2073, directed by Asif Kapadia
(MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- The 2024 Montclair Film Festival takes place October 18-27. The festival's Opening Night film is Conclave (directed by Edward Berger). Some films of note include Unstoppable (directed by William Goldenberg) which is the festival's Fiction Centerpiece; 2073 (directed by Asif Kapadia) which is the festival's Document Centerpiece; and Flow (directed by Gints Zilbalodis) which is the Family Centerpiece. The festival's Closing Night film is The Piano Lesson (directed by Malcolm Washington).
Some Event Highlights:
Director Edward Berger, whose previous film All Quiet On The Western Front won four Academy Awards®, will attend the festival’s Opening Night screening of his new film Conclave and participate in a post screening Q&A on Friday, October 18 at 7:00pm at The Wellmont Theater in downtown Montclair, NJ.
Author and star Ina Garten will join Stephen Colbert in conversation on Sunday, October 20 at 12:00pm at The Wellmont Theater in downtown Montclair, NJ. The event is the Centerpiece of the festival’s Storyteller Series, presented by Audible. Ina Garten is a New York Times bestselling author of thirteen cookbooks and the James Beard Award-winning host of the Emmy Award Winning television shows Barefoot Contessa and Be My Guest, on Food Network and Discovery+. She lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband, Jeffrey. Her memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, is included with a ticket to this conversation. This event is presented in partnership with Watchung Booksellers.
On Saturday, October 26 at 8:00pm, Jon Bon Jovi will join Stephen Colbert on stage at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in downtown Newark. The pair will sit down for an unforgettable evening of conversation celebrating Mr. Bon Jovi’s career as one of our most beloved performers. The front man for the Grammy Award-winning band Bon Jovi has not only written and performed countless rock anthems, he has utilized his spotlight and raised millions of dollars to aid the working poor, the homeless, and the hungry. After selling more than 130 million albums and performing in over 50 countries for more than 40 million fans, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in recognition of their longevity and impact on popular music for the past three decades. Jon is also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His work in film includes unforgettable performances in films like Moonlight and Valentino, Little City, and No Looking Back, and his role as a composer for Young Guns II earned him an Academy Award® nomination. The new docuseries Thank You, Goodnight, which features 40 years of archival footage, songs, and performances that chart the rise of Bon Jovi from Jersey Shore clubs to the biggest stages on the planet, was released this year on Hulu.
In Competition: Each year, the Montclair Film Festival presents juried awards to films in four categories; Documentary, Fiction, Future/ Now, which seeks to support emerging voices in independent filmmaking with The Mark Urman Award, a $5,000 cash prize to help support & encourage future work for the winning filmmaker, and New Jersey Films, which focuses on non-fiction filmmaking from New Jersey artists.
This year’s Documentary Film Competition features are Apocalypse In The Tropics, directed by Petra Costa; Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop; A New Kind of Wildnerness, directed by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen; the World Premiere of Night Is Not Eternal, directed by Nanfu Wang; and Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, directed by Johan Grimonpez.
This year’s Fiction Film Competition features are All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia; Grand Tour, directed by Miguel Gomes; I'm Still Here, directed by Walter Salles; The Seed of the Sacred Fig, directed by Mohammad Rasoulof; and Universal Language, directed by Matthew Rankin.
This year’s Future/Now Competition features, competing for the 2024 Mark Urman Award, are Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, directed by Tyler Taormina; Eephus, directed by Carson Lund; Extemely Unique Dynamic, directed by Ivan Leung, Harrison Xu, Katherine Dudas; Gazer, directed by Ryan J. Sloan; and Micro Budget, directed by Morgan Evans.
This year’s New Jersey Films Competition features are Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell's Swimsuit Issue, directed by Jill Campbell; Homegrown, directed by Michael Premo; Songs From the Hole, directed by Contessa Gayles; Space Cowboy, directed by Bryce Leavitt and Marah Strauch; and Zurawski V Texas, directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault.
Each year, the Montclair Film Festival presents awards to short films in three juried categories; Documentary, Fiction, and New Jersey Films.
The 2024 Documentary Shorts Competition features Alok, directed by Alex Hedison; Christmas Every Day, directed by Faye Tsakas; Death By Numbers, directed by Kim A. Snyder; Tr(ol)l, directed by Yourgo Artsitas.
The 2024 Fiction Shorts Competition features The Brown Dog, directed by Nadia Hallgren amd Jamie-James Medina; Deep In My Heart Is A Song, directed by Jonathan Pickett; Dissolution, directed by Anthony Saxe, Echoes of Pomegranate, directed by Alex Bijan Zande; Relationship to Patient, directed by Caroline Creaghead; and Working Summer, directed by Lily Weisberg.
The 2024 New Jersey Shorts Competition features All Things Metal, directed by Motoki Otsuka, The Believers, directed by Evan Newman; Break/Fix directed by Amanda Pinto; Incoming Call, directed by Lisa Molinaro; The Sacrifice, directed by Christopher Werner; and Steady, directed by Joey Rogoff and Brian Yuran.
HIGHLIGHT SCREENINGS
The Montclair Film Festival highlights several highly anticipated films in their program. In addition to the previously announced films, this year’s program includes: Anora, directed by Sean Baker; Between the Mountain and the Sky, directed by Jeremy Power Regimbal; Bird, directed by Andrea Arnold; Blitz, directed by Steve McQueen; Caught by the Tides, directed by Jia Zhang-ke; Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard; The End, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer; Hard Truths, directed by Mike Leigh; Martha, directed by R.J. Cutler; Pavements, directed by Alex Ross Perry; The Room Next Door, directed by Pedro Almodóvar; and Small Things Like These, directed by Tim Mielants.
“We are incredibly grateful to these filmmakers for bringing their work to us,” said Montclair Film Artistic Director and Co-Head Tom Hall. “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. We look forward to bringing these filmmakers and audiences together to create an unforgettable festival experience.”
Tickets for Montclair Film Festival events are on sale now for Montclair Film Members and Friday, October 4, 2024 at 10:00am for the public. Tickets are available at montclairfilm.org.
