Virginia Film Festival

Starting in 2010, the Festival announced its intention to leave the themed approach in favor of more flexible programming.

[8][9] Notable screenings have included a 25th Anniversary tribute to In the Heat of the Night and Sidney Poitier, Distinguished Filmmaker presentations to Robert Altman, John Sayles, Emile de Antonio, and Arthur Penn, as well as Roger Ebert's "shot by shot" workshops on classics such as Vertigo, Sunset Boulevard, and The Third Man.

Memorable premiere events have included an advance screening of Mother & Child with actress Cherry Jones and director Rodrigo Garcia and a live producer's commentary of the show True Blood featuring its creator Alan Ball.

Notable guests have included Jimmy Stewart, Fay Wray, Gregory Peck, Ossie Davis, Nick Nolte, Norman Mailer, Jerzy Kosinski, Sissy Spacek, William Kennedy, Ann Beattie, Sandra Bullock, Nicolas Cage, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Mitchum, Gov.

Doug Wilder, Kathleen Turner, Sigourney Weaver, Richard Roundtree, Jack Valenti, bank robber John Wojtowicz[4] Vanessa Redgrave, Gena Rowlands, William Styron, Ross McElwee, Matthew Broderick, John Waters, Norman Jewison, Cherry Jones, Mary Badham, Horton Foote, Sherman Brothers, Tony Goldwin, Robert Duvall, Calder Willingham, Christoph Waltz, Peter Bogdanovich, Allen Hughes, Martin Luther King III, Derrick Borte, Robbie Jones,[10] Ethan Hawke, Annete Bening, Terry McAulife, Diane Rehm, Vince Gilligan,[11] Wanuri Kahui, Liana Liberato, Ann Dowd, Steven J. Kung, Ric Burns, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Shelly Chopra Dhar, Dennis Christopher, Kevin Jerome Everson, John Grisham, Debra Martin Chase, Patrick O'Connell, Kwaku Alston, Jamelle Bouie, Soraya Nadia McDonald, Alonso Duralde,[12] Jeremy O. Harris, Martha Plimpton,[13] Danny Strong, Carlos Aguilar, Robert Daniels, William Antholis.