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October 13, 2026 (San Rafael, CA) – Today, the 49th Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF49) announced the winners of its Audience Awards after officially wrapping on Sunday, October 11. With 11 days of extraordinary film, artistry, and community, this year’s festival drew over 40,000 attendees from across the Bay Area, presenting them with a rich selection of films, tributes, panels, and special events featuring world-renowned filmmakers and talent, emerging creative voices, and thought-provoking stories from 45 countries. Overall, MVFF49 screened 177 films, including 97 features and 80 shorts, with 61% of the lineup directed by women and nonbinary filmmakers.

FULL LIST OF MVFF 2026 AUDIENCE AWARDS
MVFF Overall Audience Award TENZING Director: Jennifer Peedom
Audience Award | Narrative: ELSINORE Director: Simon Stone
Audience Award | Documentary WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS
Director: Dawn Porter
Audience Award | New Directors WICKER Directors: Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson

Other awards given during MVFF this year include:2026 MVFF AwardsMVFF Tribute | Sam Rockwell MVFF Tribute | Linda PerryMVFF Auteur Award | Lee Chang-dong, Possible Love MVFF Maverick Director Award | James Gray, Paper Tiger MVFF Award, Acting | Andrew Scott, ElsinoreMVFF Award, Acting | Léa Seydoux, Gentle Monster, MVFF Award for Screen Artistry | Virginie Efira, All of a SuddenMVFF Award, Breakthrough Performance | Rosalind Eleazar, Misty Green MVFF Award, Bay Area Rising Star | Beth de Araújo, Josephine

For the first time, MVFF convened a jury of film professionals to honor the best narrative and documentary shorts screening at this year’s festival.

2026 MVFF Shorts AwardsBest Narrative Short | Are We Still Married? • dir. Kit SteinkellnerBest Documentary Short | The Right Fit • dirs. Nicolas Collins and Max MollringSpecial Jury Prize, presented by Redbreast Unhidden Shorts | Gravity • dir. Dalya Keleş 
2026 Mind the Gap Awards & PrizesMind the Gap Award, Director | Marie Kreutzer, Gentle MonsterMind the Gap Award for Groundbreaking Work | Sophie Okonedo, Mouse Mind the Gap Elton Creation Prize ($10,000) | Fernanda Tovar, Sad GirlzMind the Gap Elton Creation Prize Special Jury Award ($5,000) | Beth de Araújo, Josephine

The festival opened on Thursday, October 1, with Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, a gripping thriller set against the 1973 Chilean coup, with McDonagh and cast members Mariana Di Girólamo, Sam Rockwell, and Parker Posey in attendance. The following night, Rockwell was honored with a Tribute featuring clips and an onstage conversation with Randy Myers and received the MVFF Award from McDonagh and Posey. The festival wrapped with A24’s The Debut, with writer/director Jesse Eisenberg in attendance.

In between, Linda Perry was celebrated with a Tribute honoring her groundbreaking work as a composer and songwriter, whose songs have shaped decades of popular music. Following clips from her extensive body of work, Perry’s daughter, Rhodes, gave a heartfelt speech and invited her mother to the stage to accept the MVFF Award. Perry then joined Bay Area filmmaker Don Hardy (Linda Perry: Let It Die Here) for an in-depth conversation about her career and closed the evening with a surprise performance alongside the Bay Area Music Project Youth Chorus.

Spotlight programs brought a remarkable lineup of international talent to Marin, with honorees receiving awards before screenings of their latest films. Andrew Scott received the MVFF Award, Acting for Elsinore, and Léa Seydoux received the MVFF Award, Acting for her performance in Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster. Virginie Efira accepted the MVFF Award for Screen Artistry for All of a Sudden. Two celebrated auteurs were also recognized: Lee Chang-dong received the MVFF Auteur Award for Possible Love, and James Gray the MVFF Maverick Director Award for Paper Tiger. Rising talent shone as well, with Rosalind Eleazar earning the MVFF Award, Breakthrough Performance for Misty Green and San Francisco’s own Beth de Araújo receiving the MVFF Award, Bay Area Rising Star for Josephine. ¡Viva el Cine! was headlined by its own Spotlight presentation of La Bola Negra, with writer/director/producers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi in attendance for a bold, inventive film that captures exactly what the program was built to champion. 

“The 49th Mill Valley Film Festival was a success on every front,” said Mark Fishkin, CAFILM Founder and Executive Director. “In her first year as Artistic Director, Rose Kuo, working alongside our veteran programming team, assembled an extraordinary lineup of films, complemented by events that captured the essence of what has been called a destination festival with the clout of an urban one. Renowned guests joined us from around the world, and the films themselves offered a fitting prelude to our 50th anniversary next year.”

Kuo was named Artistic Director of the California Film Institute in September 2025, a newly created role guiding CAFILM’s artistic vision across the Mill Valley Film Festival, DocLands, the Smith Rafael Film Center, the Sequoia Cinema, and CAFILM Education. An internationally recognized festival leader, she previously served as Executive Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the New York Film Festival, Publisher of Film Comment, and Artistic Director of AFI FEST. Earlier in her career, she was a programmer at MVFF, so this year was also a homecoming.

“We are at a moment when what we put on screen, and how we gather around it, matters more than ever,” said Rose Kuo, CAFILM Artistic Director. “From our Spotlight honorees to the first-time directors in New Directors, this year’s filmmakers took on our complicated world with clarity, courage, and grace.”

MVFF49 also introduced two new sections. New Directors spotlighted first- and second-time filmmakers from around the world, giving audiences an early look at the voices shaping cinema’s next chapter. Highlights included New Directors Audience Favorite Wicker, from Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, and TK. The new Animation section showed how far the form can travel and was anchored by a lively panel, “Animation Is Film,” on why animation belongs at the heart of cinema. The conversation featured director and storyboard artist Daniel Chong (We Bare Bears, Hoppers), filmmaker and storyboard artist Kenna Harris (Toy Story 5), author and illustrator AJ Dungo (In Waves), and director Leah Nelson (Tangles). Together, the two sections reflect MVFF’s commitment to discovering new talent and championing every corner of the art form as the festival heads toward its 50th anniversary.

MVFF49’s expanded slate of panel discussions drew industry and moviegoers alike. With an eye for the increasing importance and popularity of documentaries, MVFF49 screened 32 documentaries, followed by the DocTalk Panel, where acclaimed documentarians Avi Belkin (Odyssey), David Greaves (Once Upon a Time in Harlem), Viridiana Lieberman (Jean-Michel Basquiat), and Dawn Porter (When a Witness Recants) sat down over brunch to dig into the craft and urgency of nonfiction storytelling today. Always a hub for moviemakers and moviemaking, the Bay Area was the focus of Made in San Francisco. Local filmmakers Beth de Araújo (Josephine), Dee Dee Escobedo, and Manijeh Fat, along with Alycia Gideon, Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA San Francisco–Northern California Local, got real about building careers and telling stories rooted in their own backyard.

Another crowd favorite, the special conversation with San Francisco’s David Thomson, one of the most respected and prolific writers on film, and A.O. Scott, film critic of The New York Times from 2000 to 2023 and currently a critic-at-large for The New York Times Book Review, was moderated by Rebecca Ford, the senior Hollywood correspondent for Vanity Fair.

Now in its 11th year, MVFF’s Mind the Gap program continues to champion women and nonbinary filmmakers whose work is moving cinema forward. Marie Kreutzer received the Mind the Gap Award, Director, for Gentle Monster, and Sophie Okonedo was honored with the Mind the Gap Award for Groundbreaking Work for Mouse. Okonedo also attended the festival with Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa. Writer/director Fernanda Tovar received the $10,000 Mind the Gap Creation Prize for Sad Girlz, and Beth de Araújo’s Josephine received a $5,000 Mind the Gap Special Jury Prize, capping a memorable festival for the Bay Area filmmaker.

The annual Mind the Gap Summit brought together filmmakers, industry leaders, and audiences for a day of conversation about equity and opportunity in film. A highlight was an onstage conversation between CAFILM Artistic Director Rose Kuo and Cheryl Boone Isaacs, former President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In “Staying Power: Film and Politics,” producer Lydia Dean Pilcher and filmmaker Julia Loktev explored how filmmakers sustain politically engaged work over the long haul. The Mind the Gap Directors Panel, moderated by Rebecca Ford of Vanity Fair, brought together Marie Kreutzer (Gentle Monster), Kelly O’Sullivan (Mouse), and Creation Prize winner Fernanda Tovar (Sad Girlz) for a candid look at their work and the paths that brought them to the screen.

CAFILM Education brought nearly 4,000 students to MVFF49 through in-theater screenings, virtual programs, and filmmaker visits to classrooms across the Bay Area. Highlights included a packed screening of A24’s Backrooms, with director Kane Parsons joining students to talk about turning his eerie, internet-born world into a feature film, and a screening of Catherine Hardwicke’s Street Smart, followed by a masterclass with the filmmaker. The Class of MVFF program continued to grow college participation, hosting its third annual College Mixer and launching a first-ever partnership with the Santa Rosa Junior College Petaluma Screening Series.

“What stays with me most is the students themselves,” said Angela Colabella, CAFILM/MVFF Director of Education. “Their questions were sharp, their reactions were honest, and so many left seeing films not just as something to watch but something that belonged to them. That’s the heart of our work: every screening is an invitation for young people to see themselves as the storytellers of the future.” 
Thank you to all the filmmakers, audiences, and partners who made this year’s festival a success. We’ll see you for our 50th anniversary at MVFF50! Save the date: Thursday, October 14 – Sunday, October 24, 2027.
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About Mill Valley Film FestivalPresented by the California Film Institute (CAFILM), the 49th Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) ran October 1–11, 2026. As the festival approaches its landmark 50th anniversary, MVFF stands as one of the most significant cultural cinema events in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nestled in the redwoods of Marin County, it has earned international recognition for showcasing exceptional films, supporting emerging talent, and fostering a convivial environment