The 38th Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) concluded October on Sunday (October 18th) with the awarding of the Audience Awards. Lenny Abrahamson’s Irish/Canadian co-production Room won the big award of Overall Audience Favorite 2015, with fellow Irish film Brooklyn, from director John Crowley, picking up an Audience Favorite Gold Award in the World Cinema category.
The win for the Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay starring Room marks the film’s fifth audience award of the autumnal festival season, adding to wins in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and the Hamptons. Room is an Element Pictures and No Trace Camping production, in association with Telefilm Canada, Film4, and Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board. It will be released in Irish cinemas on January 15th.
The Saoirse Ronan and Domhnall Gleeson starring Brooklyn also won in Vancouver. Brooklyn is an Irish/British co-production from Wildgaze Films, Finola Dwyer Productions, Parallel Films and Item 7, with co-finance from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board. It will be released in Irish cinemas on November 6th.
[quote title=”Mark Fishkin – Mill Valley Film Festival, Founder/Director”]This was an amazing 11 days for film lovers, music enthusiasts, and members of the industry. We are so proud to be a festival that filmmakers—both local and international—return to year after year to present their films to our sophisticated and influential Bay Area audiences, who love to see and nurture these new works.[/quote]
MVFF is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute, which has established an impressive track record for launching new films and the careers of new filmmakers and is well known for the quality of its programming. Last year the festival featured Terry McMahon’s Patrick’s Day, which was very well received by the festive audience. This year the three Irish films selected are being screened in conjunction with the San Francisco Irish film Festival.
Overall Audience Favorite 2015
Room Dir. Lenny Abrahamson
Spotlight Dir. Tom McCarthy
Truth Dir. James Vanderbilt
A Light Beneath Their Feet Dir. Valerie Weiss
The Automatic Hate Dir. Justin Lerner
Brooklyn Dir. John Crowley
Remember Dir. Atom Egoyan
The Passion of Augustine Dir. Léa Pool
Under the Same Sun Dir. Mitra Sen
Surviving Skokie Dir. Eli Adler, Blair Gershkow
An Act of Love Dir. Scott Sheppard
A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone Dir. Marlene Morris
Penny Dir. Elizabeth Sher
The Amazing Wiplala Dir. Tim Oliehoek
Shana: The Wolf’s Music Dir. Nino Jacusso
Suffragette Dir. Sarah Gavron
The Dressmaker Dir. Jocelyn Moorhouse
Mavis! Dir. Jessica Edwards
Code: Debugging the Gender Gap Dir. Robin Hauser Reynolds
Dogtown Redemption Dir. Amir Soltani, Chihiro Wimbush
Anomalisa Dir. Charlie Kaufman