MVFF35 Nabs Appearances by Cooper, Hunt and Rockwell

Three weeks after unveiling a talent-laden lineup that included the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton and even Stevie Nicks, the 35th Mill Valley Film Festival has upped the ante by announcing several more appearances by big-name actors and actresses.

The first will come on opening night, when Bradley Cooper appears alongside director David O. Russell for the U.S. premiere of Silver Linings Playbook, Russell's darkly comic tale that deals with issues of mental illness, family dysfunction and loss. Cooper plays Pat Solitano, a bipolar Philadelphian who moves back in with his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) after spending time in an institution for a violent assault. Cooper and Russell will be at the opening night screenings at the CineArts at Sequoia.

The festival has also landed actress Helen Hunt as part of a Spotlight even on John Hawkes, her co-star in The Sessions, the story of a poet-journalist confined to an iron lung who tries to lose his virginity with the help of a professional sex surrogate played by Hunt.

And two years after he headlined opening night with his acclaimed performance of a man wrongly accused of murder in Conviction, Sam Rockwell comes back to Mill Valley for a very different kind of film. This time Rockwell is appearing in conjunction with Seven Psychopaths, Irish playright Martin McDonagh's (In Bruges) in which Colin Farrell plays Marty, who is working on the titular script aided by "his seriously off-kilter buddy," played by Rockwell. The film screens Monday, Oct. 8 at 9:45 p.m. at the CineArts at Sequoia.

For more info and to buy tickets, go to the festival's website.