–By Orrin Konheim
Names like Emma Stone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kenneth Branagh carry serious star power. And while they’re typically associated with Tinseltown, these celebrities have also been spotted in one of Virginia’s most charming towns for a special brand of film festival. Not Los Angeles, New York, or even Sundance. Instead, they head to Middleburg.
The Middleburg Film Festival has become one of the premier destinations for the film circuit since its founding in 2013. For four days, festival-goers are privy to advanced screenings of prestige films and the opportunity to network with industry creatives, along with panels, talks, and more.
Last year, half of the 10 films eventually nominated for the Best Picture Oscar—Maestro, The Holdovers, Anatomy of a Fall, American Fiction, and Past Lives—were screened here.
The directors behind 2023’s buzziest hits like Emerald Fennell (Saltburn), Sofia Coppola (Priscilla), Alexander Payne (The Holdovers), and Todd Haynes (May December) showed up for Q&As with the audience. Talents like Maestro’s award-winning makeup artist, Kazu Hiro, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Kai Bird, who wrote American Prometheus (Knopf, 2005), the book on which Oppenheimer was based, were also present.
“The success of the festival is the result of the quality of the films we screen, the filmmakers and other special guests who attend, and our enthusiastic and devoted cinephiles who join us year after year,” says executive director Susan Koch. “We feel very lucky on all counts.”
Koch founded the festival with Sheila Johnson, BET network founder. The duo inaugurated the festival the same year that Johnson established the luxury Salamander Resort on the town’s outskirts. Contrary to many film festivals that take place throughout venues in large cities, the charm of the countryside and the limited number of locations allow guests to experience film in a unique atmosphere as part of a shared experience.
The 2024 Middleburg Film Festival is Oct. 17–20. MiddleburgFilm.org
This article originally appeared in the October 2024 issue.