Not fade away: Virginia Film Fest announces 25th line-up

Lots of new films are on the bill for the 25th Virginia Film Festival among the 100-plus scheduled, but there's still more to come. Four other headliners for this year's November 1-4 flickathon had not been firmed up as of the October 2 press conference, said festival director Jody Kielbasa.

Not one, but two anticipated films kick off the festival. Sopranos creator David Chase's first feature film, Not Fade Away, starring James Gandolfini comes courtesy of its producer, Mark Johnson, a longtime film fest board member. 

The double opener continues with a "Quentin Tarantino Presents" film, The Man with the Iron Fists, directed by hip-hopper RZA and starring Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu.

Carl Bernstein will join his colleague in exposing presidential corruption, Bob Woodward, at a screening of All the President's Men.

Award-winning actor Keith Carradine will be on hand to discuss Ridley Scott's 1977 and first film, The Duellists, in which Carradine starred along with Harvey Keitel.

George Clooney's dad, documentary filmmaker Nick Clooney, will present his acclaimed Journey to Darfur. And DMB violinist Boyd Tinsley will screen his first foray into filmmaking, a psychedelic drama called Faces in the Mirror.

Other early glimpses of soon-to-be-released movies include A Late Quartet, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, and Catherine Keener; The Stand Up Guys, with Walken and Al Pacinio as aging con men, Between Us with Julia Stiles, and Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey, the story of the plucked-from-obsurity Filipino singer-songwriter who became the lead singer for Journey.

Family Day offers an opportunity to see a 75th-anniversary showing of Snow White, which is rarely seen on the big screen anymore.

And there's a healthy list of foreign films, including Amour, the Palme d'Or winner at Cannes this year starring Isabelle Huppert.

Tickets went on sale October 5, and Kielbasa promises more announcements in the next two weeks.