This year’s Virginia Film Festival will feature some very big names – directors and actors coming to Charlottesville to talk about their work.
Frank Langella is one of this year’s headliners – coming to the festival to discuss his new film, Five to Seven, and an old favorite -- Frost-Nixon. Katie Couric will be on hand to talk about her documentary about America’s food industry. It’s called Fed Up, and director Barry Levinson will stick around after his new film, The Humbling, to talk with fans about that work and many more.
“Everything from Diner to Avalon to Rainman to Good Morning Vietnam, and then we thought it would be great to screen one of the best sports films of all time, celebrating its 25th anniversary, The Natural," says Jody Kielbasa, Vice Provost for the Arts at UVA and Director of the Virginia Film Festival. He’s also excited to announce that Hal Holbrook will appear.
There’s a new documentary out on Mr. Holbrook entitled Holbrook-Twain: An American Odyssey, directed by Scott Teams, and it’s all about the 60 years that Hal Holbrook has played, portraying the one-man show Mark Twain Tonight!
He’ll do his live show on Friday night and stick around for a Saturday screening and discussion of the documentary.
Opening night will feature two films – Big Stone Gap, which tells the story of a coal-mining town in the Blue Ridge and the 70s classic Shaft, timed to coincide with a show of photographs by Gordon Parks at the university’s art museum.
“We thought it would be really fun to screen Shaft that Gordon Parks directed, that iconic 70s film, and this is the 70s film, not the more recent venture with Samuel L. Jackson, and we’re having the original shaft, Richard Roundtree in.”
There will also be a variety of family activities on Saturday, including a free showing of the Wizard of Oz in this, it’s 75th year.
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