CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Virginia Film Festival announced the lineup for its 39th annual festival at an event in the Paramount Theater on Tuesday.

The festival, which runs from Oct. 21-25, will feature 120 films and host over 100 guests, including film industry veterans like actors Nathan Lane and Jessica Lange, producer Todd Black, writer and director Aaron Sorkin, and writer, director, producer and actor Tim Blake Nelson.

“I would say that we pretty much were able to land everything that we hoped to land and be part of this year’s program,” VFF Executive Director and Vice Provost of the Arts at UVA Jody Kielbasa said.

Kielbasa and VFF Artistic Director Ilya Tovbis presented the lineup at Tuesday’s event, with Tovbis calling it his favorite day of the year outside of the five days the festival runs.

“We have an incredible team that is much beyond me and Jody that work year-round putting together this program,” he said. “And we do it sort of quietly and fervently in our offices, and we get to begin to share an incredible program and all this work with you all tonight.”

This year’s opening night film will be “The Debut,” directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starring Julianne Moore, which follows a woman unexpectedly cast in a local musical.

The centerpiece film is “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” Nelson’s latest film, which follows an unlikely connection between an inmate on death row and a teacher who works at the prison where he is being held. Nelson will attend the screening and receive the festival’s Virtuoso Award.

The festival will end with its closing night film, “1 15 41 Tragedy to Triumph,” a documentary following UVA football from the November 2022 shooting that claimed the lives of three players to its program-record 11-win season in 2025.

That film is one of the 10 in the festival’s Virginia Filmmaking Series this year, which was announced last week.

Black and Sorkin’s appearances were also previously announced, with Black set to receive the festival’s inaugural Career Producer Honor. Black and Sorkin will be on hand for a screening of their new film, “The Social Reckoning,” a companion piece to the 2010 film “The Social Network.”

Black will also be in attendance for a clip talk program about his next film “Madden,” which he will present alongside its director, David O. Russell. The film follows the life and career of NFL head coach and commentator John Madden.

“Now, we’ve not done this before,” Kielbasa told the crowd at the reveal party. “It should be a really exciting and different way to throw a sneak peek of a movie with these film clips, and they will talk through it.”

Lane and Lange will receive the festival’s Visionary Awards, both of whom will participate in a conversation with Turner Classic Movies primetime host Ben Mankiewicz. Lane will also appear at a 30th anniversary screening of “The Birdcage,” and Lange will be in attendance for screenings of director Jonathan Kent’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night” and her 1994 film “Blue Sky.”

Lange will also be a part of a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter’s Executive Editor of Awards for a live recording of the “Awards Chatter” podcast.

The full schedule for this year’s festival will be available online Thursday, and tickets will go on sale for the public on Oct. 2 at noon.