Wanderluxxe Filmmaker Lounge
Rising Star Showcase
Festival Gala at the CIA Copia
Napa Valley Film Festival is the perfect place to discover the finest films, food, and wine. Thousands of visitors from far and wide poured into Napa Valley to experience its 8th annual film festival. It’s a world-class event that took place from November 7-11, 2018.
Hollywood invaded the wine country at the Napa Valley Film Festival! There were over one hundred independent film screenings that took place at various venues all over the valley. I enjoyed listening to Q&As featuring filmmakers, actors, and actresses. The festival had numerous special events featuring food from over fifty of Napa Valley’s most celebrated chefs and restaurants. My foodie self was in paradise!
I attended the festival on Saturday, November 10th and had too much fun! I started out at The Studio by Feast It Forward to visit the WanderLuxxe Filmmaker Lounge. The vibe of the lounge was luxurious yet relaxed and I enjoyed mingling with other festival goers, wine tasting, and hanging out. Right next to the lounge was Monogram Appliance’s Demonstration Kitchen. Master sommeliers from SommSelect, Ian Cauble and David Lynch, did a blind tasting of four classic wines. They educated attendees about how to identify the wines without seeing bottles. Pretty cool! After the demo, I made my way over to Hanger One’s boozy booth for a Rosé Spritzer that had some Hanger One Rosé Vodka in it. Who knew of Rosé Vodka? Got to love Hanger One for keeping’ their vodka game fresh & innovative.
It was my first time visiting the beautiful Materra | Cunat Family Vineyards where the Rising Star Showcase took place. Being a fan of the TV show, Riverdale, I was excited to see Actress, Camila Mendes who plays the character, Veronica Lodge. The Rising Star Showcase featured conversations with this year’s rising stars: Tye Sheridan, Camila Mendes, Rosa Salazar, Billy Magnussen, Taissa Farmiga, and Alexandra Shipp.
I made my way to downtown Napa for the Awards Ceremony at Uptown Theater. The ceremony featured winners of the festival’s Juried and Audience Awards. It was fun to watch each winner be presented a large format collectible bottle of wine from generous Vintner Circle members. Many of the Vintner Circle members are owners of renowned wineries throughout Napa Valley.
The Festival Gala at the CIA Copia was my favorite event! There were fabulous people watching and I sampled the finest food and wine from famous chefs and vintners in the spectacular Hestan Kitchen. The highlight of the event was meeting the one and only Jean Charles Boisset inside the Raymond Vineyards velvet area. He was dressed to the nines in a cheetah print blazer with a red lips brooch, so flamboyant and fun! The 2018 Napa Valley Film Festival was an experience I would never forget! It’s definitely an event that every food, film, and wine lover should add to their bucket list!
Cool event. How fun that you got a photo with the famous JCB. Awesome!!!!