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55TH SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
WRAPS THE BEST 15 DAYS OF THE YEAR
FOR WORLD CINEMA LOVERS
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Longest-Running
Film Festival in the Americas Enjoys a Spectacular Year with Superb
Programming, Numerous Special Guests and Many Memorable Sold-Out Events
San Francisco, CA -- The San Francisco Film Society wrapped its 55th San Francisco International Film Festival
(April 19 - May 3) with 289 screenings of 174 films from 45 countries,
which were attended by 201 filmmakers and industry guests from over 20
countries around the globe.
"I want to thank the terrific San
Francisco Film Festival for this terrific award in this terrific film
community," exclaimed David Webb Peoples, recipient of this year's
Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting.
Festival audiences
shared Peoples' enthusiasm. The festival sold out 178 screenings during
its 15-day run, including the 1,400-seat Castro Theatre for both Merrill
Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) with Buster Keaton Shorts and the Closing Night
film, Ramona S. Diaz's Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey,
underscoring the strong demand for the unique programming that the Film
Society brings to the Bay Area. Particularly popular were the over 124
screenings featuring special guests.
"San Francisco audiences
are passionate about independent and international cinema," said SFFS
interim director Melanie Blum. "For 15 days they have enthusiastically
filled the SFIFF theaters to appreciate the creative programming of
exceptional films, gifted filmmakers and once-in-a-lifetime live events
selected by Director of Programming Rachel Rosen and her talented team.
The 55th SFIFF was a truly remarkable celebration of international
cinema."
Film Society Awards Night, the organization's gala
fundraiser, cochaired this year by Susie and Pat McBaine and Katie and
Todd Traina, raised more than $500,000. Proceeds from this event benefit
the Film Society's Youth Education program, which serves 10,000 Bay
Area students and teachers annually.
Sponsors and Partners
Among
SFIFF55's over 200 sponsors, leading corporate partners were Wells
Fargo; Grolsch; Blue Angel Vodka; Mozilla Firefox; Esurance; TV5 Monde;
Bank of the West; the French American Cultural Society; the Consulate
General of France, San Francisco; Visa; the Hong Kong Economic and Trade
Office; Comcast; the San Francisco Giants; and the San Francisco Film
Commission. Local businesses were eager to work with the International
as well. More than 55 restaurants supported the Festival and more than
300 hotel room nights were donated for Festival guests.
Star-Studded Nights
Film Society Awards Night honored four world-class film talents at the Warfield Theatre on April 26. Honorees were Kenneth Branagh, recipient of the Founder's Directing Award, presented by film critic Elvis Mitchell; Judy Davis, recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for acting, presented by director Fred Schepisi; David Webb Peoples, recipient of the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting, presented by actor Delroy Lindo; and filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, recipient of the inaugural Graham Leggat Award, presented by actor Peter Coyote.
"I've
always been astounded and had a degree of reverence for American
generosity," said Judy Davis. "Some of the most important and moving
moments of my career have been with Americans ... I must thank you for
that. It is one of the great American qualities, frankly, your
generosity."
Attending the festivities were Google V.P. Marissa Mayer, venture capitalist Dick Kramlich and his wife Pamela, Web 2.0 venture capitalist David O. Sacks and his wife Jacqueline, San Francisco society hostesses Denise Hale and Dede Wilsey, socialite Vanessa Getty, investor Paul Pelosi, CEO of Shaklee Corporation Roger Barnett and his wife Sloan and newly appointed head of Bulgari North America Alberto Festa.
Numerous guests graced the stage during SFIFF55, starting on Opening Night with Farewell, My Queen director Benoît Jacquot and continuing throughout the festival. Celebrated documentarian Barbara Kopple was in town to receive the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award. Directors Harmony Korine, Aleksei Fedorchenko and Jan Kwiecinski attended the Festival for the world premiere of their omnibus film The Fourth Dimension starring Val Kilmer and produced by Vice Media's Eddy Moretti, who were also both in attendance. Cinephile par excellence Pierre Rissient received the Mel Novikoff Award and entertained a crowd of film-lovers during a conversation at the Castro Theatre.
The Festival wrapped up with a few final high profile screenings. The Centerpiece film, Your Sister's Sister, was shown to an exclusive crowd with star Rosemarie DeWitt in attendance. The festivities ended on a high note with the packed Closing Night screening of Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey, attended by Journey -- Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, Ross Valory, Deen Castronovo, Arnel Pineda -- and director Ramona S. Diaz.
Live & Onstage Events
Kicking off the Live & Onstage program on April 21 was the State of Cinema Address, delivered by bestselling novelist, essayist and short-story writer Jonathan Lethem. On April 23 was Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) with Buster Keaton Shorts,
during which Garbus provided scores for short films starring Keaton by
adapting her previous work and collaborating with local wunderkind
guitarist Ava Mendoza. David OReilly Says Something
featured a lively discussion with OReilly, one of today's most
innovative and engaging animators, on April 26. San Francisco's beloved Porchlight
storytelling series returned to the Festival, captivating story lovers
on April 30. The event featured five storytellers telling tales of their
filmmaking experiences, accompanied by video clips. Local "live
documentarian" Sam Green returned to the Festival on May 1 for two sold out shows of the world premiere of The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, which featured live musical accompaniment by indie superstars Yo La Tengo.
Local Cinema
The 55th International featured 20 local narrative and documentary features and short films. Among the Bay Area features were Bitter Seeds by Micha X. Peled, Cherry by Stephen Elliott, Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey by Ramona S. Diaz, Informant by Jamie Meltzer, Mosquita y Mari by Aurora Guerrero, The Sheik and I by Caveh Zahedi, Tokyo Waka by John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson, The Waiting Room by Peter Nicks and Twixt by Francis Ford Coppola. Bay Area shorts were also abundant and included Bizness (Mimi Cave), La Luna (Enrico Casarosa), Aquadettes (Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari), Nothing (Tracey Snelling), The Love Competition (Brent Hoff), Fin de Siècle (Kathleen Quillian), Inquire Within (Jay Rosenblatt) and Words of Mercury (Jerome Hiler).
Schools at the Festival
Attendance
and participation were strong this year for SFFS Youth Education's
Schools at the Festival program. Many filmmakers participated, with 31
local and international guests discussing their films and craft in
classrooms during the program's 20 school visits, reaching over 700
elementary, middle and high school students and teachers. Teachers were
also invited to bring their students to the 18 screenings held at the
Festival. More than 3,650 students and teachers from schools across the
Bay Area attended these Schools at the Festival screenings, part of the
year-round Youth Education program. SATF aims to develop media literacy,
broaden insights into other cultures, enhance foreign language
aptitude, develop critical thinking skills and inspire a lifelong
appreciation of cinema.
One elementary school boy endearingly sought new insight into cinema after a screening of The Storytellers Show when he asked filmmaker Katie Mahalic (The Vacuum Kid) "Is it hard work to be a filmmaker? Do you get sweaty?"
Master Classes and Salons at the Festival
Participating
in three Master Classes, filmmakers and experts engaged audiences with
further discussion of the ideas presented in their films and related
works. British professor Malcolm Turvey compared and
contrasted French filmmaker Jacques Tati's comic style with those of
American silent comedians such as Charlie Chaplin; journalist Susie Cagle
unpacked the various forms of visual journalism and traditional
reportage she employs to bring humor and humanity into news analysis;
and film critic Mick LaSalle used film clips and excerpts from his new book, The Beauty of the Real,
to showcase the contemporary French actresses who are doing the best
work of their lives. Three Salons offered the opportunity to engage in
in-depth conversations beyond the typical post-screening Q&A. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, senior scientist of the Pesticide Action Network, led The Threat of GMOs; story consultant Richard Saiz led Measuring Change Through Film; and professor and filmmaker Kristine Samuelson led A Sense of Place.
Award-Winning Films
Eleven
films were in juried competition for the 16th annual $15,000 New
Directors Prize, given to a first-time filmmaker whose work exhibits a
unique artistic sensibility. The jury, comprised of Felipe Bragança,
Karyn Kusama and Wesley Morris, chose director Nadav Lapid's Policeman
(Israel), calling it "a great work on tackling the politics of Israeli
masculinity, class and culture with humor, daring and forceful
filmmaking that remains difficult to forget." They also gave an
Honorable Mention to Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia's OK, Enough, Goodbye. (Lebanon/United Arab Emirates).
The FIPRESCI jury, comprised of Andrés Nazarala, Claire Valade and Dennis West, chose The Exchange
by Eran Kolirin (Israel/Germany).The jury described it as a "quietly
subversive portrait of a man unhinged" and selected it "for the strength
of its original use of cinematic language in exploring the fabric of
reality, for its surprising yet unsettling sense of humor, for the
coherence of its unique artistic vision." FIPRESCI, the influential
international organization of film critics, supports cinema as an art
and as an autonomous means of expression. The San Francisco
International Film Festival is one of only three festivals in the United
States to host a FIPRESCI jury and award a FIPRESCI prize.
A
total of $55,000 in prizes were awarded by Golden Gate Awards juries at
the International this year, with $35,000 going to winners in two
categories: Documentary Feature ($20,000) and Bay Area Documentary
Feature ($15,000). The Festival's Golden Gate Awards were held on
Wednesday, May 2 at Rasselas Restaurant & Jazz Club. The documentary
features jury was comprised of Laura Gabbert, Dennis Lim and John
Maringouin. The GGA for Best Documentary Feature was presented to It's the Earth Not the Moon by Gonçalo Tocha (Portugal). Best Bay Area Documentary Feature was presented to The Waiting Room by Peter Nicks (USA).
The short film jury was made up of Vicci Ho, Jon Korn and Jan Krawitz. They awarded Best Documentary Short to I'm Never Afraid by Willem Baptist (Netherlands). The Best Narrative Short was awarded to Surveillant by Yan Giroux (Canada). First place for Best Bay Area Short went to Aquadettes by Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper (USA), with second place going to Workers Leaving the Googleplex by Andrew Norman Wilson (USA). The GGA Youth Work winner was Metro by Eric Brownrout and Nick Escobar (USA), with Life as a Collage by Forrest Penrod (USA) receiving an Honorable Mention. The Family Film winner was The Storyteller by Nandita Jain (England), and the Honorable Mention went to The Vacuum Kid by Katie Mahalic (USA). The Best Animated Short was Belly by Julia Pott (England) and Best New Visions winner was 20Hz by Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt (England).
The
SFIFF55 Audience Awards gave filmgoers the opportunity to select their
favorite narrative and documentary feature. The Audience Award for Best
Narrative Feature went to Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano's The Intouchables, with Aurora Guerrero's Mosquita y Mari also scoring well with festivalgoers. The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Peter Nicks' The Waiting Room, with Rory Kennedy's Ethel also tallying high votes from the viewers.
For tickets and information visit festival.sffs.org.
To request interviews contact your SFIFF publicist.
55th San Francisco International Film Festival The
55th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 19 - May 3 at
the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, SF Film Society Cinema
and SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.
Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary
showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country's
most beautiful cities, featuring 200 films and live events, 14 juried
awards and $70,000 in cash prizes, upwards of 100 participating
filmmaker guests and diverse and engaged audiences with more than 70,000
people in attendance. San Francisco Film Society Building
on a legacy of more than 50 years of bringing the best in world cinema
to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Film Society is a national leader in
exhibition, education and filmmaker services. The
Film Society presents 365 days of exhibition each year, reaching a
total audience of 130,000 people. Its acclaimed education program
introduces international, independent and documentary cinema and media
literacy to more than 10,000 teachers and students and presents 100
classes and workshops annually. Through Filmmaker360, the Film Society's
filmmaker services program, essential creative and business services
and funding totaling millions of dollars are provided to deserving
filmmakers of all levels. The
Film Society seeks to elevate all aspects of film culture, offering a
wide range of activities that engage emotions, inspire action, change
perceptions and advance knowledge. A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, it
is largely donor and member supported. Patronage and membership provides
discounted prices, access to grants and residencies, private events and
a wealth of other benefits.
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