'The Debut' Takes Audience Award at Middleburg Film Festival

Festivalgoers chose Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut for the audience award at the Middleburg Film Festival, Variety reported. The 14th edition ran from October 15 to 18 in Middleburg, Virginia.

The film is Eisenberg's third feature as a director. Julianne Moore stars, and Paul Giamatti co-stars. It opened the festival, and Moore and Eisenberg took questions from the audience afterwards. It had already premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.

Eisenberg told the festival that every scene used in the film was the leads' first or second take, IndieWire reported. A take is one attempt at a shot, so the figure points to how few retakes made the final cut.

The audience award is the one prize at Middleburg decided by ticket-buyers rather than a jury. The Debut beat Elsinore, which took the first runner-up spot, and Wild Horse Nine, the second runner-up.

The festival handed out a full set of other honours. Ava DuVernay's documentary 14th won best documentary feature. La Bola Negra took best international feature.

Acting and craft prizes went to a wide spread of names. Léa Seydoux received the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award for Gentle Monster. Jack O'Connell won the Spotlight Actor Award for playing Larry Lamb in Ink. Jordan Firstman won the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award for Club Kid, which he wrote, directed and starred in. Daniel Pemberton received the Distinguished Composer Award, and Nadia Stacey the Distinguished Makeup & Hair Design Award for Elsinore.

Three artisans from The Odyssey received the Variety Creative Collaborators award: costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, Ruth de Jong and editor Jennifer Lame. Variety's Jazz Tangcay moderated a conversation with them on October 16. Film crafts rarely get a public stage of their own, so the session gave the people who shape how a movie looks and sounds a turn in front of an audience.

Martin McDonagh and Seth Rogen were named among the festival's 2026 honorees. Ann Dowd and Dakota Johnson also appear on the honorees list, according to the festival's website.

For a general reader, the takeaway is simple. A small regional festival in Virginia gave its audience vote to a film that had already been shown at Telluride, and handed out a row of awards to actors, composers and craft teams in the same weekend.