Actress Laura Dern will receive this year’s Mind the Gap Actor of the Year Award at Mill Valley Film Festival for her incredible body of work, with a special focus on her impressive slate of roles in 2019.

Laura Dern has what the festival best describes as a standout year in a career marked by remarkable performances, from her indelible beginnings in Marin-based Smooth Talk (MVFF 1985) to her first Oscar nomination for Rambling Rose and 2014 Oscar® nominated role in Wild (MVFF Award 2014). Along the way are unforgettable moments from many acclaimed projects, among them Jurassic Park, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Recount, Enlightened, Citizen Ruth, and The Last Jedi. 

At the festival, Dern will take part in an on-stage conversation, where she will delve into her art as an actor, looking particularly at her most recent works. This year has seen: A reprise of her role as the deliciously intense, crazy-protective mom and tech honcho Renata Klein on Big Little Lies, a role which already won her both an Emmy® and a Golden Globe®; the complex character of Savannah Knoop, the women behind the creation of JT LeRoy; the compassionate but tough divorce lawyer in Noah Baumbach’s sublime Marriage Story; and the ultimate mother of daughters, Marmee in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women.