Virginia Film Fest: Jessica Lange Set for Visionary Award, Live Taping of THR’s ‘Awards Chatter’ Podcast (Exclusive)

The legendary stage and screen actress Jessica Lange will be celebrated at the upcoming Virginia Film Festival with a day of special screenings and conversations as well as the presentation of the fest’s Visionary Award, which recognizes “an artist whose culture-defining body work of work and enduring contributions have changed the course of modern cinema,” The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively report.

On Friday, Oct. 23, Lange will sit down with yours truly in front of a fest audience for a live recording of THR’s Awards Chatter podcast, during which she will discuss highlights of her life and career. She will later attend a screening of Jonathan Kent’s new adaptation of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, in which she plays Mary Tyrone (Lange previously won a Tony for a 2016 Broadway revival), after which she will participate in a Q&A moderated by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. And then she will introduce a screening of 1994’s Blue Sky, for which she won the second of her two Oscars (the first came for 1982’s Tootsie).

Virginia Film Festival artistic director Ilya Tovbis tells THR, “Jessica Lange is a legend of the screen whose consummate artistry and emotional depth have made her one of the most compelling performers of our time. As she brings Eugene O’Neill’s towering work to the screen in Long Day’s Journey Into Night — with the brilliant direction of Jonathan Kent — we are thrilled to celebrate her remarkable career and honor an artist who continues to take extraordinary creative risks and illuminate the full complexity of the human experience.”

The Virginia Film Festival is a program of the University of Virginia and the office of the provost and vice provost for the arts. Others who will be feted at the 39th edition of the fest, which will run Oct. 21-25, include writer-director Aaron Sorkin (The Social Reckoning), producer Todd Black (The Social Reckoning and Madden), writer-director James Gray (Paper Tiger) and actor Nathan Lane (30th anniversary of The Birdcage).