David O Russell’s crowdpleaser and Walter Salles’ Jack Kerouac adaptation will open the festival on Oct 4 in Marin County, California. Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi will close the event.

Ben Lewin’s The Sessions starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt is the Spotlight event when Hawkes will received a Mill Valley Film Festival award.

Screenings include Billy Bob Thornton’s Jayne Mansfield’s Car and Dustin Hoffman’s feature directorial debut Quartet. Hoffman will receive a career tribute.

Festival head Mark Fishkin and his team will also pay tribute to Mira Nair, whose The Reluctant Fundamentalist screened in Toronto and was acquired by IFC.

The centerpiece screening is Rise Of The Guardians, DreamWorks Animation’s awards hopeful that open later this year. The studio will receive an award and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief creative officer Bill Damaschke and director Peter Ramsey will take part in an on-stage conversation.

The line-up includes a commemorative 35th anniversary screening of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope plus screenings of Ben Affleck’s awards contender Argo, a Ken Burns documentary masterclass and David Chase’s directorial debut Not Fade Away.

The festival runs until Oct 14.