The Mill Valley Film Festival will honor writer, director Nikyatu Jusu with a Spotlight program including a special onstage conversation, screening of the 2022 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and first feature Nanny, and the MVFF Award for Feature Debut.
Nikyatu Jusu is an independent writer, director, and Assistant Professor in Film & Video at George Mason University. Her films have played at festivals nationally and internationally. Jusu is the second black woman director and Nanny is the first horror film to win the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (US Dramatic).
The MVFF Spotlight program honors and celebrates exceptional work by film artists in their most current work. Honorees may be in early, mid, or late career. Over the years, MVFF has spotlighted such extraordinary talents as Regina King, Delroy Lindo, Denis Villeneuve, Robert Pattinson, Richard E. Grant, Karyn Kusama, Joel Edgerton, Amandla Stenberg, Dee Rees, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Eddie Redmayne, Ewan McGregor, Brie Larson, Steve McQueen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michelle Yeoh, Elle Fanning and Jared Leto, to name a few.
Joining Nikyatu Jusu on stage for a post-screening conversation will be Nanny lead Anna Diop. Senegalese-American actress Diop is known for her portrayal as Kory Anders on the DC Universe/HBO Max series Titans as well a being a series regular on The CW supernatural mystery The Messengers and the Fox thriller 24:Legacy.
In this psychological fable of displacement, Aisha (Anna Diop), a woman who recently emigrated from Senegal, is hired to care for the daughter of an affluent couple (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector) living in New York City. Haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind, Aisha hopes her new job will afford her the chance to bring him to the U.S. but becomes increasingly unsettled by the family’s volatile home life. As his arrival approaches, a violent presence begins to invade both her dreams and her reality, threatening the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together.
Nanny will be released in the US theatrically on November 23 and on Prime Video globally on December 16.