"You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it." —Robin Williams
“Marc and Brenda assembled a talented team that’s engaged the Hollywood movie industry, major sponsors, leading winemakers and chefs, and a national movie audience who come together to bring new energy to a week in November that used to be pretty quiet in this valley,” says Yountville mayor, John Dunbar. “Everyone benefits from that.”
Raymond Vineyard proprietor Jean-Charles Boisset is equally impressed, “The film festival expanded the horizon of Napa to include the energy and talent of film. Marc and Brenda brought Hollywood and its world of creativity to Wine Country, and we’ve embraced them for all these reasons.”
Brenda, an eighth generation Californian, and Marc, a native of Pittsburg, Penn., came together through common connections following their time at Stanford. The duo’s professional pedigree spiraled upwards from there, with collective expertise in the private and nonprofit sectors, including esteemed posts at the U.S. Olympic Committee, Oracle, Microsoft and Bain & Company, among many others.
The couple’s first professional collaboration was in 1987 at the fledgling event planning company, Amazing Events. An experience and way of doing business that would manifest years later at NVFF. “As a special events company, we wanted to gather people from all around the world, as global citizens, to celebrate the arts,” says Brenda.
“Even back then, we always wanted to do inspirational and motivational events—and here we are today. NVFF is our true amazing event.”
Over the years the duo tangoed between start-up ventures, company reboots, consulting, youth leadership and film development before launching NVFF in 2011. Add to that a synergistic friendship and marriage, and you have exactly what it takes to shoot from fleeting idea, to film festival powerhouse, in less than five years.
Hotelier Michael Woods nutshells the couple’s mojo: “Their success factor is dogged determination with great heart.”
In the mid-‘90s, the Lhormers took a hiatus from work, deciding to travel and live internationally, until they experienced what Brenda refers to as ‘a spaceship moment.’: “We asked ourselves, ‘What do we really want to do? What are we passionate about and how can we make a difference?’”
Brenda then went to film school to produce fundraising films for nonprofits and Marc started the nonprofit City Year Seattle (an AmeriCorps program) and would ultimately land in Sonoma in 1999. It was there the Lhormers were indoctrinated into the film community, first as a host family for the Sonoma Valley Film Festival and later as board members and co-executive directors for the event—a post they shared from 2002 to 2008.
“The challenge was to give it some fresh air and real marketing muscle. Attendance tripled, then doubled again,” says Marc.
The more entrenched the Lhormers became with the festival community, the more interested the couple became in the industry as a whole. “We felt like making a film could be a lot like running a festival—something we could do, with the right project.” The couple put the word out to some friends to see what might turn up. In 2005, a producer friend sent the couple a script. By the summer of 2006, they’d hired a director, formed an LLC and started to raise capital to produce what would become the cult classic, Bottle Shock. Following a 30-day shoot, the film was completed in 2007 and premiered at Sundance in January 2008.
After supporting the film through its theatrical rollout to 400 theaters across the country, they began to circulate the idea of creating a world-class film festival for Napa Valley, scheduling it in the fall to complement the Sonoma festival in April.
Starting in mid-2009, the Lhormers had “sit downs” with Napa Valley influencers, starting with Chef Michael Chiarello and his wife, Eileen. “We believed it would only work if we got the whole community to embrace it. But Michael said, ‘I’m going to support you, and do a couple of events for you,’” says Brenda. “They encouraged us to go for it. I’d worked with him before and he saw what we had done in Sonoma. He also knew how hard we worked and that we were creative risk takers.”
Likewise, Boisset, who’d already gained valley approval with his unconventional approach to wine experiences, embraced the Lhormers’ vision early on. “We believed in them and their ideas for the Napa Valley Film Festival immediately. We also believed Wine Country needed the festival as an additional dimension to its overall incredible culture, events and sensory experiences. It’s great to have the arts of painting, sculpting and music, but film was missing,” says Boisset.
Yountville’s Dunbar also offered support. “Personally, my wife and I became founding patrons of NVFF because we love movies and were impressed with Marc and Brenda’s vision from the first marketing reception we attended right here in Yountville. As mayor, I saw the festival’s potential for both its entertainment value and as a business generator.”
The Lhormers also approached Michael Woods, owner of the Mount View Hotel in Calistoga, who liked the idea and offered a suggestion. “They shared this idea they had for bringing together Napa Valley,” Woods remembers, “I said, ‘If you guys want to do this, let’s do a little something at my hotel, here by the pool. We invited a winemaker, a few friends and a couple other hotel owners, put up a little 4 by 4 screen and projector and brought in a 30 minute film.
“I watched the film but also watched the people: they really enjoyed it. That’s what convinced me the community would enjoy a festival that had a broad base of independent films. From that day forward, I’ve been a supporter.”
With those endorsements, the couple set out to build a more elaborate proof of concept. “We did a mini festival in November 2010 to show the local community what we had in mind. It was two days and three nights, with six films and VIP parties,” says Brenda. “Folks saw it as a really cool thing, where they got to hear from directors and artists. That success gave us the confidence to really do a full-scale festival in 2011.”
This amuse bouche as Marc likes to call it, paved the way for an official “coming out” soirée at the January 2011 Sundance Film Festival to announce to the film community that Napa Valley Film Festival was open for business. “We became a small sponsor [at Sundance]. We took 20 vintners, rented this awesome space and converted it into a barrel room. Michael Chiarello did a pop-up restaurant that pulled people off the snowy streets into this gorgeous warm space. We thought, ‘This is it, we are really going to launch in November,’” says Brenda.
The Lhormers didn’t want to pull off just any Wine Country event—they wanted to create an experience that would be unlike anything the valley had ever seen. The couple established the festival as a 501(c) 3 nonprofit and declared its mission to bring cinematic arts to Napa Valley with an annual film festival, complimented with year-round community outreach and educational programs. To pull off such a feat, the couple knew they needed to rally not only cheerleaders and supporters, but those willing to put their money, products and brands behind it.
“One of the first people we talked to was Ann Marie Conover, director of marketing and communications for Meadowood. We shared our vision of creating a mini-retreat, where competition filmmakers would get to stay at the resort to network and share war stories, away from the hubbub and with the added help of mentors, with the hope it would help their careers,” says Marc. This conversation led to the creation of the Artist in Residence program, which the resort embraced fully, offering to annually host competition filmmakers for the duration of the festival. “Our partnership with Mark and Brenda in this endeavor has been incredibly rewarding,” says Conover.
Over the next five years the Lhormers would continue to garner hundreds of supporters, including businesses, winery partners and an army of volunteers as well as high-profile sponsors including Intel, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Stella Artois, The Westin Verasa Napa, The Weinstein Company and Sony (among countless others).
Ready, set, action
In November 2011, buoyed by a bevy of supporters, including a team of 400 volunteers, the first full NVFF drew 24,000 attendees (5,000 unique individuals seeing an average of five films each), engaged more than 200 wineries, hotels, restaurants and retail outlets, generated $850,000 in revenue and drove $2.5 million in economic spending. The festival takes over the valley, creating walkable villages in every town from Napa to Calistoga, each sporting an array of film experiences, star-studded events and galas, wine pavilions and culinary demos, discussion panels and live music—all accessible in varying degrees, depending on what type of pass an attendee purchases.
In five years’ time, those statistics soared to 45,000 attendees (9,000 unique) and $2.5 million in revenue, with more than 300 partner affiliations and an economic impact of $4.5 million. Over the past five years, hundreds of indie films have screened at NVFF and gone on to receive wider distribution as a result. Several have been nominated for (and even won) Academy Awards, including The King’s Speech, Spotlight, The Descendants, Silver Linings Playbook, The Imitation Game, Undefeated, Carol and 20 Feet from Stardom. Crowds have been wowed with diverse events and eclectic venues, including a Tweet House—an event that hosts live discussions and panels centering around the entertainment industry—glider port and barrel room screenings, sommelier smack downs, culinary cook-offs, Broadway-style productions, wine and popcorn pairings and even a Superbowl trophy tour in 2015.
“We wanted to enliven our local landscape by setting an example that there can be a broader set of the arts showcased here,” says Marc.
Dunbar sees value in the mission. “Elevating the Yountville experience for locals and visitors is a priority for me. A natural connection exists with the artistry and technical expertise that’s required to produce fine wine, premium food and amazing films. That synergy makes Napa Valley the perfect location for a world-class film festival.”
The festival has hosted many celebrities, including Colin Farrell, Alan Cumming, Kevin Costner, Mike Meyers, Jeffrey Wright, Adrian Grenier, and last year’s Celebrity Tribute honoree, John Travolta, who shares why he choose the festival for the world premiere of his film Life on the Line: “This is a very important festival. It’s taken very seriously and it has a lot of integrity. It also educates students and contributes back. It’s not a self-serving festival. A lot of great movies have been launched here. It has a pedigree of sorts and it’s nice.”
Brenda elaborates on one of the core missions of the festival since its beginning: educational programs. “Each year, we select a handful of films that are socially important and we offer them to educators in the valley. The filmmakers, directors and actors go into the schools and talk to students as part of the screening. Last year, we screened Right Footed with filmmaker Jessica Cox.” The documentary chronicles how Cox overcame being born without arms, and went on to learn to drive a car and fly a plane with her feet.
Then there was the equally empowering Landfillharmonic and accompanying onstage performance by the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a Paraguayan musical youth group of kids that play instruments made of recycled products from one of South America’s largest landfills—which happens to be their backyard.
The Lhormers aren’t only changing the game on the entertainment front, but also in the economic realm. “Our event brings in incremental dollars during at time that’s not the high season. Businesses, hotels and wine bars report that, when the festival is in town, they see increased business—and that [NVFF] continues to bring people back. It’s a spillover effect which is very positive.”
Woods concurs, “The festival has increased my occupancy and, just as important, has enhanced our guest experience—what I like to call, ‘enhancements of stay.’ Guests can come to Napa Valley to enjoy the wine but can walk away with an experience to remember after attending the film festival.”
Asked what’s contributed to their success, Brenda touts a favored mantra: “always be learning.”
“We’re constantly asking for feedback from the community and our attendees. We’re very careful and creative when it comes to how we do things differently and how to make every part better—on any level, from consumer to partner. At the end of the day, we’re always talking about how we can improve the experience.”
The sixth inning stretch
In a world that’s defined by its frenetic pace—long days and even longer nights—catering to clamoring crowds, A-list actors and producers, and the constant quest, for bigger, better and more, the Lhormers speak to what keeps them running, all year long. “We feel responsible for making sure it’s the best event it can be for locals, visitors, our staff and our partners. For all of them, we have to do the best job we can to make it seamless, well-produced, thought-out, organized and fresh. When you start, run and manage something as big as this, you can’t take your eye off the ball.”
As the dynamic duo ready for round six of NVFF there are no signs of a sixth season slump. In fact, it seems the Lhormers are just getting started. “We’ll continue to find new ways to experience films, with more and more creative venues,” says Marc. “As we grow bigger, the festival will not only take place at the core village centers, but also creative venues at wineries in and around the valley. We also have a big imperative in next five years, which is to grow attendance, which could easily double again.”
Certain things will never change. “We’ll always retain the intimate and personal nature of the festival,” says Brenda. “We want to share what we love and retain that intimacy no matter how big we grow.”
With the next NVFF just a few months away, energy levels are soaring, which is how the Lhormers roll all year long. “There’s a saying in festival world,” says Marc, “that the people who run these things…” Brenda cuts in, “Are crazy!”
Marc continues, “At the end of it, everyone always says ‘Never again.’ But after a three-to four-week break, we want to do it all over again. It’s a little like a drug. You get addicted to the rush of it. It’s that core idea of getting audiences and artists together, telling stories and talking about that. The power of those things will never change.”
NVFF 2016
Sneak Preview Screenings, Tuesday, Nov. 8, all over Napa Valley
Opening Night Red Carpet and Screening, Wednesday, Nov. 9, Lincoln Theater
Celebrity Tributes, Thursday, Nov. 10, Lincoln Theater
Vintner Circle Dinners, Friday, Nov. 11, all over Napa Valley (VIPs only)
Awards Ceremony, Saturday, Nov. 12, Lincoln Theater
Festival Gala, Saturday, Nov. 12 following Awards Ceremony, Lincoln Theater
Closing Night Red Carpet, Sunday, Nov. 13, Uptown Theatre
Wrap Party Sunday, Nov. 13, Napa Riverfront
