HIFF 2024: Notes From a Truly International Festival

Some of the spotlight programming was also screened at the East Hampton Middle School and East Hampton Guild Hall, where state of the art sound systems and screens had been set up. Film royalty showed out for the festival too, with Demi Moore, fresh off her performance in The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024), receiving the Career Achievement in Acting Award and Liev Schreiber accepting the festival’s Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award. [...]the Achievement in Screenwriting Award was given to Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, the cowriters of Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann, 2024). In a festival so full of delicate examinations of trauma, generational and otherwise, the madcap energy of Anora felt like an especially welcome change of pace. [...]Hard Truths (Mike Leigh, 2024), received seemingly universal raves, with many pointing specifically to the performance of Marianna Jean-Baptiste, best known for her incredible work in Leigh’s Secrets & Lies (1996).