A still from "Jeff Who Lives at Home" which screens at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

The 34th Mill Valley Film Festival announced its program recently, revealing the films it will play during its 11 day run from October 6-16. Among the highlights on my schedule are Ralph Fiennes' thrilling Shakespeare adaptation "Corialanus", The Duplass Brothers' new comedy "Jeff Who Lives At Home" with Jason Segal, Michel Hazanavicius' silent movie tribute "The Artist", and Steve McQueen's NYC sex addict odyssey "Shame", which I really enjoyed at Toronto. I'll give a full preview of the MVFF in a couple weeks, but get your tickets now!

What to Watch at the Small Festival

This weekend the 3rd Oakland Underground Film Festival returns to offer not just movies, but also, as the website promises, "LIVE MUSIC, DJS, TACO TRUCKS, BEER." That is my kind of line-up. Among the films playing at the NIMBY gallery, I am most excited about the documentary "Tarantino: Disciple of Hong Kong" at 9pm on Friday 9/23 and the "Experimental-ity Shorts Program" on Saturday 9/24 at 6:30pm.

And the Winner Is...

Finally, the San Francisco Film Society announced the winners of its Documentary Film Festival Award, which I discussed a few weeks ago. The three winners, which collected a total of $100,000, include: "An American Promise", which tracks two black students in New York who attend very different schools; "Match+", a profile of a doctor in India who plays matchmaker for her HIV positive patients; and "Cuite & The Boxer", which focuses on the relationship between two Japanese artists in 1970s New York.