Wrap Notes: SFFILM 2022—Our End-of-Year Reflections + Highlights

A Letter from Our Executive Director

Fellow Film Lovers,

This year we had the privilege of seeing so many of you at in-person events in our city’s most beloved theaters. As a lover of movies, I felt both inspired by the enthusiasm of our audiences, filmmakers, and guests, and reinvigorated by sharing in our collective appreciation of cinema. As the Executive Director of SFFILM, I felt reaffirmed in our organization’s mission.

We believe deeply in the power of the arts and particularly cinematic storytelling to bring hope, inspiration, opportunity, and knowledge to the world. We believe that film brings communities together. Film was born as one of the most accessible art forms over a hundred years ago. And, especially now, it provides one of the most influential and impactful forms of storytelling we have. We invest in films, filmmakers (current and future), and audiences of all ages because it is imperative to advocate for independent voices, thoughts, and perspectives.

All of our successes would not have been possible without the generous support of our members, the guiding vision of our board members, the admirable contributions of our staff, and the meaningful efforts of our seasonal employees and year-round volunteers. Here, we’re revisiting these successes and other highlights, so please read on.
For now, I wish you a restful, reflective, and reinvigorating holiday season.

Warmly,
Anne Lai
Executive Director, SFFILM

SFFILM 2022 Review: From Michelle Yeoh to Ryan Coogler

San Francisco International Film Festival Highlights

As many of you know, this past year marked the 65th San Francisco International Film Festival. Deeply rooted in the notion of film appreciation—film as an art form and as a meaningful force for social change—the Festival encapsulates so much of SFFILM’s mission.

One of the Festival’s most exciting events was A Tribute to Michelle Yeoh, who graciously revisited her filmography while in conversation with Sandra Oh. “We are so blessed that we get to walk in and out of the lives of these characters,” Yeoh told a packed Castro Theatre about her experience leading the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once. “What I found is we were able to find joy. This family—they never gave up. And that’s what we have to do for each other… At the end of the day, stay strong.”

Since we returned to in-person programming in earnest this year, Yeoh’s words felt even more striking. However, that tribute was just one of the many memorable moments from this year’s Festival. The 11-day event featured a range of marquee premieres, international competitions, compelling documentaries, short and mid-length programs, live music performances, and dazzling red carpet events.

Audiences who attended the latest chapter of the longest-running film festival in the Americas had access to a slate of 130 films from 56 countries. Not to mention, 16 of those screenings marked world premieres. Showings of Stay Awake (Jamie Sisley; USA), Breaking (Abi Damaris Corbin; USA), and Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff; USA) comprised The Festival’s distinguished Opening, Centerpiece, and Closing events, respecitvely.

Other programs of note included tributes and honors to Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On; USA) and the Persistence of Vision Award for Trinh T. Minh-ha (What About China?; USA, China). We also celebrated our Academy Awards-qualifying* 2022 Golden Gate Awards (GGA), which included:

• McBaine Documentary Feature—I Didn’t See You There (Reid Davenport; USA) and Master of Light (Rosa Ruth Boesten; USA, Netherlands)
• New Directors Prize—Hit the Road (Panah Panahi; Iran)
• Animated Short*—Sierra (Sander Joon; Estonia)
• Documentary Short*—Long Line of Ladies (Shaadiin Tome and Rayka Zehtabchi; USA) and Holding Moses (Rivkah Beth Medow and Jen Rainin; USA, Japan)
• Family Films—Battery Daddy (Seung-bae Jeon; South Korea)
• Mid-Lengths—The Time of the Fireflies (Mattis Appelqvist Dalton, Matteo Robert Morales; Mexico, USA, Belgium)
• Narrative Shorts*—Busan, 1999 (Thomas Kim; South Korea) and Half-Day (Morgan Mathews; USA)
• New Visions—Listen to the Beat of Our Images (Audrey Jean-Baptiste, Maxime Jean-Baptiste; France, French Guiana)
• Cine Latino—The Employer and the Employee (Manolo Nieto; Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, France)
• Youth Works—Honeybee (Emilio Vazquez Reyes; USA)

SFFILM Presents Review

While the San Francisco International Film Festival is our headlining event, Bay Area cinephiles also enjoyed special screenings of some of 2022’s most significant movies during summer and fall which started with Adamma Ebo’s Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. with Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown in person in August; a September sneak peek of Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, with Hair and Makeup Department Heads Jaime Leigh McIntosh and Tina Roesler Kerwin in attendance; in October, a tribute to Gina Prince-Bythewood with a screening of The Woman King with composer Terence Blanchard presenting the award to Gina, as well as a screening of Charlotte Wells’s debut feature Aftersun featuring the director herself in person; and in November, we celebrated SF Honors with Guillermo del Toro and his newest feature, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio at the Dolby Theater.

All of this was rounded out by Doc Stories—our documentary showcase of some of the year’s finest works, including the world premiere of Marina Zenovich’s Jerry Brown: The Disruptor; Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli’s Lakota Nation vs. United States; Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes; and Chris Smith’s Sr., which was produced by its subject’s son: Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr.

As awards season neared, we hosted SFFILM Awards Night, which honored four of contemporary cinema’s greatest talents. This year’s awardees were:

• Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) — Irving M. Levin Award for Directing
• Sarah Polley (Women Talking) — SFFILM Award for Storytelling
• Margot Robbie (Babylon) — Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting
• Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) — George Gund III Award

 

SFFILM Makers at a Glance

After many years spent in the Presidio and Chinatown, SFFILM staff took time this year to really settle into our new headquarters in SoMa. In doing so, we reopened a space for FilmHouse, our community hub that provides Bay Area-based documentary and narrative filmmakers with artistic guidance, office space, a vibrant creative community, and support from established film industry professionals. We were thrilled to welcome filmmakers back to an in-personal, communal gathering space.

In 2022, we also provided funding and artist development support to independent filmmakers through several annual grants. In partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, SFFILM awarded $450,000 in grants to 18 narrative feature projects in various stages of production in the latest round of the SFFILM Rainin Grant program. While you can read about the projects in full, recipients included:

• 1791 | Stefani Saintonge, writer/director/producer + Sebastien Denis, writer/director/producer
• Cousins | Adrian Burrell, writer/director; Alex Bledsoe, producer; Sue-Ellen Chitunya, producer + Saeed Crumpler, co-writer
• Dìdi (弟弟) | Sean Wang, writer/director/producer; Carlos López Estrada, producer + Kelly Marie Tran, producer
• Dreaming of Lions | Paolo Marinou-Blanco, writer/director
• From Honey to Ashes | Emily Cohen Ibañez, writer
• In My Father’s House | Abbesi Akhamie, writer/director
• Joyride | Edwin Alexis Gómez, writer/director + Evelyn Angelica Martinez, producer
• Late Spring | Yuan Yuan, writer/director
• Rowdy By Nature | Morningstar Angeline, writer/director
• Ruby: Portrait of a Black Teen in an American Suburb | Raven Johnson, writer/director
• Santa Anita | David Liu, writer/director + Xin Li, producer
• Signs Preceding the End of the World | Joie Estrella Horwitz, writer/director; Luis Gutiérrez Arias, writer/director; Kindred Spirit, producer + Bahìa Colectiva, producer
• The President’s Cake | Hasan Hadi, writer/director
• The Stud | Matthew Puccini, writer/director
• Tokyo Forever | Andres Piñeros, writer/director; Federico Piñeros, producer + John Chaparro, producer
• Uncle Hiep’s Casino | Richard Van, writer/director + Betty Hu, producer
• Welcome to Roswell | StormMiguel Florez, writer/director/producer
• Where Is the Healer? | Tebogo Malebogo, writer/director/producer + Petrus van Staden, producer

But these weren’t the only grants SFFILM provided this year. We collaborated, again, with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities grant, awarding the funds to Sarah Granger in support of her film The Pain-Free Day. In partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation—the nation’s leading philanthropic grantor for science and the arts—SFFILM awarded filmmakers Temi Ojo (A Man with a Missing Face) and Mark Ingber (Terroir) 2022’s Sloan Science in Cinema fellowships. Our Documentary Film Fund winners will be publicly announced in January.

There was no better way to cap off a wonderful year for SFFILM Makers than with the announcement of the Sundance International Film Festival lineup. Of the 99 films that will screen at Sundance, seven of them are SFFILM-supported projects, including:

• Against the Tide | Sarvnik Kaur, director/producer; Koval Bhatia, producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund; SFFILM Invest | Appearing In—International Documentary Competition
• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt | Raven Jackson, writer/director; Maria Altamirano, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, producers | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant; SFFILM Westridge Grant | Appearing In—U.S. Dramatic Competition
• Fancy Dance | Erica Tremblay, writer/director/producer; Miciana Alise, writer | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant | Appearing In—U.S. Dramatic Competition
• Fremont | Babak Jalali, writer/director; Marjaneh Moghimi, producer; George Rush, producer | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant | Appearing In—Next
• Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project | Joe Brewster, co-director/producer; Michéle Stephenson, co-director/producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund; SFFILM Invest | Appearing In—U.S. Documentary Competition
• Going Varsity in Mariachi | Alejandra Vasquez, director; Sam Osborn, director; Julia Pontecorvo, producer; James Lawler, producer; Luis Miranda, producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund | Appearing In—U.S. Documentary Competition
• The Tuba Thieves | Allison O’Daniel, director/producer; Rachel Nederveld, Wendy Ettinger, Maida Lynn, Su Kim, Maya E. Rudolph, producers | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant | Appearing In—Next

SFFILM Education, In Brief

Our Education team ensures that filmmaking and film literacy are more accessible to the Bay Area’s youngest movie fans. The annual Schools at the Festival program, which took place at the 65th San Francisco International Film Festival, is just one example of this vital outreach; in connecting the Bay Area community and schools with the Festival, students of all ages can be inspired, moved, and connected to stories from around the world.

SFFILM’s Director of Education Keith Zwölfer said, “It’s been an extremely difficult two years for parents, students, and teachers. We were fortunate to be able to implement online resources and still provide meaningful and impactful experiences, but our passion truly lives in the impact we achieve through in-person educational events. So, it was fantastic to be able to bring school groups back in 2022. Nothing compares to seeing and hearing hundreds of students reacting to world class cinema in a theater with their peers. The silver lining of the pandemic is that we’ve learned to utilize online programming to supplement our in-person offerings, providing a level of accessibility we didn’t have previously for the Bay Area while also allowing us to expand our reach throughout the country and internationally.”

This year’s program reached 11,000 students and teachers for 19 in-person and online screenings and 24 school visits. Along with our Bay Area participants, we also had school groups from 14 states—as well as the UK and Canada—who viewed our online offerings.

When it comes to hands-on experiences, our annual Youth Filmmaker Camp allows participants to learn from local professionals, and then take what they learn and apply it to their own short narrative films. This year, 38 campers learned about screenwriting, filming, and editing over each of the camp’s two-week sessions. SFFILM provided 20 full scholarships ($1000) and one partial scholarship ($600). In addition to our in-house educators, Bay Area filmmakers Trevor Jiminez, Morgan Mathews, Joshua Pausanos, Ashley Valenzuela, Kar Yin Tham, Kein Wong, and Jim LeBrecht all provided campers with invaluable insight, too.

Other events throughout the year included a family screening of Turning Red, with Oscar-winning director Domee Shi (Bao) and production designer Rona Liu (Kitbull) in attendance. The screening had roughly 600 attendees, making it a wonderful way to welcome families back to in-person movie-going. In the fall, over 800 people attended the world premiere of ONI: Thunder God’s Tale, a 3D stop-motion hybrid animated fantasy series created by Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi (Dam Keeper).

A few weeks later, SFFILM made Doc Stories more accessible to students with Education’s first in-person iteration of Schools at Doc Stories. Across nine in-person and online screenings, and one in-person school visit, we served 4,772 students and teachers. School groups from 12 states as well as the UK also tuned in, building on our resolve to make film education more accessible and equitable to all students.

Throughout Doc Stories weekend, Disney Legend and long-time animator Floyd Norman (The Jungle Book, 1967) and Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot (The Queen of Basketball) of Breakwater Studios both stopped by to speak with young film lovers. To close out Schools at Doc Stories we held online Q&A sessions with filmmakers, which were attended by 3,400 K–12 students.

To close out a successful 2022, Youth Residency sessions will be held at FilmHouse (and virtually) in the coming weeks.

SFFILM 2023: What’s Ahead?

As we look ahead to a fresh year of exhibitions, artist development initiatives, and educational programming, the whole SFFILM team is motivated to continue our organization’s essential work. Make sure to save the date for the 2023 of the San Francisco International Film Festival, which will be held April 13–23. Until then, we will see you at the movies.

 

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