The 14th Middleburg Film Festival opened Thursday with A24's The Debut, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg attended a post-screening Q&A alongside star Julianne Moore, who plays Mona Friedman, a housewife who wins a small part in a community theater production and becomes fiercely committed to protecting the character. Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, and Eisenberg co-star.
The festival, founded by Sheila Johnson in 2013 in Virginia's Hunt Country, runs through October 18. It has a reputation for showcasing films early in their awards campaigns. The centerpiece is Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky, in which Anthony Ippolito plays a then-unknown Sylvester Stallone fighting to get his screenplay produced. Siân Heder's Being Heumann, a documentary about disability rights activist Judy Heumann, closes the festival.
This year's honorees cover a wide sweep of craft. Léa Seydoux receives the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award for Gentle Monster, directed by Marie Kreutzer, which premiered in competition at Cannes. Jack O'Connell takes the Spotlight Actor Award for Danny Boyle's Ink, playing editor Larry Lamb opposite Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch. Nadia Stacey, an Oscar winner for Poor Things, is recognized for her makeup and hair work on Elsinore. Composer Daniel Pemberton receives a Distinguished Composer Award, with a concert of his scores planned during the festival. Jordan Firstman picks up the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award for A24's Club Kid, his feature directorial debut.
Olivia Colman appears in conversations for two films: Wicker and Elsinore, in which she plays a doctor caring for Ian Charleson, played by Andrew Scott.
For The Debut, an opening night slot at Middleburg is a deliberate awards-season signal. Whether Moore can establish herself in what is already a competitive lead actress field is one of the fall's open questions.