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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – After months of anticipation, the 39th annual Virginia Film Festival officially kicked off Wednesday with its Opening Night Film, “The Debut,” which was screened at The Paramount Theater to a sold out crowd.
The film is written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg and follows Mona, an overlooked housewife, played by Julianne Moore, who decides to audition for a role in a community musical, written for the film by Eisenberg with original songs. Under the direction of the musical’s director, Jerry, played by Paul Giamatti, Mona fully immerses herself in the role and the musical as a whole.
“‘The Debut’ is just great fun,” VFF Artistic Director Ilya Tovbis said earlier this month. “It’s a film that I think will be appealing across age brackets, across demographics.”
The packed Paramount Theater was filled with laughs all throughout the screening. Afterward, many went across the street to The Bradbury for the festival’s annual Opening Night Gala, where attendees had the opportunity to mingle while enjoying food and drinks.
The event and gala served as the official start of the five-day festival, which will run through Sunday and feature over 120 films and more than 100 special guests, including actors Nathan Lane and Jessica Lange, producer Todd Black, writer and director Aaron Sorkin, and writer, director, producer and actor Tim Blake Nelson.
In the buildup to this year’s festival, its organizers expressed plenty of confidence in this year’s lineup, expecting it to rank among the festival’s best years.
“I will just say, without any exaggeration, we expect this to be a higher-profile year than we’ve had in quite a number of years and that across the board,” Tovbis told Cville Right Now in August. “From independent productions, to documentaries, to international cinema to sort of films that I’m very confident are going to be the Oscars stages and everywhere in between, it is shaping up to be a bonanza and a banner year.”
VFF Executive Director and UVA Vice Provost for the Arts Jody Kielbasa echoed that sentiment in his remarks before the screening, congratulating Tovbis for putting together what he called the strongest lineup in his 18 years with the festival.
Kielbasa’s remarks were preceded by UVA President Scott Beardsley. In addition to welcoming the attendees to this year’s festival, Beardsley also took time to look ahead to the upcoming UVA Center for the Arts, which will open in 2030. Beardsley said the unveristy is hoping to break ground on the project this spring.
The new center will include the Tessa and Richard Ader Performing Arts Center, a 1,200-seat performing arts hall. The hall will be named for Tessa and Richard Ader, who donated a total of $130 million toward the project, which Beardsley said is the largest gift for a capital project in UVA’s history.
“Coupled with the Paramount, this historic (venue) right here, we’re gonna be truly an arts destination,” Beardsley said.
For now, the festival is 39th year is now underway, with Kielbasa framing this year’s event as the starting point for the festival’s future.
“I firmly believe that this year’s festival provides us with a perfect runway for the next four years as we head towards the opening of the new Center for the Arts,” he said. “The Center for the Arts will be this exciting new venue to host additional films and events, while always maintaining our longtime home here at the Paramount Theater and at the Violet Crown.”