The 2024 Montclair Film Festival has set its opening, closing and centerpiece films and revealed this year’s festival honors.
The New Jersey festival will open with Edward Berger’s Conclave, following the selection of the new pope, with Ralph Fiennes Cardinal Lawrence running the secret procedure, during which he discovers deep secrets left behind by the unexpected death of the last pope, secrets that could shake the foundation of the Catholic Church.
The festival will close with August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, directed and co-written by Malcolm Washington in his feature directorial debut. The film, which stars John David Washington and Danielle Deadwyler, centers around a prized piano tearing two siblings apart. The adaptation of Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning production is produced by Denzel Washington and Todd Black, with the cast rounded out by Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu and Corey Hawkins.
Montclair Film will honor Malcolm Washington with the festival’s Breakthrough Director Award and John David Washington with its Performance Award.
Montclair’s fiction centerpiece is William Goldenberg’s Unstoppable, starring Jharrel Jerome and Jennifer Lopez. The film, based on a true story, follows Jerome’s Anthony Robles, who was born with one leg but who used his strong spirit and resolve to defy the odds and pursue his wrestling dreams.
Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow serves as the family centerpiece. The animated movie follows a cat whose home is devastated by a great flood as he joins forces with other animals in search of dry land. The project explores the fragility of the environment and spirit of friendship and community.
The festival’s documentary centerpiece is Asif Kapadia’s 2073, exploring a dystopic future — complete with surveillance drones filling burnt orange skies and militarized police roaming wrecked streets as survivors hide underground, struggling to remember their free and hopeful past — foreshadowed by the realities of the present in a blend of science fiction and speculative nonfiction. Samantha Morton plays a survivor haunted by nightmare visions of her past, the current present, shown through contemporary footage of such threats as authoritarianism, unchecked big tech, inequality and global climate change. Kapadia will receive the festival’s Documentary Director Award.
The Montclair Film Festival will also feature its first Creator Spotlight, designed to highlight the work of artists that use cinematic storytelling to reach audiences in new ways online. The YouTube-centric debut will screen an early look at the first feature-length episode of creator Michelle Khare’s docuseries, Challenge Accepted: 90 Day Blackbelt.
In addition to the above accolades for talent behind The Piano Lesson and 2073, Montclair will honor Nightbitch director Marielle Heller with the festival’s Director Award, after a screening of her film about Amy Adams’ mother character who pauses her career to raise her young child as her maternal routine takes a surreal turn. And director Petra Costa will receive the David Carr Award for Truth in Filmmaking for her film, Apocalypse in the Tropics, exploring the political power of faith leaders in Brazil.
“This year’s program is filled with powerful new works, and we are so honored to bring these incredible artists and their films to the Montclair Film Festival,” Montclair Film’s artistic director and co-head Tom Hall said in a statement.
The 13th Montclair Film Festival is set to run from Oct. 18-27 in Montclair, New Jersey.
