—visiting performers, interesting professionals, local tastemakers—as long as they don’t mind answering a few of our hard-hitting questions (asking about a go-to Bodo’s order is the height of journalism, folks). Here are a few of our favorite answers from 2024. Grad student/lecturer Chandler Jennings Most embarrassing moment: A […]
By Lisa Provence, Kristie Smeltzer, and CM Turner Images courtesy VFF Mapping the movement Georgia O’Keeffe: the Brightness of Light November 3 | Culbreth TheatreWith discussion Academy and Emmy Award-winning independent filmmaker Paul Wagner has directed many amazing documentaries that shed light on subjects in American culture. His new film, Georgia O’Keeffe: the Brightness of […]
Birdy, November 1, The Paramount Theater I Hope This Helps!, November 2, Violet Crown 3 From his first film, Baby It’s You, directed by John Sayles, to his recent role as Dr. Martin “Papa” Brenner in Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and a star turn in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Matthew Modine’s accomplishments in film, television, and on stage define the range […]
By Justin Humphreys and Tami Keaveny Images courtesy VFF This year the Virginia Film Festival coincides with Halloween, and along with some great horror movies, the five-day program offers the escape of comedy, journeys to the unknown, classic stories retold,cautionary technology tales, and documented accounts of war, redemption, and environmental peril, plus invaluable on-stage discussions. […]
Overseeing the programming of more than 120 films and nearly 100 guests as artistic director of the Virginia Film Festival, Ilya Tovbis knows how to curate a celebration of cinema. He’s worked with the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, and the Mill Valley Film Festival (organized by the California […]
Stories of survival, the trials and triumphs of friends and families, animated offerings, and films from around the world. The 37th Virginia Film Festival brings together an incredibly diverse program of features, shorts, and documentaries for your consideration. The festival takes place from October 30–November 3 at various theaters throughout Charlottesville, opening with Sean Baker’s […]
The A24 film Sing Sing by Greg Kwedar tells the story of Divine G (Colman Domingo), a Black man who was held at NYPD’s Sing Sing maximum security prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Part of the 2024 Virginia Film Festival at Violet Crown series, the film features a cast of formerly incarcerated actors […]
And just like that, the Virginia Film Festival is a wrap. The five-day fest was full of memorable on- and off-screen moments, from Jon Batiste’s piano serenade, to the U.S. premiere of award-winning filmmaker Ava Duvernay’s Origin. A biographical drama inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s nonfiction book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, the film follows […]
Things have changed a lot since Ricardo Preve arrived at the bus station in Charlottesville in 1977 without money or a passport. There weren’t many Latinos in town then, and he found the locals welcoming, if ignorant about Latin America. “It was so easy to become a citizen in the ’80s,” recalls Preve. When he […]
The Holdovers Director Alexander Payne is a devoted cinephile who loves the style of intimate, wryly funny, character-driven films that were plentiful 50 years ago but are now nearly extinct. Payne’s films honor this bygone era of storytelling in welcome ways, including his newest work, The Holdovers. Set in 1970, the reliable Paul Giamatti stars […]