Wild Horse Nine opened the 49th Mill Valley Film Festival on Thursday night, bringing director Martin McDonagh and cast members Sam Rockwell, Parker Posey and Mariana Di Girolamo to Marin County for a dark comedy about CIA operatives caught up in Chile's 1973 coup. The festival's 11-day run continues through Oct. 11 across venues in Mill Valley, San Rafael, Larkspur and Berkeley, and Rockwell is set to receive a tribute program Friday night honoring his career.
According to awardswatch.com, the film team introduced Wild Horse Nine at Sequoia Cinema screenings before holding a live post-screening Q&A at the Smith Rafael Theatre in San Rafael, where McDonagh, Rockwell, Posey and Di Girolamo all took questions. The movie was shown on both screens at Sequoia Cinema and all three screens at the Smith Rafael Film Center, giving festivalgoers multiple chances to catch opening night's main event. Per the San Francisco Chronicle, Posey introduced the film at the Mill Valley screening herself.
A Third Collaboration Between McDonagh and Rockwell
Wild Horse Nine marks the third film pairing of McDonagh and Rockwell, the awardswatch.com report notes, following their earlier work together. The film casts Rockwell as Lee, a CIA agent, alongside John Malkovich as Chris, described as Lee's longtime partner, while Steve Buscemi plays MJ, the bureau chief who dispatches the pair from Santiago to Easter Island, according to Searchlight Pictures. The story follows the two agents as they are sent from their station in Santiago mere months before the 1973 Chilean coup, landing on Easter Island after what the film describes as an unexpected detour.
The island setting carries its own weight in the story: Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is famous for the large stone heads carved there between the 13th and 16th centuries, per the Chronicle's reporting. Posey has said she explored the island during filming and even demonstrated throat singing at the festival, the Chronicle reports, while also describing acting alongside Rockwell in the film as a joy.
From New York Rents to a Bay Area Return
Rockwell, a Daly City native, is returning to a region with deep roots for him, and Posey has said the two first met in New York in the early 1990s, according to the Chronicle. Posey received one of her first major breaks in the 1993 miniseries Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, the paper notes, and has said she loves the spirit of San Francisco along with its drag, arts and writers communities.
Wild Horse Nine premiered last month at the Venice Film Festival before appearances at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, awardswatch.com reports. Searchlight Pictures is mounting an awards campaign for the film covering best picture, director, actor for Malkovich and supporting actor for Rockwell, the Chronicle notes, ahead of the film's Nov. 6 theatrical release.
Rockwell's Tribute Follows a Three Billboards Screening
Friday's MVFF Tribute Program for Rockwell will honor his career and his performance in Wild Horse Nine, following a retrospective screening of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the film for which Rockwell won his only Oscar, according to the Chronicle. The tribute, which requires a separate ticket, will take place at the Smith Rafael Film Center and will be followed by a reception at the nearby AC Marriott.
A Growing Festival With Deep Local Roots
The 2026 lineup includes 96 feature films and 80 shorts, according to the Mercury News, with 30 documentaries and nine feature-length animated films rounding out the 11-day program, per the festival's own account on mvff.com. Organizers also expanded screenings at the Lark Theater in Larkspur this year because the program had grown, and added a New Directors Section to spotlight first and second features by American and international filmmakers, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Twelve films shown at Mill Valley have gone on to win Best Picture Oscars, according to Marin Magazine, and the magazine notes that over the course of the 11-day run, Marin's hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes and mom-and-pop shops are flooded with patrons. The festival also hands out its Mind the Gap Creation Prize, a $10,000 grant for first- and second-time female directors, the magazine reports. Opening night wrapped with a party at Marin Country Mart in Larkspur, while closing night on Oct. 11 will bring Jesse Eisenberg to Marin for a screening of his film The Debut, which also stars Julianne Moore.
