WASHINGTON — Just five years ago, historic Middleburg, Virginia, was known solely for its sprawling vineyards, beautiful horse country and fall foliage.
Now, it’s a hotbed for filmmakers with the fourth annual Middleburg Film Festival from Oct. 20-23.
This year’s headliner is the Oscar season’s most buzz-worthy Best Picture contender, the Hollywood musical “La La Land,” whose star Emma Stone and director Damien Chazelle will attend on Saturday.
“It is really one of the finest and most creative films that I have ever seen,” festival founder Sheila Johnson said. “The opening is going to knock your socks off. … Easily [a Best Picture contender]. It’s already won Toronto and the Venice Film Festival, and it’s definitely going up for an Academy Award.”
How did they get such a hot movie to come to Virginia two months before its release?
“They called us! They called us,” Johnson said proudly. “We have really acquired such a great reputation that we now have agents calling us. We have the movie studios calling us.”
Stay tuned for our chat with the “La La Land” creators next week and a full film review closer to its Dec. 16 wide release. In the meantime, head out to Middleburg for a chance at spotting Stone and Chazelle. The event is sold out, but there’s a chance you can still brush shoulders with the artists.
“We don’t do red carpets,” Executive Director Susan Koch told WTOP. “There is a second screening of ‘La La Land’ that’s sold out, but you can go for the rush line for that. We do our best to get as many in.”
Either way, there’s a very good chance you’ll see a celebrity strolling through the streets of town in between screenings. The first year brought Bruce Dern and Lee Daniels. The second year saw Meg Ryan. The third year brought Oscar-winning screenwriter Graham Moore (“The Imitation Game”). And last year brought The Washington Post’s Marty Baron, whose work inspired the film “Spotlight.”
“People are all around,” Koch said. “I remember the first year, people were so excited to see Bruce Dern walking down the street just talking to everybody.”
“Or, Meg Ryan down at the Gold Cup,” Johnson added. “She just wandered over there.”
Of course, the real stars of the weekend are the quality films themselves.
“We want our films to be very, very current,” Koch said. “None of the films that you’ll see at the Middleburg Film Festival will have been seen in theaters before. So we are scouting and getting those films up to the very last second, and I think people know by now that it’s worth the wait.”
The festival kicks off Thursday with the opening night film “Lion” (2016) with a premise similar to Brazil’s “Central Station.” The real subject of the film is coming, as well as an actress and producer.
“It’s the story of a 5-year-old boy named Saroo who lives in Calcutta with his mother and brothers — very, very poor,” Koch said. “He’s separated from his brother, ends up on a train and ends up 1,500 miles away and doesn’t even know the village he’s from. He’s adopted by a couple from Tasmania and for 25 years, he’s raised in Australia. Then he has this desire to find where he’s from.”
Friday brings the discussion “Women in Film: Changing the Numbers,” as well as a powerful film slate including “Manchester by the Sea,” The Edge of Seventeen” and Ewan McGregor’s directorial effort “American Pastoral.” The day culminates with Barry Jenkins’ acclaimed indie film “Moonlight.”
“I think it’s just an extraordinary, coming-of-age movie,” Johnson said. “It’s about a young man who is gay, and it’s his journey through life coming of age. It is a real heart-wrenching movie, the stages of his life and what he’s had to go through. I don’t want to give too much of it away … but it’s done so well.”
Things really kick into high gear on Saturday with the aforementioned centerpiece film “La La Land,” with Chazelle and Stone in attendance, as well as a rare early screening of “Jackie,” starring Academy Award winner Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) in a potential Oscar role as Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
“Middleburg is excited because Jackie spent a lot of time out here riding her horses,” Koch said. “She’s a hometown favorite. There is a rush line for ‘Jackie,’ but I don’t want anyone to be discouraged. If they’re sold out online, come to the theater. We do our best to get as many people in as possible.”
Saturday also brings a number of educational events, including “Politics, Presidents & The Movies” hosted by CNN’s David Gergen, “Wine and Conversation” hosted by Jeannine Oppewall and a keynote address by Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs to discuss diversity and other topics.
The night also brings Johnson’s favorite event: the annual tribute concert to highlight a film composer. This year, it’s composer Henry Jackman, featuring a 70-piece orchestra and a 32-member choir.
“We always like to honor a composer: the unsung hero of the movies,” Johnson said, pointing to past honorees Mark Isham and Carter Burwell. “Henry Jackman this year, who did the soundtrack for ‘Birth of a Nation,’ ‘Big Hero 6,’ ‘Wreck it Ralph,’ ‘Captain Phillips’ and ‘Captain America.’ … It’s gonna be quite a concert. He’s going to be interviewed for each movie and then it goes up on the screen.”
The festival wraps Sunday with an encore screening of “La La Land” as well as a chance to see Jeff Nichols’ powerful film “Loving,” starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga as 1950s Virginia couple Richard and Mildred Loving, who took interracial marriage to the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia.
“[Former Attorney General] Eric Holder is coming to talk about it,” Johnson said.
You’ll also be able to see “The Eagle Huntress” with a very special young guest and her interpreter.
“We have a 13-year-old girl from Mongolia, the first female to become an eagle huntress,” Johnson said. “I met her at the Telluride Film Festival with her parents. The cinematography is incredible, and it’s a captivating story and a very inspiring story about this girl power in a place you’d least expect it.”
Not only is there an awesome film lineup — it’s located in the perfect setting for a weekend getaway.
“It’s just unbelievable,” said Johnson, a Middleburg resident. “It’s the purest form of fall you can experience out there. The leaves are changing, you’re looking out onto the Shenandoah and Bull Road Mountains, you see horses all over the place. It’s just a relaxing and intoxicating atmosphere.”
A Chicago native, Johnson moved to D.C. in 1972 and Middleburg in 1996 so that her daughter could perform as a professional horseback show jumper. Festival founder is just the latest in many hats she’s worn over the years. In 1979, she co-founded Black Entertainment Television (BET). In 2005, she became co-owner of the Capitals, Wizards and Mystics. And in 2013, she both executive produced “The Butler” and opened the new Salamander Resort & Spa just outside of downtown Middleburg.
But it was as a board member for the Sundance Institute that she had an epiphany for Virginia.
“Robert Redford actually came to Middleburg to visit,” Johnson told WTOP during the festival’s first year in 2013. “He looked out over the town and said, ‘You should really put a film festival out here.’”
Thus, the Middleburg Film Festival was born, its logo featuring a horse galloping across frames of a film strip. The image recalls Eadweard Muybridge’s 1878 photographic experiment to see if all four hooves ever left the ground at the same time — a moment many credit with the birth of cinema itself.
Sometimes in life, you just have to take a leap, all hooves in the air at once, reins be damned.
“We always say our tagline is: four days of fantastic films in a stunning setting,” Koch said.
“They called us the film festival that kicked the ‘Cannes’ down the road,” Johnson joked.
Click here for more information. Click here for the full schedule. Listen to the full conversation below:
