The Virginia Film festival opened with Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s lush biopic of the famous conductor Leonard Bernstein and then closed five days later with another music-based entry, the remarkable Jon Batiste documentary American Symphony. Batiste sent the festival goers home in rousing fashion with a 20-minute mini-concert that turned into a true communal experience. In between those cinematic entries covering the stories of two very different musical geniuses, many a fine film could be seen.

High profile films like Rustin, Ava Duvernay’s Origin, Todd Haynes’ May December, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s War Pony, and Cord Jefferson’s dynamic directorial debut American Fiction bumped up against terrific indie films like Breakwater and foreign film Oscar hopefuls like The Taste of Things.