The filmmakers behind the 34th Mill Valley Film Festival audience favorite The Artist went home with five Oscars Sunday night, including Best Picture. In addition to the top prize, the black and white silent movie won Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score. "I am the happiest director in the world right now," Michel Hazanavicius said when he accepted the award at last night's ceremony. Jean Dujardin happily yelled his thanks in French after accepting his award for Best Actor. In addition to The Artist, MVFF34 favorites like the Glenn Cose-…

The Mill Valley Film Festival continued its run as a launching pad for Academy Award contenders today when The Artist, which landed the Audience Award at the 34th edition of the festival last October, racked up 10 Oscar nominations. The tally was second to only Martin Scorsese's Hugo and included nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor for Jean Dujardin, Best Supporting Actress for Berenice Bejo and Best Director for Michel Hazanivicius, among others. "Filming The Artist in Los Angeles was a dream come true, and to receive this recognition today is far beyond what I ever imagined," …

Q: What do an American woman playing an 18th Century Irish woman pretending to be a man, a 31-piece hip hop orchestra, a pair of 20-something breakout stars, a Chinese actress’ portrayal of a Burmese democracy activist, an heir to an Indian classical music throne and a webcast connecting Java, Istanbul and Tehran have in common? A: One of the most diverse Mill Valley Film Festivals in recent memory. The 11-day festival that always strives for a diverse offering seemed to do itself one better with its 34th edition, serving up 178 screenings and drawing 40,000 people in the process. “We had a …

"Bang!" The Artist, the remarkable closing night film of the 34th Mill Valley Film Festival. The festival itself echoed that with a raucous twist of its own Sunday night, ending 11 days of cinematic excellence with a thunderous Closing Night party performance from the daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra, a 31-piece band that used every square inch the San Rafael Community Center's stage.

The 34th Mill Valley Film Festival bestowed another of it's Spotlight Awards to rising starlet Elizabeth Olsen after a screening of her new movie Martha Marcy May Marlene at the Smith Rafael Film Center Saturday night. The Spotlight Award honors a filmmaker at a particular moment in time, and, as the festival's Director of Programming Zoe Elton said: "This particular moment [for Oslen] is looking pretty spectacular from where I'm sitting."In the past year, the younger sister of twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen starred in three movies. Other than Martha Marcy Mary Marlene, she starred in the …

"Alam never plays alone - he is always accompanied by his heritage." So said Rohnert Park filmmaker Joshua Dylan Mellars in introducing the "Play Like a Lion Live" musical tribute to Alam Khan's father, the late Indian classical musician Ali Akbar Khan, at 142 Throckmorton Theatre Saturday night. The point was made clear by Mellars' documentary itself, which screened at the 34th Mill Valley Film Festival last week. On this night, sarod player Alam Khan had plenty of accompaniment beyond his esteemed lineage, including his brother Manik Khan on tampura, Salar Nader on tabla and Arjun Verma on …

The coveted and elusive 18-to-25 age group was out in force for Thursday night's Mill Valley Film Festival Spotlight on actor Ezra Miller, following a screening of Lynne Ramsay's new film, We Need to Talk About Kevin, in which Miller plays the titular character. At just 18 years old, Miller is already a veteran of the indie film scene, having appeared in five independent features over the last three years in addition to Kevin. He had a supporting role in Another Happy Day, which screened at MVFF on Wednesday night. Teenage fans, clearly familiar with his work, dotted the sold-out audience, …

Prior to the dozens or film screenings throughout the 34th Mill Valley Film Festival this week, audience members are instructed to turn off their cell phone so as not to disrupt the experience. That precaution will be thrown to the wind at the 11-day event’s Prohibition-themed Closing Night party on Sunday at the San Rafael Community Center, as the raucous-yet-symphonic daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra serves as the main event. Geoff “Double G” Gallegos, the group’s founder and conductor, sums up the sentiment in Hip Hop Maestro, a documentary about the group that screens in a program of shorts on …

Under the water is a perfect, serene world beautifully depicted in Jim Sugar's Swimming in a Dream. "It's a positive addiction. It makes me feel strong and light and smooth," one swimmer told Sugar. You're almost levitated or transformed into somewhere else. You're in what I think of as a inner space. The hypnotic sound of the rhythm of the breathing, the rhythm of the strokes, it's a very spectacular sensation."A member of the North Bay Aquatics Masters group, Sugar turned the camera on himself and his fellow swimmers to produce the short film that has its Mill Valley Film Festival debut …

"It's not the years, it's the mileage." Thirty years after its original release, neither the years nor the mileage have diminished Raiders of the Lost Ark. A capacity crowd cheered as the famous adventurer/archaeologist Indiana Jones delivered the classic line during a 30th anniversary celebration and screening Monday night at the Century Cinema in Corte Madera as part of the 34th Mill Valley Film Festival. The line of ticket holders, including an array of fedora-sporting, would-be adventurers, stretched around the outside of the theater, with a second line growing as fans hoped to get a late…

Did you miss the opening weekend of the 34th Mill Valley Film Festival? We've got your back. With the help of our partners at the Community Media Center of Marin and the Intel Computer Clubhouse in San Rafael, we've got video from every major MVFF34 event over the past four days to complement our own wall-to-wall coverage. Glenn Close put in a show-stopping turn at multiple events throughout the weekend, from yucking it up with Robin Williams at the pre-festival reception Thursday night to making gorilla sounds during her sitdown with Zoe Elton at a tribute event Friday night. Mark and Jay …

The Beatles sang of it in "All You Need is Love." Bob Marley made it his signature with "One Love." Here in Marin, a film making its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival is bringing that same message of unity through love to audiences both local and global. One Through Love, a first-of-its-kind multimedia event celebrating the poetry and philosophy of Rumi, the 13th Century Sufi mystic, is the brainchild of Sausalito filmmaker Stephen Olsson. Olsson's decades of experience as a globe-trotting documentarian brought him into contact with Sufism years ago through the teachings of Bawa…

Film lovers who’ve lined up multiple screenings at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival are becoming very familiar with the sight of a bright orange ball whizzing through scenes both real and surreal in the festival’s catchy theatrical trailer, which screens before every program. That orange glowing ball and its journey of transformation spring from the ever-evolving imagination of Berkeley-based video artist John Sanborn, a festival alum whose new feature-length film The Planets has its world premiere at this year’s fest. Sanborn’s experimental, non-narrative films have been a staple of …

They call him the Godfather of African cinema, but with his wide grin and hearty laugh, Gaston Kaboré is more Kris Kringle than Marlon Brando. At a Mill Valley Film Festival tribute to Kaboré Sunday night, the master filmmaker took to the stage after a rare screening of Wend Kuuni, the 1982 debut film that sparked a "Back to the Villages" movement in African cinema and announced a major new talent to the international film world. Kaboré delighted audiences with his jovial nature while providing plenty of food for thought to a theater packed with cinephiles. In a 45-minute on-stage interview, …

Filmmakers from around the world are descending on Mill Valley and San Rafael this week to show their work to Mill Valley Film Festival audiences. But that doesn’t mean that our local talents aren’t well-represented. On the contrary, Marin-based filmmakers are all over the program, and as always, they represent Marin with pride. Anyone looking to sample local talent at this year’s MVFF need look no further than the festival’s short film selection, where Marin filmmakers cover all the bases -- from a powerful documentary profiling the new eco-heroes to a truly short and sweet animated piece …

The 34th Mill Valley Film Festival presented actress Michelle Yeoh the spotlight award for her performance as Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in the film The Lady. “We give you this award in honor of your great artistry in service to human rights,” Director of Programming Zoe Elton said. Yeoh, known for her roles in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha, graced the red carpet at the Smith Rafael Film Center Oct. 8 for a screening of the new film. She was joined by The Lady’s director, Luc Besson, who informed the audience of some bad …

Following a screening of Circus Dreams at the Rafael Film Center at part of the 34th Mill Valley Film Festival's Children's FilmFest, circus performers and children of all ages marched down Fourth Street

Actress Michelle Yeoh was at the Rafael Film Center Saturday night for a Spotlight event centered on a screening her new film, The Lady, which chronicles the lives of Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband Michael Aris. Yeoh and The Lady director Luc Besson sat down for a Q&A with MVFF Executive Director Mark Fishkin after the screening.

Ingenue, temptress, murderer, man. In a storied career spanning four decades, actress Glenn Close has played many roles to perfection. But Friday night at the Smith Rafael Film Center, the only role that seemed to matter to her was as the honored guest of the 34th Mill Valley Film Festival. Close was on hand for an MVFF career tribute following Thursday night's sold-out screening of her new film, Albert Nobbs. After posing for photographs in the lobby and making her way into a theater packed with expectant guests, a relaxed-looking Close took to the stage in a sleek black shirt and pants, her…