TWO-TIME ACADEMY AWARD WINNER JESSICA LANGE TO RECEIVE 2026 VIRGINIA FILM FESTIVAL VISIONARY AWARD FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF HER LATEST FILM LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’S “AWARDS CHATTER” PODCAST WILL RECORD A LIVE EPISODE WITH LANGE IN PERSON INTERVIEWED BY SCOTT FEINBERG
39th Annual Virginia Film Festival Will Also Feature Lange in Person in Conversation with Turner Classic Movies Host Ben Mankiewicz, following a Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Adapted from the Eugene O’Neill Play, and Her 1994 Classic Blue Sky
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – September 22, 2026 – The Virginia Film Festival (VAFF), a program of the University of Virginia, announced today that legendary actress and two time OscarⓇ winner Jessica Lange will receive a Virginia Film Festival Visionary Award, recognizing an artist whose culture defining body of work and enduring contributions have changed the course of modern cinema. Lange will be honored at the 39th annual Virginia Film Festival, taking place October 21–25, 2026, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Lange will join artists participating in the 2026 Virginia Film Festival including filmmaker Aaron Sorkin, filmmaker James Gray, producer Todd Black, and additional Visionary Award recipient Nathan Lane.
As part of the Visionary Award program, the Virginia Film Festival will present a screening of the upcoming film, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, followed by an in-person conversation with Lange, led by Ben Mankiewicz, the primetime host of Turner Classic Movies.
Lange will also join The Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor of awards coverage Scott Feinberg for a live recording of his popular Awards Chatter podcast, and a repertory screening of Blue Sky (1994), which features a stunning performance from Lange that led to a Best Actress Academy Award. Notably, this was the last time Lange won the Academy Award, which was just over 30 years ago.
Set on one single day in August 1912 at the family’s Connecticut seaside home, the story follows the Tyrone family as it faces the looming dual specters of Edmund’s potentially fatal consumption diagnosis alongside his mother Mary’s increasingly fragile and anxious state of mind. The family knows that the situation threatens to return her to the severe morphine addiction that was only recently overcome. Starring two-time Academy Award winner Jessica Lange, Academy Award nominee Ed Harris, Ben Foster and Colin Morgan, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Eugene O’Neill.
The film is the directorial debut of celebrated British theater and opera director, Jonathan Kent, who has stepped behind the camera for the first time to direct his much-anticipated screen adaptation of O’Neill’s play. Lange brilliantly reprises the emotionally troubled, and addiction-plagued matriarch Mary Tyrone, a role that she previously won the Tony Award for in the 2016 Broadway revival in addition to an Olivier Award nomination following her first time in the role on stage in the West End. Academy Award®-nominee Ed Harris co-stars as her husband James, self-made man, renowned actor, and failed property magnate. The Tyrone family is completed by Ben Foster as the charming, but wayward and hard-drinking elder son, Jamie, with Colin Morgan as the poetic, bleakly optimistic and consumptive younger son, Edmund – a portrait of O’Neill himself.
“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,” said VAFF Artistic Director Ilya Tovbis. “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.”
It is a busy Fall for the iconic Lange, who in addition to winning two Academy Awards®, has also won a Tony Award®, three Emmy Awards®, five Golden Globe Awards®, and an Actor Award® on top of earning four additional Academy Award® nominations. The actress will be returning to American Horror Story for its upcoming 13th season reuniting with previous franchise co-stars Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett. Her return to the franchise is highly anticipated with Lange’s performances across the Murder House, Coven, Asylum and Freak Show installments earning her awards and nominations across the Emmys®, Golden Globes®, Critics’ Choice, and Actor Awards®. This also reunites her with Ryan Murphy who produced the Broadway revival of Long Day’s Journey Into Night that earned Lange the Tony Award®. From her rise to fame in Dino De Laurentiis’s remake of King Kong (1976) and her Oscar-winning performances in Tootsie (1982) and Blue Sky (1994); to her Emmy-winning work in Grey Gardens (2009) and the American Horror Story series; to her most recent stellar performance in HBO’s critically acclaimed The Great Lillian Hall; Lange has had a long and illustrious career on-screen in addition to the stage.
The Virginia Film Festival is a program of the University of Virginia and the Office of the Provost and Vice Provost for the Arts. The 2026 Virginia Film Festival is presented by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.
Press materials and images are available at virginiafilmfestival.org/news-press/media-inquiries.
About The Virginia Film Festival
The Virginia Film Festival, now in its 39th year, is a program of the University of Virginia. Widely recognized as one of the leading regional film festivals in America, the VAFF is known for its commitment to taking audiences beyond the screen to explore some of the most important issues of our time. The five-day festival annually delivers more than 100 films from around the world, combining special previews of some of the hottest titles of the festival season with an array of fascinating documentaries, exciting new voices on the independent film scene, the best of the international film scene and more.
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PRESS CONTACTS:
National Publicity:
Virginia Film Festival Team at The Lede Company
virginiafilmfestival@ledecompany.com
Charlottesville Publicity:
John Kelly at john@johnkellypr.com