MNFF to bring images, ideas and conversation to Middlebury this week

In mysterious ways, each year’s MNFF selections tend to fall into clusters, thematically. Artistic Director Jay Craven says this year’s crop of films includes characters acting on deeply principled stands — win or lose.

This year’s Middlebury New Filmmakers Festivals features 107 films. Here are a few from Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven’s must-see list.

Jay Craven offers a look behind the curtain of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival guest-list.

Winter’s Bone,” Debra Granik’s 2010 four-time Academy Award-nominated rural film noir, won multiple awards and it introduced the larger world to fast-rising star, Jennifer Lawrence, who plays teenage, poverty-stricken Ree Dolly in the neglected rural Ozar … (read more)

The film is a Revolutionary War-era action drama set in the early upstart Republic of Vermont. It features Vermont founding father and rebel schemer, Ethan Allen, who leads resistance to New Yorker land claims, launches an ill-fated attack on British forc … (read more)

Last week, before Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, Washington Post film critics reviewed Oscar choices over the last 50 years, weighing in on which films they thought should have won Best Picture. They mostly chose nominees that didn’t win.

The Friends of the Union Meeting Hall in Ferrisburgh will present a special screening of Jay Craven’s award-winning 1997 film, “A Stranger in the Kingdom,” based on the novel by Howard Frank Mosher. 

‏I remember the surprise I experienced in 1988 when I first saw Erroll Morris’ pioneering true crime documentary, “The Thin Blue Line.” I’d never seen anything like it, with its relentless questioning, probing interviews, tense recreations, shadowy detect … (read more)

The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival will try something new this winter and spring, with a Selects Series we’re calling “Lost Chances: Neo-Noir Here and Now.”

Film director Ron Howard’s five-time Emmy-winning documentary film, “Jim Henson: Idea Man” will screen at 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 19, at the Town Hall Theater, as part of the Midddlebury New Filmmakers’ year-round Selects Series.

“The Teachers’ Lounge” was one of this year’s Best Foreign Film nominees — though its closely observed drama set inside a contemporary seventh-grade German classroom could have easily been American.  The film’s protagonist, idealistic young teacher Carla … (read more)

‏Like many people, I was sad to learn the heartbreaking news that Kris Kristofferson passed away on Sept. 28. Kris was a rare figure in popular culture — supremely talented, successful, modest, and always generous and kind.

I’ll play my new film, “Lost Nation,” this Saturday at Middlebury Town Hall Theater, as a part of the film’s Vermont 50 Town Tour. It will screen here again on Aug. 10. JAY CRAVEN The film is a Revolutionary War-era action drama set in the early upstart R … (read more)

This Revolutionary War-era action drama is set in the early upstart Republic of Vermont with some notable historic characters fleshed out in an exciting story.

It’s been 30 years since Jay Craven was on the road touring his film “Where the Rivers Flow North.” Now he’s looking forward to a special screening this Saturday in Ferrisburgh.