The Imitation Game

The fourth annual Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF)  returns with a five-day festival showcasing the year’s best new independent films in the four postcard-perfect towns of Napa, Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga, November 12 to 16, 2014.  The Festival kicks off Opening Night, Wednesday, November 12, with a Red Carpet screening of The Imitation Game. Fresh off winning the audience award at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, The Imitation Game, stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. Director Morten Tyldum is expected to attend. 

Film highlights include:

Alex of Venice – – In actor Chris Messina’s directorial debut feature, Alex (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a workaholic environmental attorney is forced to reinvent herself after her husband (Messina) suddenly leaves the family.

 Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me – An intimate, devastating, and inspiring look at the final tour of musical legend Glen Campbell as he faces the end of his career due to Alzheimer’s disease.

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon – Mike Myers will attend the festival with Shep Gordon, the original mega talent manager and subject of Mike’s hilarious, touching and award-winning documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her & Him – A special presentation of a unique cinematic achievement: back-to-back screenings of Ned Benson’s two versions of a film about a marriage falling apart, one from the wife’s perspective and one from the husband’s, starring Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy.

Additional sneak previews include:

The Better Angels – Director A.J. Edwards’ debut feature tells the story of Abraham Lincoln’s childhood in the wilderness of Indiana. Starring Jason Clarke, Diane Kruger, Brit Marling and Wes Bently

The Last 5 Years – Based on the 2002 off-Broadway musical, and adapted by writer/director Richard LaGravenese, The Last 5 Years is the story of a couple’s tumultuous relationship, from entanglement to denouement starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan.

Match – A Seattle couple (Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard) travels to New York to interview an acclaimed former ballet star (Patrick Stewart) for a research project on the dance scene in the 1960’s.

Escobar: Paradise Lost – The debut feature from writer/director Andrea Di Stephano traces the journey of a young Canadian surfer (Josh Hutcherson) who falls under the spell of a beautiful young woman in Columbia. Unfortunately she also who happens to be the niece of international drug kingpin Pablo Escobar (Benicio Del Toro). An edgy crime drama and a soul-searching love story about family ties and loyalty, the film is a look at a dark chapter in the war on drugs and the casualties.

Documentary Competition:
#chicagoGirl: The Social Network Takes On A Dictator, Director Joe Piscatella (California Premiere)
American Native, Director Steven Oritt (World Premiere)
An Honest Liar, Directors Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom (California Premiere)
Botso, Director Tom Walters (Bay Area Premiere)
Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank, Directors Sheila
Canavan and Michael Chandler (West Coast Premiere)
Flying The Feathered Edge; The Bob Hoover Project, Director Kim Furst (World Premiere)
Havana Curveball, Directors Ken Schneider and Marcia Jarmel
States of Grace, Directors Helen S. Cohen and Mark Lipman
Underwater Dreams, Director Mary Mazzio
What the F@#- is Cancer and Why Does Everybody Have It?, Director A.W. Gryphon

Narrative Competition:
Amira & Sam, Director Sean Mullin (California Premiere)
East Side Sushi, Director Anthony Lucero (World Premiere)
Fall To Rise, Director Jayce Bartok (California Premiere)
Kinderwald, Director Lise Raven
Like Sunday, Like Rain, Director Frank Whaley
Little Accidents, Director Sara Colangelo
Song One, Director Kate Barker-Froyland (West Coast Premiere)
Sun Belt Express, Director Evan Buxbaum (California Premiere)
Teacher of the Year, Director Jason Strouse
Thank You A Lot, Director Matt Muir (California Premiere)
The Road Within, Director Gren Wells
WildLike, Director Frank Hall Green (West Coast Premiere)

Lounge Features:
All Stars, Director Lance Kinsey (West Coast Premiere)
Bar America, Director Matthew Jacobs
Big In Japan, Director John Jeffcoat (California Premiere)
Cheatin’, Director Bill Plympton
Gone Doggy Gone, Directors Brandon Walter and Kasi Brown
Goodbye To All That, Director Angus MacLachlan (West Coast Premiere)
Growing Up and Other Lies, Directors Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky
Mudbloods, Director Farzad Nikbakht (Bay Area Premiere)
Time Lapse, Director Bradley King (Northern California Premiere)
We’ll Never Have Paris, Directors Jocelyn Towne and Simon Helberg (California Premiere)

Special Presentations:
#standwithme, Directors Patrick Moreau and Grant Peelle (World Premiere)
Big Dream, Director Kelly Cox (Special Sneak Preview)
Buscando A Gaston (Finding Gaston), Director Julia Patricia Perez (US Premiere)
Food Chains, Director Sanjay Rawal (West Coast Premiere)
Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists, Director Leslie Buchbinder (West Coast Premiere)
Half The Road: The Passion, Pitfalls & Power of Women’s Professional Cycling, Director Kathryn Bertine
Harlem Street Singer, Directors Trevor Laurence and Simeon Hutner (West Coast Premiere)
Harmontown, Director Neil Berkeley
Last Days In Vietnam, Director Rory Kennedy
Stretch, Director Joe Carnahan (World Premiere)
True Son, Director Kevin Gordon
Impossible Light, Director Jeremy Ambers

2014 Festival Sidebar – Architecture (sponsored by Blue Homes):
Henry Hornbostel in Architecture and Legacy, Director Mark Fallone (California Premiere)
Lutah, Director Kum-Kum Bhavnani (Northern California Premiere)
Paolo Soleri: Beyond Form, Director Aimee Madsen (Northern California  Premiere)
Robin Boyd: Australian Beauty, Director Kerry Gardner

Documentary Short Programs:
A Stroll the Park: An Asbury Symphony, Albie (World Premiere), Cab City (World Premiere),Crooked Candy (California Premiere), David Hockney in the Now: In Six Minutes, Slomo, The Bulletproof Stockings, The Lion’s Mouth Opens, The Ox, White Earth (Bay Area Premiere), The Invisible Peak

World Cinema Shorts:
5 Tropoina Pethaneis (5 Ways 2 Die), Bis Gleich, Chronophobe (California Premiere), Into the Silent Sea, Lan Yen, Rez Carz

Narrative Shorts:
His Keeper, Horrible Parents (World Premiere), Last Shot (Nor Cal Premiere), Mediation, My New Apartment, Pin It (Nor Cal Premiere), Snail (Nor Cal Premiere), Team Work (World Premiere), The Gunfighter, An Honorable Man (California Premiere), Care, Gift, Immaculate Reception, Looms, Be My Unfinished (World Premiere), New, One Foot In (World Premiere), Plain Clothes, Salvatore (Nor Cal Premiere), Selling Rosario (World Premiere), The Inheritance, Undercover, Bunion, Humpty (California Premiere), Leonard in Slow Motion, Neighbors, Sure Thing (Nor Cal Premiere), The Motion Picture Co. 1914 (Nor Cal Premiere),The Oven

Animated Shorts:
Collectors, Silent, Humanexus, John Doe, Prelude, Sticky, The Box, The Duck, The Missing Scarf, The Umbrella Factory