ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Middleburg Film Festival

Reviews 

NOMADLAND – Review by Leslie Combemale

Leslie Combemale 0 Comments , , , ,

The film examines the phenomenon of travelers going across the country in search of work, through the lens of a widow named Fern (McDormand), who lives in her van. Other than co-star David Strathairn, who plays a fellow nomad, the secondary characters are played by real people on the nomad community. McDormand, Zhao, and crew members lived out of vans during production. The result is a film that is beautiful and sad and unique. It will blow you away. 

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Festivals Reviews 

BLITHE SPIRIT (Middleburg FF 2020) – Review by Leslie Combemale

Leslie Combemale 0 Comments , , , , , , ,

A new film adaptation of Noel Coward’s famously ‘spirited’ 1941 play Blithe Spirit is coming to a (insert however the hell we’ll be seeing movies in December) near you, starring pretty pretties Isla Fisher, Dan Stevens, and Leslie Mann, and the Middleburg Film Festival offered a drive-in screening of this fluffy farce, this celebration of cynicism, on the fest’s opening night. Screenwriter Piers Ashworth reinvigorates the story with a more female-friendly, feminist bend, and one character who is decidedly more sympathetic, although the story still takes place in the 30s, with all the attendant style and panache.

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Festivals 

Middleburg Film Festival 2019 Wrap-Up – Sandie Angulo Chen reports

Sandie Angulo Chen 0 Comments , , , , , ,

Now in its seventh year, the Middleburg Film Festival in bucolic Virginia horse country continues to feature a well-curated slate of top-notch narrative and documentary feature films from around the world. Washington D.C.-area AWFJ members in attendance included Nell Minow and Susan Wloszczyna, both of whom participated in the Talk Back to the Critics’ session, as well as Leslie Combemale and Sandie Angulo Chen. Between us, we saw at least 40 films, and we’ve picked our favorite women-focused films and performances from the festival for readers to put on their must-watch lists.

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Festivals Spotlight 

SPOTLIGHT: November, 2014 – Sheila Johnson, Film Festival Founder, Entertainment Mogul

Susan Wloszczyna 0 Comments , , , ,

sheila johnson4croppedOur SPOTLIGHT is on Sheila Johnson, billionaire entrepreneur, co-founder of BET, backer of independent films and documentaries, philanthropist of note, and the force behind Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia – which celebrates its second year this month. Read on…

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