US Premiere
CENTERPIECE-SPOTLIGHT: JOHN WELLS
Join us for a special Centerpiece-Spotlight featuring director John Wells and the screening of August: Osage County. John Wells will be presented with the MVFF Award, designed by acclaimed Mill Valley artist Alice Corning. After the program, join us for a reception at Pizza Antica (800 Redwood Highway, Strawberry Village, Mill Valley).
Film:
A
missing patriarch, welling family secrets, and a take-no-prisoners approach to
din- ner table conversation roil the Weston family household one fateful
August in Osage County, Oklahoma, as a dream cast brings Tracy Letts’ witty and
stirring Pulitzer Prize–winning play to the big screen. As matriarch Violet
(Meryl Streep) oversees the reunion of her children in the wake of a family
crisis, shocking and hilarious truths make their way to the surface. Each of
the three Weston siblings comes with her own emotional baggage: Barbara (Julia
Roberts) and her husband are navigating splitting up; Karen (Juliette Lewis)
has the latest of her sleazy serial fiancés in tow; and stay-at-home Ivy
(Julianne Nicholson) discloses a clandestine love that causes waves of disapproval. Both fiercely funny and disarmingly poignant, August: Osage
County is a rollercoaster ride of dysfunction, revealing a new indiscretion
at every turn. Powered by extraordinary performances—notably Rob- erts as the
perfect foil to Streep’s Violet— it’s a breathtaking ride.
—Zoë
Elton
CENTERPIECE-SPOTLIGHT ON JOHN WELLS
John Wells wears many hats, and shines in each of them. As the creative force behind some of the most memorable and successful television series to ever hit primetime—ER, The West Wing, Third Watch and Shameless (with ER alone garnering a record-breaking 122 Emmy nominations)—Wells is a vastly influential producer. Film credits include Carroll Ballard’s Duma, Peter Kominsky’s White Oleander, Neil Jordan’s The Good Thief, Andrzej Bartkowiak’s Doom and Michael Mayer’s A Home at the End of the World. And he served as executive producer for, to name just a few, Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven and I'm Not There, Robert Altman’s The Company and John Waters A Dirty Shame. A graduate of the USC School of Cinema-Television, Wells made his debut as a feature filmmaker in 2010 with The Company Men, which he wrote and directed as well as produced, and which starred Ben Affleck. Wells is also a labor leader, serving as the president of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1999 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2011.