At just 16 years old, Elle Fanning has become the youngest recipient of the Mill Valley award in the festival’s 37-year history. Earning her the honor was her heartbreaking performance in Low Down, the feature debut of director Jeff Preiss in which she plays Amy-Jo Albany, the real life daughter of critically lauded, woefully drug-addicted jazz pianist Joe Albany (played here by John Hawkes).

Following a red carpet stroll by Preiss and Fanning (who was shockingly tall in person) at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, the director and his star sat in the audience, foregoing an onstage introduction to experience the film alongside everyone else. Fanning did take the stage after the screening to accept the award, presented by festival Executive Director Mark Fishkin and festival Director of Programming Zoë Elton, as well as participate in a Q&A, which Preiss joined in on as well.

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Fanning was visibly giddy on stage (hell, I would be too if I were receiving an award the same year I got my driver’s license), overwhelmed by the crowd’s warm reception. As Elton said during the award presentation, the role seems to be a transitional one for the young actress, as the material is darker than anything she’s yet done. Joe Albany’s addictions ruled his life, consequently leading to him failing his daughter in many ways, on many occasions. But as Fanning’s Amy-Jo says in the film’s opening monologue, the girl loved her father “out of all proportion”.

“I think she’s the most incredible lady in the world,” Fanning said of Amy-Jo. “She [saw so many things living with her dad] that someone that young probably should not have seen, but dealt with it.” With her father hanging around with his druggy friends in their run-down Hollywood apartment, sometimes popping in and out of jail, and on one occasion abandoning her for two years as he traveled to Europe, Amy-Jo had every reason to resent him and his neglectful non-parenting. But her love for him never wavered, and she continued support him through all the pain he put her through. “Even though she hates him at times and is angry with his choices, there’s always the love there. If anyone said something negative about her dad, she’d stick up for him, even if she thought he was wrong.”

The complexity of Fanning’s role would be tricky for an actor three times her age, but she manages to rise to the occasion and outshine her cast mates. With Hawkes, Glenn Close (as her grandmother) and Lena Headey (as her awful, absentee mother) sharing the screen with her, this is no small feat.

The real life Amy-Jo was on set for the filming of the movie, making herself available to Fanning for reference. “With Amy, I was really nervous about asking questions. She said, ‘Ask me anything!’, and I’d just go blank.” Fanning did say that she’s now more comfortable asking questions of real life subjects (in her next film, Trumbo, she plays Nikola Trumbo, daughter of blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo), a lesson she learned from Close on the set of Low Down. “Glenn would just pick Amy’s brain apart,” Fanning said of her veteran co-star. “I definitely learned a lot from Glenn. She even had some fake teeth made for the role.”

Set in the ’70s, the film utilizes that signature mustard color palette to convey the dusty, smelly Hollywood atmosphere. Though Fanning steals the show, the rest of the cast (which also includes Caleb Landry Jones, Flea, and Peter Dinklage) turn in excellent performances as well. Preiss and screenwriter Topper Lilien have fashioned a film that’s too meandering and one-note to be a worthy vehicle for the actors’ work. The film covers every trope in the drug-addition sub-genre, and while story’s authenticity is indisputable (the real Amy-Jo was heavily involve, after all), it nonetheless disappoints, cinematically.

Still, as an entry in Fanning’s filmography, Low Down is a watershed moment in her young career. She was all smiles as she received a standing ovation in the packed theater, holding her award in one hand. I predict we’ll see her holding many more shiny statues as her bright career unfolds.

The Mill Valley Film Festival has built a reputation as a showcase for future Oscar winners and emergent independent and foreign filmmakers. The festival has hosted five of the last six Best Picture Oscar winners, rolling out the red carpet for A-list actors and filmmakers while heavily supporting local filmmakers as well. Nestled in one of the most beautiful places in the world, filmmakers, actors, and attendees alike are drawn to Mill Valley every year by the easy, low-stress atmosphere, the gorgeous surroundings, the varied special events and, of course, the films. In its 37th year, the festival looks to deliver everything loyal festival-goers expect and more.

“Variety has said once–probably more than once–that Mill Valley has the ambience of a destination festival and the clout of an urban festival,” said festival founder and director Mark Fishkin at yesterday’s press conference. “Change” is one of the themes of this year’s festival, with the folks behind the festival embracing the evolving landscape of film and film distribution. Said Fishkin: “For us, change is inevitable, but we are still part of a special division of the film industry, which is theatrical exhibition. We take our role as curators very seriously, whether it’s films that are coming from the Bay Area or films coming from Cannes.”

The Homesman

Tommy Lee Jones‘ latest offering, The Homesman, will open the festival, with star Hilary Swank set to attend. The film is a Western, following a claim jumper (Jones) and a young woman (Swank) as they escort three insane woman through the treacherous frontier between Nebraska and Iowa. Fishkin describes it as a “feminist Western” that is “extremely moving. We’re just so proud to be showing it in this year’s festival.”

Co-headlining opening night is Men, Women, & Children, Jason Reitman‘s new film starring Ansel Elgort, Adam Sandler, Judy Greer, and Jennifer Garner that explores the strange effect the internet age has on parents and their teens. Reitman will be in attendance to present. Lynn Shelton‘s Laggies will also play opening night, completing the killer triple-threat. The film, about a woman stuck in slacker adolescence, stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Keira Knightley, and Sam Rockwell.

The festival looks to finish as strong as it started, with Jean-Marc Valée‘s follow-up to Dallas Buyers Club, spiritual quest movie Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed, who embarked on a 1,100-mile hike to heal deep emotional wounds. Laura Dern also stars, and will be honored with a tribute.

French favorite Juliette Binoche stars across Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria. Binoche plays an actress who’s asked to return to a play that made her famous 20 years ago, but this time in an older role, forcing her to reflect on the young woman she once was and what she’s become since. Another French actress who can do no wrong, Marion Cotillard is outstanding in the Dardenne brothers’ new film, Two Days, One Night. Recalling the best of Italian neorealism, the film follows a woman who’s got a weekend to convince her co-workers to forego their bonuses to save her job.

The Theory of Everything

Two emerging young actors will be spotlighted as Eddie Redmayne and Elle Fanning will be in attendance to discuss their respective new films. Fanning stars in Low Down, which views the troubled life of jazz pianist Joe Albany (John Hawkes) from the perspective of his teenage daughter (Fanning). Set in the ’70s, the film also stars Glenn Close, Peter Dinklage, and Lena Headey. In a breakout performance, Redmayne portrays legendary physicist Stephen Hawking in the stirring biopic The Theory of Everything, which is quickly generating momentum on the festival circuit.

Several other films that have been building steam on the festival circuit will play at the festival as well. English landscape painter J. M. W. Turner is played brilliantly by Timothy Spall in Mike Leigh‘s Mr. Turner, which we loved at Cannes. Also portraying a significant real-life figure is Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars in The Imitation Game, the story of English mathematician Alan Turing and his groundbreaking intelligence work during World War II. Steve Carell‘s highly-anticipated turn in Foxcatcher as John Du Pont, the man who shot olympic great David Schultz, will surely continue to stir up Oscar talk as the film plays late in the festival. Robert Downey Jr. stars as a big city lawyer who returns home to defend his father (Robert Duvall), the town judge, who is suspected of murder.

Metallica is set to play a pleasantly unexpected role in the festival as his year’s artist in residence, with each of the four members of the band presenting a film. Drummer Lars Ulrich has naturally chosen to highlight Whiplash, Damien Chazelle‘s drama about a young aspiring drummer and his relentless instructor. Chazelle will also be in attendance. Lead singer James Hetfield has chosen to present a classic, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, while guitarist Kirk Hammett, one of the world’s foremost horror aficionados, will offer up Dracula vs. Frankenstein. Bassist Robert Trujillo is showing a sneak peek at a documentary he produced himself, Jaco, which tells the story of legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius.

On the local side of things is a special screening of Soul of a Banquet, a documentary by filmmaker Wayne Wang  about celebrity chef Cecilia Chang. Wang and Chang, who both have deep San Francisco Bay Area roots, will be in attendance to celebrate their storied careers and present their film collaboration. Chuck Workman, another Bay Area legend who’s best known for editing the clip reels at the Oscars, will be honored at the festival as well.