Montclair Film Festival Announces Complete 2021 Program

The New Jersey set film festival is set to show off Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Lost Daughter. This film is set to receive a Breakthrough Director & Writer award for her debut.

Alongside her film, the festival showcases a stacked lineup including: Memoria, Souvenir Part 2, The Worst Person in the World, Spencer, Belfast, among others.

The in-person festival is set for October 21-30, 2021.

The full press release is below:

SEPTEMBER 24, MONTCLAIR, NJ – Today, Montclair Film announced the full program for the 1Oth annual Montclair Film Festival (MFF), presented by Investors Bank, taking place October 21-30, 2021, in Montclair, NJ. This year’s festival will feature in-person screenings for fully vaccinated, masked audiences, as well as a selection of virtual programming on Montclair Film’s Virtual Cinema.

Maggie Gyllenhaal will attend the festival on Sunday, October 24 to present her new film THE LOST DAUGHTER alongside the film’s star Dagmara Domińczyk and will join Stephen Colbert in Conversation as part of the festival’s Storyteller Series, presented by Audible. For her work on the film, Ms. Gyllenhaal will receive the festival’s Breakthrough Director & Writer Award.

This year’s Fiction Feature Competition is GREAT FREEDOM, directed by Sebastian Meise,

A HERO, directed by Asghar Farhadi, MEMORIA, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul,

THE SOUVENIR PART II, directed by Joanna Hogg, and THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, directed by Joachim Trier. The festival’s fiction film highlights include Kenneth Branagh’s BELFAST, Mike Mills’ C’MON C’MON, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gaby Hoffmann, THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN, directed by Will Sharpe and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy, Céline Sciamma’s PETITE MAMAN, Rebecca Hall’s PASSING, starring Ruth Negga, Tessa Thompson an André Holland, Pablo Larrain’s SPENCER, starring Kristen Stewart, among many others.

The festival’s Documentary Film Competition is comprised of BERNSTEIN’S WALL, directed by Douglas Tirola, A COP MOVIE, directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios, THE FIRST WAVE, directed by Matthew Heineman, FLEE, directed by Jonas Roher Rasmussen, and PRESIDENT, directed by Camilla Nielsson. The festival’s documentary feature highlights this year include CARTERLAND, directed by The Pattiz Brothers, COW, directed by Andrea Arnold, LISTENING TO KENNY G, directed by Penny Lane, PAPER & GLUE, a JR Project, and RIVER, directed by Jennifer Peedom and Joseph Nizeti, among many others.

The festival will also be partnering with OUT Montclair, a nonprofit organization created to raise awareness and provide support and solidarity for the LGBTQIA+ community of Montclair, offering educational and charitable activities and events to promote inclusivity and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, non-binary and gender-fluid youth and adults, to highlight LGBTQIA+ films for patrons and the community, and the Trans Affirming Alliance, to elevate transgender voices and provide a space for thoughtful engagement with new films and filmmakers, including a free panel discussion on Transgender Representation In Film, moderated by Celeste Fiore, Esq, the Founder and Chair of the Trans Affirming Alliance, on Sunday, October 24.

As was previously announced, the festival will open on Thursday, October 21, with a screening of Wes Anderson’s THE FRENCH DISPATCH. On Sunday, October 30, Jane Campion’s THE POWER OF THE DOG will screen as the festival’s Closing Film. Jeymes Samuel’s THE HARDER THEY FALL will serve as the Fiction Centerpiece on Friday, October 22, and the Documentary Centerpiece will be DIONNE WARWICK: DON’T MAKE ME OVER on Saturday, October 23, with director Dave Wooley and the legendary Dionne Warwick attending for a Q&A. The festival will present its Family Centerpiece screening on THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES on

Friday, October 22, and will present a Special Screening of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW with a live floor show by The Ordinary Kids on Saturday, October 30.

“We have worked hard to bring the best in contemporary cinema to this year’s Montclair Film Festival and we could not be more excited to share these films with our audiences,” said Montclair Film Executive Director Tom Hall. “The past couple of years have proven once again that the global community of film can be the catalyst for bringing people together. And we need that connection with one another now more than ever. So, we will be welcoming vaccinated and masked patrons into newly renovated cinemas to ensure we can come together safely and with respect for one another.”

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