Wild Horse Nine: Sam Rockwell Movie to Open Mill Valley Film Festival

Wild Horse Nine is preparing to run free, as the feature is set to open the 49th Mill Valley Film Festival.

Writer-director Martin McDonagh‘s film, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, will screen as the opening night title on Oct. 1, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. McDonagh, Rockwell and co-star Mariana Di Girolamo are expected to attend the screening. Wild Horse Nine premieres in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival next month.

Rockwell’s career of acclaimed work will be the focus of a Mill Valley tribute on Oct. 2. The actor’s memorable performances include his Academy Award-winning role in McDonagh’s 2017 feature Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, along with his Oscar-nominated role as President George W. Bush in Adam McKay’s 2018 movie Vice. He earned Emmy Award nominations for the series Fosse/Verdon and The White Lotus.

Wild Horse Nine stars Malkovich and Rockwell as two CIA operatives who travel from Santiago, Chile, to Easter Island amid the tense lead-up to the South American nation’s 1973 coup. The mission gets complicated due to one agent’s connection to two young activists, played by Di Girolamo and Ailín Salas. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey also star in the film that Searchlight Pictures releases in theaters Nov. 6.

Additionally, the festival adds a New Directors Section this year to spotlight first and second features from rising American and international filmmakers.

“Opening night is always the moment this festival comes alive, and this year is no exception,” says Mill Valley Film Festival founder and executive director Mark Fishkin. “Bringing Wild Horse Nine to our audience first, with a filmmaker as bold as Martin McDonagh and a cast featuring a fearless performance by Sam Rockwell, is exactly the kind of moment Mill Valley exists to create. It’s a night that reminds us why we do this work, and a fitting start to our 49th year and the next seminal decade.”

The 2026 Mill Valley Film Festival runs Oct. 1-11 in Marin County and Berkeley, California.