This weekend marks the beginning of the 13th annual Montclair Film Festival. The event, which runs Friday, October 18 to Sunday, October 27, features a host of movies by both emerging and storied directors and actors, in categories that include features, documentaries, fiction and non-fiction shorts and foreign films. Many films feature Q&As with moviemakers, and there are several of the festival’s trademark conversations between Late Show host Stephen Colbert and notable guests.
Friday evening’s opening-night film is Conclave, a thriller about one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events, the selection of a new pope. The cast includes Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini, with Academy Award-winning director Edward Berger. The film, shown in the Wellmont Theater, will be followed by a Q&A with Berger and a party to kick off the festival.
Unstoppable, the true story of a young man who was born with one leg who earns a spot on the Arizona State wrestling team, screens on Saturday night, starring Jharrel Jerome and Jennifer Lopez.
On Sunday, New York Times bestselling cookbook author Ina Garten, the James Beard Award-winning host of the Emmy Award-winning television shows Barefoot Contessa and Be My Guest, will be in conversation with Colbert at the Wellmont. Attendees will receive a copy of Garten’s new memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens.
A signature event for the festival will be held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 26, when Colbert interviews Jon Bon Jovi, the Jersey-born rocker who has raised millions of dollars to aid our state’s working poor, homeless and hungry.
[RELATED: How Evelyn McGee Colbert Turned the Montclair Film Festival Into a Cultural Powerhouse]
Another highlight is the closing-night film, The Piano Lesson, based on August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about siblings struggling to define their legacy. Directed and co-written by Malcolm Washington, son of the film’s co-producer, Denzel Washington, the film stars another of his sons, John David Washington, along with Samuel L. Jackson, among others. It will be followed by a Q&A with Malcolm Washington, moderated by Colbert.
Other centerpiece films include Sean Baker’s Anora, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Tim Mielants’ Small Things Like These, Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch and Asif Kapadia’s 2073. The family-friendly centerpiece film is Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow, which includes a sensory-friendly screening.
“This year’s program shows a profound engagement with the world, and presents an opportunity for our audiences to explore a wide array of ideas,” says Montclair Film co-director Tom Hall. “We look forward to bringing these filmmakers and audiences together to create an unforgettable festival experience.”
Tickets, and a schedule of film times and locations, are available at montclairfilm.org.
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