2024 Middleburg Film Festival winners list

The Middleburg Film Festival (MFF) 2024 completed the list of winners.

After previously announcing award winners Steve McQueen (“Blitz”), Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Pérez”) and Isabella Rossellini (“Conclave”), the Middleburg Film Festival has unveiled the full list of honored filmmakers. The annual festival will take place on October 17-20.

The IFF winners come from the most anticipated and praised films of 2024.

“Nickel Boys” director RaMell Ross will receive the Special Achievement in Filmmaking award. “Nickel Boys” was also selected as the closing film.

Danielle Deadwyler will receive the Breakthrough Actor Award for “The Piano Lesson.” The “Till” actress leads the film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play alongside John David Washington. The duo plays two siblings who disagree over the sale of the family piano. “The Piano Lesson” is the feature and directorial debut of Malcolm Washington.

“Sing Sing” actors Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin will receive this year’s Impact Award for their roles in the A24 drama based on the true stories of people incarcerated in a theater program at a notorious maximum security prison in New York State. Participants engage in writing, directing and acting in original stage productions through the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program. The festival will feature a special show called “Sing Sing”.

The 2024 Rising Star Award goes to “Unstoppable” actor Jharrel Jerome, who plays real-life wrestler Anthony Robles in the biopic. Robles, born with one leg, becomes an NCAA wrestling champion.

Oscar-nominated cinematographer Ed Lachman will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival for the cinematography of his latest collaboration with Pablo Larraín on “Maria.” Lachman previously collaborated with Larraín on “El Conde,” for which he received his third Oscar nomination. Lachman’s career includes Todd Haynes’ “Carol,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Erin Brockovich,” and Paul Schrader’s “Selena” and “Touch.”

Composer Mychael Danna will be honored with the Distinguished Composer Award. The ceremony will also be accompanied by a concert presenting Danny’s most recognized and award-winning scores from films such as “Life of Pi” and “500 Days of Summer”. The scores will be performed by a 60-piece orchestra and choir led by music director and conductor Kim Kluge.

The duo of Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol, lyricists and composers of “Emilia Pérez”, will be honored with the Special Achievement in Music award for the musical film, which includes an original soundtrack and 16 original songs.

IFF will also offer several programs on the craft of filmmaking, including a costume design conversation with Oscar nominee and Tony Award winner Paul Tazewell (“West Side Story,” “Hamilton”), who will present a preview of his upcoming film “Vile.” Additional offerings include a film music panel with composers and lyricists such as Distinguished Composer Award winner Danna, Diane Warren, Charles Fox, Lesley Barber, Taura Stinson and Kris Bowers.

As previously announced, “Saturday Night” director Jason Reitman and cinematographer Eric Steelberg will receive the IFF’s Variety and Creative Collaborators Awards.

Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch” will be Saturday’s Film Spotlight, with Heller participating in a post-screening conversation.