The 48th Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) will take place Oct. 2-12, with screenings at theaters across the North and East Bay.
For a full view of special awards, spotlights, and centerpiece films, check out the complete festival guide. Tickets can be purchased here. Below is a preview of the festival, featuring brief looks at three films:
1.) THE SECRET AGENT
(Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, 2025. 158 min.)
The Secret Agent is a blistering 1970s-styled political thriller as prescient today as the film could’ve been in the era in which the story takes place. In a tremendously powerful performance, Wagner Moura (Narcos; Civil War) plays an ex-professor in Brazil who is in hiding with other refugees from the country’s military dictatorship, with numerous authoritative officials after them. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau) soaks The Secret Agent in textural viscerality; the characters are drenched in sweat, the colorful costumes and immaculate set design pop off the screen, and the musical score infuses the slow-burn narrative with mystery and energy.
Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Fri., Oct. 3rd, 6:00pm at CinéArts Sequoia
– Sun., Oct. 5th, 11:15am at Smith Rafael Film Center
2.) CASE 137 (“Dossier 137”)
(France, 2025. 115 min)
Case 137 is a deliberate procedural about police brutality during the 2018 yellow vest protests in Paris. The film seamlessly combines bits of archival cell phone footage with recreated skirmishes to bring the audience into the streets. Case 137 demonstrates the frustrating complexity of adjudicating instances of anti-protest crowd control. Director Dominik Moll (The Night of the 12th) captures the excruciating anger and exasperation in the pursuit of justice, portrayed with bravura restraint by Léa Drucker as the police investigator.
Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Sat., Oct. 4th, 7:30pm at Smith Rafael Film Center
– Sun., Oct. 12th, 7:00PM at BAMPFA
3.) IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
(Iran, France, 2025. 101 min.)
Jafar Panahi’s (The White Balloon) morality tale begins as innocently as a quiet nighttime car ride home, but after hitting a dog in the road, the mother suggests to herchild, “It was just an accident. What will be will be,” and events unfold from there in increasingly traumatic ways. Through a series of tense encounters and moral quandaries, Panahi, who has been imprisoned for his anti-Iranian government views, uses his Palme d’Or winning film to explore the emotional cycle of violence, revenge, and sense of eluding justice that permeates under the surface of Iranian life.
Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Mon., Oct. 6th, 7:00pm at Smith Rafael Film Center
– Sat., Oct. 11th, 2:00pm at BAMPFA
