2023 Middleburg Film Festival lineup includes ‘Rustin,’ ‘The Holdovers,’ ‘Saltburn’ and honors for Payne, Fennell and Wolfe

Charles Bright
·3 min read
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With festival season in full swing, the Middleburg Film Festival has just announced its first round of selections for the upcoming 11th edition of the festivities, which runs from October 19-22. Several notable celebrities were also announced as the recipients of special honors being handed out by the festival.

The opening night film will be Netflix’s civil rights biopic, “Rustin,” starring Emmy winner Colman Domingo as the titular organizer of the 1963 March on Washington who faced ostracization due to his sexuality. The Centerpiece film that will screen on Saturday evening is Alexander Payne’s latest, “The Holdovers,” which stars Paul Giamatti as a crabby boarding school teacher who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to look after students who have nowhere to go. Also screening this year is the sophomore effort from Emerald Fennell, “Saltburn,” starring Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan as an Oxford student trying to find his place at the elite university.

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The directors of all three of those films will be receiving special accolades during the festival. “Rustin” director George C. Wolfe will be presented with the Impact Award for his work in bringing Bayard Rustin’s story to the screen. Payne will receive the Director Spotlight Award which has previously been awarded to Edward Berger, Kenneth Branagh, Wolfe, and Noah Baumbach. Fennell is slated to get the Agnès Varda Trailblazing Film Artist Award which counts Gina Prince-Bythewood, Ann Dowd and Chloé Zhao as past winners. Oscar winner Michael Giacchino will receive this year’s Distinguished Composer Award and will join a list of previous recipients that includes Nicholas Britell, Carter Burwell, Terence Blanchard, Kris Bowers and Diane Warren. “Society of the Snow,” which Giacchino scored, will also be shown at the festival.

The festival will also be hosting a panel made up of several Ukrainian filmmakers who will discuss their recent works, the country’s important film industry and how film plays a critical role in Ukrainians being able to express their cultural identity. This was made possible through a collaboration with the U.S. State Department and the country’s leading film diplomacy program, American Film Showcase, which is administered by the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

Over its first 10 years, 91 of the films that have screened at Middleburg have received over 300 Oscar nominations (including 33 Best Picture nominees) and have won a total of 55 trophies. The festival was first started in 2013 by Sheila Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, and filmmaker Susan Koch in order to showcase the small Northern Virginia town that is east of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley that’s home to around 750 people. The town is located in the southwest region of Loudoun County, a commuter region with one of the highest median incomes in the United States that’s still experiencing huge growth in its population. The combination of the region’s beautiful country backdrop along with being only an hour away from the power center of the country have helped the festival establish its identity in such a quick period of time.

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