Noah Bambach’s “Jay Kelly” is set to hold the Middleburg Film Festival. Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” serves as a festival centerpiece film. The Middleburg Film Festival is currently in its 13th year and will be held from October 16th to 19th.
Following the screening of “Jay Kelly,” the festival will present its first ensemble and casting awards to cast members Douglas Ibel and Nina Gold. Zhao attending will receive the Visionary Director Award. Based on the book by Maggie O’Farrell, “Hamnett” stars Jesse Buckley and Paul Mezcal. The film won the Tiff’s People’s Choice Award.
Colin Farrell will win the Spotlight Actor Best Actor following the screening of Edward Berger’s thriller, Ballad of a Small Player. Rose Byrne will win Agnaise Varda’s Pioneering Film Artist Award for Mary Bronstein’s A24 release, “If I Have a Foot, I Kick You.” In the film, Byrne plays the mother the world unleashes as she fights with an increasingly hostile relationship with a child’s mystical illness, an absent husband, a missing person, and a therapist. The Agnès Varda Awards come with grants to mentor aspiring film artists.
Jafar Panaghi will be recognized at the Cannes Palme de Ort recipient’s Impact Awards for “It Was Just an Accident.” His new film follows a man whose life is unleashed after a seemingly minor traffic incident escalates into a quest for guilt, justice and destiny. He is one of four filmmakers who won the highest awards at film festivals in Cannes, Berlin and Venice. The film is also France’s official entry to the 2026 Academy Awards.
As previously announced, editor Myron Caltein and film director Alice Brooks will win the Variety Creative Collaborator Award for their upcoming film Wicked: For Good.
Coca-Cola Company has returned as a presentation sponsor for the festival, and the Washington Post is a founding media sponsor.
