MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL
Thursday, October 1, 2026 – Sunday, October 11, 2026
Italian cinema is represented at the 49th edition of the MVFF through three international co-productions:
A TALENT FOR MURDER
Friday, October 2, 2026 | 7 PM @Lark Theater
Saturday, October 10, 2026 | 12 PM @Sequoia Cinema 1
In Anton Corbijn’s playful thriller, Oscar winner Helen Mirren delivers a fiendishly juicy portrayal of the legendary mystery author Patricia Highsmith in an imaginary scenario with a wicked sense of humor. Based on Joanna Murray-Smith’s play, Switzerland (adapted for the screen by the playwright herself), the story follows the famously tough Highsmith while the retired author receives a visit from over-ambitious publishing rep Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich, unpredictable at every turn) at her handsome Swiss Alps home. The year is 1995 and the talented Mr. Ridgeway has but one mission: convince Highsmith to conjure up a final Tom Ripley murder mystery, poised to be a bestseller. As the equally stubborn and deliberate Ridgeway and Highsmith face off across a mazy creative process where their unknowable instincts often clash, the line between reality and fiction blurs in unimaginable ways, spilling both the blood and the beans as stylishly as a Highsmith novel. —Tomris Laffly
Dir: Anton Corbijn
USA/Italy, 2026, Thriller, Color, 106 min
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Helen Mirren, Olivia Cooke
Language: English
LA GRADIVA
Saturday, October 3, 2026 | 5 PM @Smith Rafael 3
Sunday, October 4, 2026 | 4 PM @BAMPFA
French teenagers take a summer class trip to Naples, Italy, in this marvelous coming-of-age film, which garnered the Cannes Critics Week Best Picture award for first-time feature filmmaker Marine Atlan and her co-writer Anne Brouillet. The focus is on three kids—gorgeous rich-kid seducer James (Mitia Capellier-Audat), his charismatic but angry buddy Toni (Colas Quignard), and shy but observant nerdy outsider Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin) —and their teacher Mercier (Antonia Buresi). It’s hard to convey how subtle, mysterious, and completely intelligent this drama is—a dark but never dour or depressing investigation of the perils of adolescent fantasizing about sexual romance and family history, as well as the enduring effects of class antagonism and resentment. It’s a drama that conveys 2026’s complete sexual fluidity: Everyone is androgynous to a greater or lesser degree, and everyone is both promiscuous and frightened in unexpected ways. With marvelous sundrenched Italian landscapes photographed by Pierre Mazoyer and Atlan, a controlled ironic tone, and a superb ensemble. La Gradiva is one of the most assured directorial debuts in years. —Larry Gross
Dir: Marine Atlan
France/Italy, 2026, Coming of age, Frist Feature, Color, 145 min
Cast: Antonia Buresi, Colas Quignard, Mitia Capellier, Suzanne Gerin
Language: French, Italian with English subtitles
FATHERLAND
Tuesday, October 6, 2026 | 7:30 PM @Sequoia Cinema 1
Saturday, October 10, 2026 | 5 PM @Smith Rafael 2
Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski (MVFF41 Tribute) continues his ongoing examination of the emotional wounds and ruins of postwar Europe with this indelible drama. Joining the poetic ranks of his Oscar®-winning Ida (2013) and Oscar-nominated Cold War (MVFF41) in an unofficial trilogy, his latest black-and-white elegy traces the relationship between renowned writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his accomplished actress-writer daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller, among the finest performers working today), across a lyrical journey in a fractured Germany of 1949 where the exiled Mann is to receive the Goethe Prize. It’s the height of the Cold War, and the land that carries the duo’s roots is both deeply divided and consumed by unspoken guilt. A reflective and unforgettable study of identity, family, and national memory, Fatherland is simply a stunner in effortlessly braiding the makings of a classical road movie with an artistic statement on generational remorse. —Tomris Laffly
Dir: Pawel Pawlikowski
Poland/Germany/Italy/France, 2026, Drama, History, B&W, 82 min
Cast: Anna Madeley, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Hanns Zischler, Sandra Hüller
Language: German and English with English subtitles
