2024 Middleburg Film Festival: Additional selections include ‘Nickel Boys,’ ‘Nightbitch’ and honors for Ross, Deadwyler, Danna and more
Another batch of films and honorees has been announced for the Middleburg Film Festival. The festival takes place October 17-20 in the small Virginia town located an hour outside Washington, D.C.
The Closing Film will be the Orion/Amazon MGM title, “Nickel Boys,” which chronicles the friendship between two Black teenagers in a young person’s reformatory in Florida during the Jim Crow era. The movie’s Oscar-nominated director and co-writer RaMell Ross (2018 Documentary Feature, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening”) will attend to receive the Special Achievement in Filmmaking Award. Ross also happens to be a native of neighboring Fairfax County, Virginia.
The Saturday Spotlight film has been announced as Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch” from Searchlight. The film stars Amy Adams as a woman who halts her career to be a stay-at-home mother but soon finds her life taking a surreal turn. Heller will be at the festival to conduct a Q&A following the screening.
Other honorees that have been revealed include actress Danielle Deadwyler (“The Piano Lesson”) with the Breakthrough Actor Award, Ed Lachman (“Maria”) with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Cinematography, Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin receiving the Impact Award for their work on “Sing Sing,” Emmy winner Jharrel Jerome (“Unstoppable”) getting the Rising Star Award, “Emilia Pérez” songwriters Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol with the Special Achievement in Music Award, and Oscar winner Mychael Danna taking this year’s Distinguished Composer Award. Danna’s honor will be accompanied by a concert featuring selections from his career performed by a 60-piece orchestra and choir.
These selections join previously announced films that include “Blitz,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Conclave” and “Saturday Night.” Also previously announced as honorees were “Blitz” director Sir Steve McQueen will receive the Visionary Director Award, British Ambassador to the United States Dame Karen Pierce will get the inaugural Film Diplomacy Award, “Emilia Pérez” actress Zoe Saldaña taking the Spotlight Actor Award, “Conclave” actress Isabella Rossellini picking up the Agnès Varda Trailblazing Film Artist Award and “Saturday Night” director/cinematographer team Jason Reitman and Eric Steelberg collecting the Creative Collaborators Award. The rest of this year’s selected films will be announced early next month.
Since it launched in 2013, the Middleburg Film Festival has become one of the biggest stops during the festival season. 104 films that have screened at the festival have gone on to amass a whopping 346 Oscar nominations (including 38 for Best Picture) and have won a total of 61 trophies. The festival was first started by Sheila Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, and filmmaker Susan Koch.