Jessica Lange will receive the Virginia Film Festival’s Visionary Award this October, and the celebration is built around the work that brought her back to the screen. The festival will show Long Day’s Journey Into Night, her new adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play, then bring Lange onstage for a conversation with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz.
The 39th festival runs October 21–25 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Lange is also set for a live Awards Chatter podcast conversation and a screening of Blue Sky, the 1994 film that won her the Best Actress Oscar. The schedule gives audiences two very different sides of her career: a newer portrayal of a troubled mother and one of the performances that made her an awards fixture.
Why Long Day’s Journey Into Night matters here
Lange plays Mary Tyrone in director Jonathan Kent’s film. The story unfolds during one day in 1912 at the family’s Connecticut seaside home. Mary’s fragile state and the possibility of her returning to morphine addiction weigh on everyone, while her younger son Edmund faces a serious illness. Ed Harris plays her husband James, Ben Foster is their elder son Jamie and Colin Morgan plays Edmund.
For Lange, this is a return to a role she knows deeply. She won a Tony Award playing Mary in the 2016 Broadway revival. Kent’s movie is his first feature after an extensive career directing theater and opera. It is not a filmed version of that Broadway production; it is a new screen adaptation with its own cast around Lange.
Who’s who in Long Day’s Journey Into Night
- Mary TyronePlayed by Jessica Lange
- James TyronePlayed by Ed Harris
- Jamie TyronePlayed by Ben Foster
- Edmund TyronePlayed by Colin Morgan
Virginia Film Festival artistic director Ilya Tovbis called Lange “a legend of the screen” while announcing the award. He pointed to the emotional range of her work and to her willingness to take creative risks. That assessment fits the choice to center a difficult family drama rather than treat the October appearance as a simple greatest-hits lap.
A career that stretches across film and television
Blue Sky offers the clearest contrast. Lange’s performance in that film brought her second Academy Award, after a Supporting Actress win for Tootsie. Television viewers may know her from several seasons of American Horror Story, and the festival announcement says she is due to return for its upcoming 13th season. Those roles are part of the context for this honor; the newly announced festival appearances are the news today.
The festival has announced the conversations and screenings but individual event times and ticket details should be checked against its schedule when planning a visit. The film itself has a separate limited US theatrical opening planned for September 25, so the October festival screening is not its first release. Our Long Day’s Journey Into Night movie page has the confirmed premise and cast.
Lange has spent decades playing people who refuse to be easily understood. The festival’s October program recognizes that history while giving audiences a chance to hear her talk about what this new performance asks of her now.
