PHOTOPHILE- Feting the fest: Gala gathers glitteratti galore

Lovers of movies and the people who make them were in hobnob heaven on October 26 at the 19th Virginia Film Festival's opening gala. 

Most attendees came to the party at the Music Resource Center straight from the Paramount Theater's showing of Swedish Auto, the debut feature film by Charlottesville native Derek Sieg. The locally shot independent film was warmly received by festivalgoers, making Sieg and actress January Jones highly desirable schmooze objects.

The marquee attraction was, of course, legendary actor Robert Duvall, who was in town to screen his Academy Award-winning performance in Tender Mercies as well as his directorial feature, The Apostle. The man who has been in everything from To Kill a Mockingbird to The Godfather to Apocalypse Now greeted those who approached with a smile and a handshake, seemingly happy to field almost any query from eager fans. But there appeared to be nary a whiff of the subject of napalm– or how it smells in the morning.

Warrentonian Robert Duvall talks with festivalgoers

Most attendees had just seen January Jones in the locally shot independent film, Swedish Auto

Swedish Auto is Charlottesville native Derek Sieg's first feature-length film.

Cry_Wolf writer-director Jeff Wadlow came back to his hometown to mentor young filmmakers in the annual Adrenalin Film Project

UVA grad and big-time Hollywood producer Mark Johnson screened The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Festival director Richard Herskowitz

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