Gentle Monster is getting awards love from the Mill Valley Film Festival.
The festival is honoring the film’s director, Marie Kreutzer, and its star, Léa Seydoux, with separate awards for their work on the feature. Gentle Monster, which is being released next month by Netflix, follows a concert pianist Lucy (Seydoux) who faces how little she knows about her husband after he is accused of an unspeakable crime.
Kreutzer will receive the fest’s Mind the Gap Award, which recognizes standout work by women filmmakers and continues the festival’s commitment to advancing gender equity in the industry. Last year, the honor went to filmmaker Eva Victor for Sorry, Baby and actress Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.
The Austrian writer-director is best known for 2022’s Corsage, a reimagining of the later years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, starring Vicky Krieps, which won Best Film at the London Film Festival among other honors.
Seydoux’s award celebrates a career built on fearless, transformative performances across three decades, including Blue Is the Warmest Color, Spectre, and Dune: Part Two, as well as two other films films this year, The Unknown and Alpha Gang, which recently premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Along with Kreutzer, she has collaborated with some of cinema’s most revered directors — Quentin Tarantino, Abdellatif Kechiche, Wes Anderson, Denis Villeneuve, David Cronenberg, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Xavier Dolan. Her work in Gentle Monster has been praised as “all raw nerves — steely, vulnerable, angry and broken at once” (Hollywood Reporter), “undeniably compelling commitment to her character’s horror and heartbreak” (Variety), and “yet another feather in [her] cap” (Playlist).
Gentle Monster will be screened at MVFF49 on Oct. 5, followed by a conversation with Kreutzer and Seydoux. The festival runs Oct. 1-11.
