Sun Valley, Idaho (November 19, 2024) – This December, The Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF) lights up the holiday season with its Winter Screening Series, running from December 5-8, 2024. The event will recognize Demi Moore with the Vision Award and Pamela Anderson and Gia Coppola with the Pioneer Award presented by Variety, and Porcelain War with the Impact Award. The Winter Screening Series will open with The Last Showgirl, while offering audiences screenings of Porcelain War, Blink and a curated series of shorts from The New Yorker. The weekend promises a mix of film screenings, intimate Q&A sessions and Coffee Talks, and receptions and dinners for AMPAS members and other special guests.
“This Winter Screening Series line-up represents a celebration of bold storytelling, and cinematic excellence, which will be a perfect showcase for our film loving audiences including Sun Valley based guild and AMPAS members in advance of voting for award season,” Teddy Grennan, Executive Director, Sun Valley Film Festival. “With this date change, we plan to grow the prominence of the Festival and continue to make Sun Valley a must-stop for awards contenders.”
“We’re thrilled to honor these three remarkable female artists whose work is some of the best of this season,” said Candice Pate, Festival Director, Sun Valley Film Festival. “We’re excited to honor Demi Moore, who has longstanding ties to and a residence in Sun Valley. Her extraordinary career has consistently broken barriers and defined what it means to be a visionary in Hollywood, making her the perfect recipient of our Vision Award. Pamela Anderson’s fearless performance and Gia Coppola’s bold directorial voice in The Last Showgirl embody the trailblazing spirit we celebrate with the Pioneer Award.”
Awards
Actress, producer, and New York Times bestselling author Demi Moore will participate in a Coffee Talk on Sunday, December 8 and receive the prestigious Vision Award. Bestowed annually to industry icons whose groundbreaking contributions have transformed the industry for the better, past recipients include Annette Bening, Josh Brolin, Clint Eastwood and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Moore’s current projects include The Substance, the second season of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, and Taylor Sheridan’s Landman. Known for iconic performances in St. Elmo’s Fire, Ghost, A Few Good Men, and Indecent Proposal, Moore’s influence spans decades. Her upcoming project, Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, pairs her alongside Keke Palmer and LaKeith Stanfield.
Pamela Anderson and Gia Coppola will receive the Pioneer Award presented by Variety, which recognizes trailblazers in front of and behind the camera. The award will be presented as part of a Q&A following The Last Showgirl on Friday, December 6. Previous recipients of the award include Mark Duplass, Ted Hope, Shaka King, Aaron Paul, and Danny Strong.
Anderson is well known for her role on the blockbuster television series Baywatch, as well as her bestselling memoir, Love, Pamela, and her Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Pamela, a Love Story. For her role in The Last Showgirl, Anderson received the Golden Eye Award at the Zurich Film Festival and was nominated for Outstanding Lead Performance by the Gotham Awards. Coppola, acclaimed for her directorial debut Palo Alto and the visionary Mainstream, brings her distinctive voice to The Last Showgirl, cementing her place as a leading creative force in the industry.
Porcelain War – which has received more than 40 honors and recognitions since winning the 2024 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary, including a finalist for the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award – will receive a special Impact Award for its stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, embodying the enduring hope and passion of ordinary people living through extraordinary circumstances.
Screenings
The Winter Screening Series will feature an exciting array of films, including:
Thursday, December 5th:
The SVFF Winter Screening Series kicks off with an Evening with The New Yorker Shorts showcasing award-winning live action and documentary shorts that offer fresh perspectives on global issues, by emerging and renowned filmmakers. The event is in partnership with Boise State Public Radio and George Prentice who will moderate a conversation with Paul Moakley executive producer of video at The New Yorker. Now in its 17th year, The New Yorker documentary series have captured an impressive 17 seventeen Oscar nominations (including 3 nominations over the past two years for the Dwayne Wade-EP’d The Barber of Little Rock, Haulout and Stranger at the Gate). Highlights include the Denial, which Paul Moakley co-directs with Daniel Lombroso; Bogotá Story, directed by Esteban Pedraza; Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr, directed by Kimberly Reed; I’m Not a Robot, directed by Victoria Warmerdam.
Friday, December 6th:
The winter screening series will begin with the opening night film screening of the Roadside Attractions film The Last Showgirl. Anderson stars in the role of a lifetime as a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. Both Anderson and Coppola will participate in a Q&A following the screening.
Saturday, December 7th:
An afternoon screening of the acclaimed documentary Porcelain War, which features Ukrainian artists, who under roaring fighting jets, stay behind, defiantly finding beauty amid destruction. Armed with art, cameras and for the first time in their lives, guns, they show that while it’s easy to frighten people, it’s harder to destroy their passion for living. The film is co-directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontye. Producer Paula DuPre’ Pesmen will on hand for a post-screening Q&A and accept the Impact Award.
That evening Moore will participate in a Q&A following The Substance. Coralie Fargeat’s critically acclaimed body horror feature premiered in-competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it garnered rave reviews and was released by MUBI. The film also stars Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid.
Sunday, December 8:
The closing film will be an afternoon screening of National Geographic Documentary Films’ Blink. When three of their four children are diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare and incurable disease that leads to severe visual impairment, the Pelletier family’s world changes forever. In the face of this life-altering news, Edith Lemay, Sébastien Pelletier and their children set out on a trip around the world to experience all its beauty while they still can. As they fill their memories with breathtaking destinations and once-in-a-lifetime encounters, the family’s love, resilience and unshakeable sense of wonder ensure that their uncertain future does not define their present. Directors Edmund Stenson and Oscar® and BAFTA Award-winner Daniel Roher, along with Fishbowl Films’ Oscar and BAFTA Award-winning producers Melanie Miller and Diane Becker, will join a Q&A after the screening.
Blink will be preceded by the winning short film from the SVJr. high school film competition, now in its 17th year. This competition cycle received over 300 entries from 56 countries.
The Winter Screening Series serves as a preview of the festival shifting from its annual March/April five-day celebration of cinema to its new December dates in 2025. This promising shift serves as a more timely, “must-stop” advance platform for award-season contenders, just before Academy Award shortlist voting starts on December 9. At last year’s Winter Screening Series, SVFF screened the Oscar-nominated The Color Purple and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, with a filmmaker Q&A in January. Previous winter screenings have included such films as National Geographic Documentary Film’s Free Solo, which went on to win the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Passes and tickets to 2024 Winter Screening Series are available now. For additional information, visit https://sunvalleyfilmfestival.org/winter-screening-series-2024/. T
