BLUE CAFTAN (France/Morocco/Belgium/Denmark, narrative feature, dir. Maryam Touzani) Set at a bespoke dress shop in Morocco, this unusual love-triangle tale avoids heated melodrama, instead exploring the lives of its three main characters with intimacy and great tenderness. Expert performances and a stirring resolution reveal the complexities and profundities of enduring love. In Arabic with English subtitles – California Premiere

BODY PARTS (US, documentary feature, dir. Kristy Guevara-Flanagan) Hollywood stars and relative unknowns alike share their experiences shooting sex scenes for TV and movies in this wide-ranging primer on the perils of being female in Hollywood. Deftly intercut among the interviews, including with Alexandra Billings, are copious movie clips illustrating how women’s bodies have been used throughout movie history. – California Premiere
Expected in person: director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Producer Helen Scheer, Intimacy Coordinator Sarah Scott

CHARCOAL (Argentina/Brazil, narrative feature, dir. Carolina Markowicz) Writer-director Carolina Markowicz’s satire centers on an upheaval in the quiet life of a rural Brazilian family as they accept an ominous proposal. With utterly fearless performances, this drily funny, evocative debut confirms Markowicz as a talent to watch. In Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish with English subtitles – US Premiere
Expected in person: director Carolina Markowic, actor Maeve Jinkings

CLOSE (Belgium/Netherlands/France, narrative feature, dir. Lukas Dhont) This assured character drama and queer coming-of-age film, the Grand Prix winner at Cannes, examines the bond between two 13-year-olds (Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele) who seem inseparable—until tragedy strikes. Belgian director Lukas Dhont (Girl) collaborates with his sensitive young actors to create a snapshot of boyhood so intimate and entrancing that it resembles a dream. In Dutch, Flemish, and French with English subtitles – Bay Area Premiere
Expected in person: director Lukas Dhont

ERIN’S GUIDE TO KISSING GIRLS (Canada, narrative feature, dir. Julianna Notten) Following the trials and tribulations of gay middle-schooler Erin (Elliot Stocking) on a quest to experience her first kiss, this tender and witty ode to today’s youth advocates for being your authentic self, while highlighting the messiness inherent in growing up. Ages 11+ – West Coast Premiere    
Expected in Person: director Julianna Notten, actor Elliot Stocking

• Screener available 

MY POLICEMAN (UK/US, narrative feature dir. Michael Grandage) A story of forbidden love and changing social conventions, My Policeman follows three young people – policeman Tom (Harry Styles), teacher Marion (Emma Corrin), and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson)– as they embark on an emotional journey in 1950s Britain. Flashing forward to the 1990s, Tom (Linus Roache), Marion (Gina McKee), and Patrick (Rupert Everett) are still reeling with longing and regret, but now they have one last chance to repair the damage of the past. Based on the book by Bethan Roberts, director Michael Grandage carves a visually transporting, heart-stopping portrait of three people caught up in the shifting tides of history, liberty, and forgiveness.

TAR (US, narrative feature, dir. Todd Field) A transcendent Cate Blanchett brilliantly portrays Lydia Tár, one of the greatest composer-conductors who never lived: a genius, an EGOT, and the first ever female chief conductor of a major German orchestra. Todd Field’s inventive and fascinating character study explores the dynamics of international classical music with a wily sensibility. – West Coast Premiere

THE WHALE (US, narrative feature, dir. Darren Aronofsky) From Darren Aronofsky (Variety Contenders, MVFF37) comes The Whale, the story of a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption. Starring Brendan Fraser and based on the acclaimed play by Samuel D. Hunter. – West Coast Premiere
Expected in person: actor Brendan Fraser will accept the MVFF Award for Acting

SHORTS

CARDIFF (Carlos Ormeño Palm, UK 2022, 25 min) Hailing from one of the most vibrant LGBTQ communities in the UK, this joyously campy tale tells of a single gay man who falls in love with his married friend’s lover. – World Premiere 

• Screener available

JUST JOHNNY (Terry Loane, Ireland 2021, 19 min) Maria, Dermot, and their son Johnny live in West Belfast. Their conventional, straightforward family life is jolted when Johnny tells his Mum that he wants to wear a dress for his upcoming First Holy Communion. – California Premiere

• Screener available

LAST CALL (Drew de Pinto, US 2021, 4 min) Under looming threat of closure, and with phantoms of the past and future bleeding into the present, the caretakers of San Francisco’s historic queer bars carry on among phantoms of the past and future. –  World Premiere

• Screener available

MAMA HAS A MUSTACHE (Sally Rubin, US 2021, 10 min) Based on interviews of elementary school-aged children, the film uses sound clips from the kid and animation to explore how children are able to experience a world outside of the traditional gender binary.

• Screener available

MERRY GO ROUND (Ella Fields, US 2022, 14 min) With the knowledge that the clock is ticking away, Pepper and June explore how love can exist within distance, memory, and a non-linear perception of time. 

ONE LIKE HIM (Caitlin McLeod, Jordan/UK 2022, 16 min) A man seeks to confront a childhood friend,who was his first love, while being forced to relive painful memories of his past. 

• Screener available

THE QUEEN’S CLOSET (Cameron Grace Ford, Ava Wolf & Joe Tourk, US 2021, 8 min) A non-fiction look at three drag icons in San Francisco. Uti, the owner and founder of the Piedmont Boutique for 50+ years, Andy who just arrived from Jackson Hole Wyoming and Miss Mary Lou Pearl, a queen using drag to raise money for AIDS research. 

• Screener available

RIP TIDE (Luisa Dantas, US 2022, 13 min) A trip to the beach carries some emotional weight for a queer couple.

• Screener available

SMALL GAY TRAGEDY #1 (Rose Schlossberg, US 2022, 4 min) When Rose finds new queers in her small town, she can’t believe her eyes.

• Screener available

Complete press materials available here: MVFF45 Press Kit

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About Mill Valley Film Festival
Presented by the California Film Institute, the 45th Mill Valley Film Festival runs October 6-16, 2022. MVFF is an acclaimed eleven-day cinema event celebrating the best in American independent and world cinema. Located just north of San Francisco, the Festival is known as a filmmakers’ festival and the West Coast launch pad for many Academy Award®-winning films. MVFF has earned a reputation for launching new films and creating awards season buzz. The festival welcomes more than 200 filmmakers representing more than 50 countries annually. 

About California Film Institute 
The California Film Institute (CAFILM) is a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating and promoting film and media arts through the presentation of the internationally acclaimed Mill Valley Film Festival, now in its 45th year, DocLands Documentary Film Festival, and the ongoing cultivation of the next generation of filmmakers and film lovers through CAFILM Education. CAFILM Education features a broad range of activities, including screenings, Q&A sessions, seminars with top international & local filmmakers and industry professionals, and a rich program of classes and hands-on workshops. Additionally, CAFILM acts as a year-round film-centric town hall with a diverse calendar of programming at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, one of the leading non-profit independent theatres in the country. The art of storytelling through film enables CAFILM to touch 275,000 guests throughout the year with films and events that entertain and address a breadth of social, environmental, and cultural issues. CAFILM is also the majority owner of the Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley, California. CAFILM relies on the generosity of its community to sustain these core programs; the invaluable support of our sponsors, foundations, individual donors, and members ensures our continued success. For more information, visit cafilm.org. 

The California Film Institute and the Mill Valley Film Festival are located in Marin County, California, on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary homelands of the Coast Miwok, Pomo, and Wappo peoples. This includes the Southern Pomo and Graton Rancheria Tribes. These tribes were removed or displaced from their lands. We recognize this history and the harm to present-day Coast Miwok, Pomo, and Wappo peoples and to their ancestors. The California Film Institute commits to moving forward from a place of authenticity and working with present-day tribes to elevate their stories, history, and present-day legacy through film.  

Supporters 
CAFILM is once again proud to acknowledge the leadership support of Christopher B. and Jeannie Meg Smith, Project No. 9, Jennifer Coslett MacCready, Nancy P. and Richard K. Robbins Family Foundation, and Vickie Soulier, and the continued major support of Marin Community Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Gruber Family Foundation, and Resonance Philanthropies. We are also fortunate to have the contributions of the following Signature and Major Sponsors of the Mill Valley Film Festival: Jackson Square Partners, Lucasfilm, Ltd., Wareham Development, and Bellam Self Storage and Boxes. 

FOR CALENDAR EDITORS
45th Mill Valley Film Festival 
Celebrating the best of independent and world cinema alongside high-profile and prestigious award contenders. 
Thursday, October 6 to Sunday, October 16, 2022 

Ticket On-Sale Dates 
Advance Ticket Packages and Passes on sale August 1, 2022 
General Public Single Tickets on sale Monday, September 13, 2022 
CFI members can purchase single tickets in advance of the public beginning Friday, September 9, 2022 

MVFF45 Bay Area Screening Venues: 
San Rafael: Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center – October 6 – 16, 2022 
Mill Valley: CinéArts Sequoia – October 6 – 16, 2022 
Larkspur: Lark Theater – October 8 & 9 + October 15 & 16, 2022 
Berkeley: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive – October 8 – 16, 2022
San Francisco: The Roxie Theater – October 15 & 16, 2022 

Social Media
#MVFF45, #MVFF
Twitter: @MVFilmFest
Instagram: @millvalleyfilmfest
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MillValleyFilmFestival