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PrintSociety Thrives Here - Napa rolls out the red carpet
Napa Valley Film Festival 2012
Alan Cumming and Billy Bush at the Celebrity Tribute
Robbi Pengelly/Index-Tribune
The second annual Napa Valley Film Festival solidified its reputation as a festival to be reckoned with as it consumed the Valley from Napa to Calistoga with five days of films, food and wine from Nov. 7 to 11. Led by Sonoma Valley residents Marc and Brenda Lhormer, the festival attracts top cinema such as the hotly anticipated Silver Linings Playbook with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence; and A Late Quartet, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken. During the festival’s star-packed celebrity tribute, Alan Cumming took the Spotlight Award where he discussed his latest project, Any Day Now, about a gay couple who bring an unwanted teen with Down Syndrome into their home.
“I just felt so connected to the story. I like things that involve injustice—isn’t that weird?” Cumming said. “Politically and socially, it’s about things I am passionate about. I am still treated like a second class citizen in much of the world because of my sexuality.”
During the tribute, X-Men hunk James Marsden earned the Trailblazer Award; while British star Imogene Poots and Girls actor Adam Driver earned Rising Star Awards.
Acclaimed film historian and critic Leonard Maltin headed the festival’s jury, giving the Meadowood $10,000 U.S. Narrative Feature prize to the dramatic coming-of-age film Future Weather.
From the 2012 Winter issue of SONOMA
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