Celebrate the best and brightest in contemporary film with this onstage awards presentation.

The golden era of documentaries is at an end and what comes next is one of the most fiercely deba...

Live Events |

The Woman King is the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protect...

USA | 135

At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare times together with her loving and...

UK | 98

Based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates and produced by Brad Pitt, Blonde boldly reim...

USA | 166

As our industry faces enormous challenges with digital monopolization, the advent of AI technolog...

Live Events |

Join Jalena Keane-Lee, award-winning filmmaker and director of Standing Above the Clouds, for a d...

Eight years after his magisterial portrait of James Baldwin I Am Not Your Negro, master documenta...

France | Documentary | 105

What does it mean to produce a film with as few greenhouse gas emissions as possible? How can fil...

For Sama is an intimate feature documentary that takes the form of a letter from Waad al-Kateab, a 26-year-old Syrian mother, to her daughter Sama recorded during the battle for Aleppo, Syria.

UK | Documentary | 94

When Doc Stories launched in 2015, an electrifying music biopic about the legendary Janis Joplin ...

USA | Documentary | 105

Calling all Bay Area filmmakers! The SFFILM Programming team invites you to learn more about the submission process for the 2020 SFFILM Festival, meet the programmers responsible for the official selections, and ask questions about the Festival an...

When Mrs. Li discovers evidence of her husband’s infidelity, she takes drastic measures to save h...

China | Documentary | 94

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is the enchanting tale of a seemingly ordinary British housekeeper whos...

UK | 92

SFFILM Education will host director Mohammad Gorjestani and composer William Ryan Fritch for a music and film workshop for teens ages 13–18.

SFFILM’s celebrated collaboration with the New York Times continues into its tenth year to presen...

Documentary | 81

Made by a four-person collective of Israeli and Palestinian activists, this unflinching, prize-wi...

Palestine | Documentary | 96

The only full-length concert John Lennon ever performed after leaving The Beatles was a charity c...

UK | Documentary | 101

A lushly animated celebration of Japanese culture from Netflix and Tonko House, makers of The Dam...

78

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio reimagines the classic tale of the fabled wooden boy who, looking ...

116

Join the Host Committee and enjoy these exclusive benefits: — Premium seating at the Gala — Name recognition on marketing materials — An invitation for two to attend a private pre-party (details to follow) — Reserved seating for two at the SF Hon...

Roman Coleman (Matthias Schoenaerts), a convict in a rural Nevada prison who struggles to escape his violent past, is required to participate in an “outdoor maintenance” program as part of his state-mandated social rehabilitation.

United States | Fiction Feature | 96

A special preview of the first episode of the second season of the series, in which OA successfully jumps dimensions but finds herself at the center of a mystery she cannot solve without the help of a cynical private detective.

USA | Episodic | 69

The Silent Twins is the astounding true story of twin sisters who only communicated with one anot...

USA | 113

In Ruben Östlund’s wickedly funny Palme d’Or winner, social hierarchy is turned upside down, reve...

USA | 140

Among other dubious business practices, Amazon is notorious for being anti-union. Some brave work...

USA | Documentary | 104

Filming a group of Texas teens selected to participate in the titular highly respected program, Boys State masterfully observes as they engage in a weeklong course of political instruction, forming parties and platforms and electing candidates.

Documentary | 109

Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty, brings his singular vision to his World War I epic, 1917.

UK | Fiction Feature | 119

Get ready for the upcoming Doc Stories film series with a free screening of a delightful, timely short film from the New York Times Op-Docs team. Sindha Agha’s wry seven-minute video essay riffs on a variety of quarantine quandaries, including how...

USA | Documentary |

Join us for an insider preview of the 65th SFFILM Festival! Our flagship event returns to theater...

Two Americans on a Mexican fishing trip pick up a hitchhiker, and their car and lives are suddenly commandeered by a psychopathic gunman.

USA | Fiction | 72

Humor can often diffuse a heated and polarizing situation or offer laughter as a method of healin...

Tackling films of all shapes and sizes, our guests have designed for films ranging from period to...

I’m No Longer Here has been praised by critics and audiences alike for its moving portrait ...

From films beginning with Jungle Fever (1991) and Malcolm X (1992) to the documentary series When...

Phantasmagoric and intense, Abou Leila is set during Algeria's bloody conflict of the 1990s. Chil...

Algeria | Fiction | 135

The Văcărești wetlands, an environmental oasis minutes away from the center of Bucharest, has been home to the Enache family for 18 years. Free of societal constraints, they find a way to subsist off the grid.

Romania | Documentary | 85

Agnes Gund is an American philanthropist, collector of contemporary art, and a renowned advocate for arts education and social justice. SFFILM salutes her for her commitment to the arts with a moderated conversation and screening of Aggie.

USA | Documentary | 91

Ai Weiwei, famous for his large-scale installation work and his dogged social justice advocacy, created a career-defining work in 2015 with @Large, mounted at Alcatraz, the emblematic site associated with egregious incarceration conditions an...

USA | Documentary | 76

Named in honor of the legendary San Francisco film exhibitor Mel Novikoff (1922-1987), this award is given annually to an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema. The awar...

Fiction | 129

Juxtaposing an investigation of the recent mysterious death of teenager Lennon Lacy, found hanging from a swing set in North Carolina, against the little-known ritual of present-day lynching reenactments, first-time feature director Jacquelin...

USA | Documentary | 89

Working-class anxiety about global trade – perhaps the dominant political anxiety of our time – gets a sophisticated and intimate treatment in master documentarians Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s newest film. Chinese company Fuyao, a manu...

Documentary | 110

Universal Studios in Florida, a Hilton Hotel in Dallas, Museum of World Treasures in Kansas, and private homes in the Hollywood Hills are just some of the places where slabs of the Berlin wall have ended up.

USA | New Visions | 70

Join us for an online screening of Ammonite, recipient of the 2020 SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Prize, and a live Q&A with the film's director and special guests from the scientific community.

UK | Fiction | 120

"Evil must be contained," says Sister Claire (Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake), but trying to achieve that proves challenging in actress Romola Garai's gory and hypnotic horror film. The wickedness Claire has in mind is a being that lives in the attic...

UK | Fiction | 99

In this vivid science-fiction drama, a Mars-bound spacecraft is rendered unable to steer after colliding with space debris. Knowing that they have been set adrift for the rest of their lives, the passengers and crew must contend with dangerou...

Sweden | Fiction Feature | 106

The power of nature is captured with cutting-edge technology and cinematic virtuosity in this paean to water. Victor Kossakovsky (¡Vivan Las Antipodas!, Festival 2012), takes us from Russia’s semi-frozen Lake Baikal to glacier calving in Gree...

Documentary | 90

Industrial Light & Magic, industry leaders in the world of visual effects, have done it again by creating a start-to-finish virtual production solution called ILM StageCraft. This groundbreaking technology provides a continuous pipeline from ...

Join us for an online conversation about non-profit artist support and development programs between SFFILM's Executive Director Anne Lai and Director of Artist Development Lauren McBride.

Amid a fireworks display, love hits Baku and Asako with a bang. Dreamy and distracted, Baku mysteriously disappears six months later, and a devastated Asako moves from Osaka to Tokyo, where she meets her former beau’s exact lookalike who clai...

Japan | Fiction Feature | 119

Petite sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer has made a name for herself dishing honest and upfront advice, promising the best sex you have ever had, if you just listen. But for a woman who is so open to others, she has been somewhat reserved abou...

USA | Documentary | 100

During the 2016 Olympics, the Indianapolis Star broke the news that USA Gymnastics had been covering up incidents of sexual abuse by coaches for years. Once public, it sparked women to come forward to report abusive experiences by elite sports doc...

USA | Documentary | 104

Politics and the law, money and murder, all compellingly intertwine in this taut mystery/courtroom drama.

Hong Kong | Fiction Feature | 102

The moral implications of embezzling from a school district are immense, but that doesn't stop Superintendent Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) or lead accountant Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney) from stealing millions.

USA | Fiction | 108

Join us for an in-depth conversation with director Cory Finley in which he will discuss the making of 'Bad Education.'

108

Tibet's leading director, Pema Tseden (Old Dog, Festival 2012), continues his masterful chronicles of family life on the steppes with this humorous, touching, and ribald film.

China | Fiction | 102

To label James Marsh’s Wisconsin Death Trip a documentary might risk prosecution from Black Falls River, Wisconsin, where its events occurred. Nor is this simply a filmed version of Michael Lesy’s innovative book, published in 1973 … [It] use...

76

A Bay Area couple's decision to hire a surrogate creates ripples in their marriage and in the relationships around them. Erin Daniels (The L Word) stands out as Margaret, a writer bemused by her best friend Billy's fatherhood preoccupations and co...

USA | Fiction | 94

A moody Uruguayan artist who paints nudes, Belmonte is facing a midlife crisis while preparing for an exhibition. As his ex-wife prepares for motherhood with her new lover, he seeks a closer relationship with his precocious daughter Celeste a...

Uruguay | Fiction Feature | 75

This captivating documentary tells the remarkable story of South African dancer Siphe November, who was discovered as a young boy in the township of Zolani and rose to become one of a handful of Africans to lead a Western ballet company.

Canada | Documentary | 84

Douglas Tirola’s latest documentary traces the evolution of feminism through the lives of two exceptional women, Noel and Selma, who came of age in the '50s when women were relegated to the roles of wives and mothers. After leaving their marr...

USA | Documentary | 97

An official selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival from award-winning writer/director Justin ...

119

On the eve of their high school graduation, driven students Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) realize they’ve excelled at academics and failed at fun. They plan to erase that mistake by stuffing four years of hijinks into one w...

USA | Fiction Feature | 105

Each year, SFFILM invites a visionary thinker to discuss the intersecting worlds of contemporary cinema and visual arts, culture and society, images and ideas. We are thrilled to welcome local artist and activist Boots Riley back to the Festi...

Live Performance | 60

Join us for this advance member preview screening of Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss's documentary 'Boys State,' which was originally set to open the 2020 SFFILM Festival.

USA | Documentary | 109

Brittany Runs A Marathon is a tale of how a woman known for being the life of the party finds real friends—and a real life—by taking control of her herself, one city block at a time.

USA | Fiction Feature | 104

Redemption is the long game in Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter. Told with Schrader’s trademark c...

112

An ebullient tale that both celebrates and gently satirizes Chinese cultural traditions, The Farewell is impossible to resist for many reasons. Chief among them is the irrepressible Awkwafina (a breakthrough in Crazy Rich Asians, 2018), a bro...

USA | Fiction Feature | 98

Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport ceased operations in 2008, but reopened in 2015 as an emergency refugee camp. Tackling the European crisis in a brand-new way, director Karim Aïnouz (Madame Sata, Festival 2003) covers a year of life at Templehof, c...

Germany | Documentary | 97

Political figures, the body, drugs, and money represent just some of the exquisitely choreographed images in the newest, and perhaps most anxious, cycle from prolific collage animator Lewis Klahr (Sixty Six, Festival 2016).

USA | New Visions | 65

Anyone familiar with her work knows that a Claire Denis sci-fi film will not be like any other sci-fi film, but High Life is even stranger, bolder, and more sexual than expected. Set aboard a ship populated with death row inmates employed in ...

113

Crafted by six-time Oscar nominee Clarence Brown, this classic story of racial injustice, adapted from William Faulkner’s novel, is also a suspenseful murder mystery and a complex morality tale of the Deep South. Black farmer Lucas is assumed...

Fiction Feature | 87

International superstars Matthias Schoenaerts (SFFILM-supported The Mustang, 2019) and Reda Kateb (The White Knights, Festival 2016) headline this gritty crime drama from David Oelhoffen (Far From Men, Festival 2015). Though Manuel (Schoenaer...

France | Fiction Feature | 111

Gavin Hood's rousing and riveting new film tells the true story of whistleblower Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley at her most impassioned), a British woman working for UK’s intelligence service, monitoring foreign correspondence.

USA | Fiction Feature | 112

This revelatory documentary exposes the ways that AI systems have developed algorithms that can infringe on our privacy and threaten civil rights.

USA | Documentary | 90

In tiny Colewell, Pennsylvania, the residents gather at the post office for mail and gossip, while the days pass quiet and serene. That is until news comes that the office is to close, and beloved clerk Nora (a marvelous Karen Allen) is left ...

USA | Fiction Feature | 79

A shattering exposé of systemic corruption, Collective depicts the woeful response to the victims...

Romania | Documentary | 109

Join us for a fun and educational online talk with Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera from Pixar Animation Studios, designed for kids and families.

A mild-mannered vet named Egor is caught between a group of animal rights protesters and the proprietors of the dog-training farm where he works in this complex naturalistic drama. Plunging deeply into her characters' lives, Natalia Meshchani...

Fiction Feature | 124

Join SFFILM Makers for an online talk with independent filmmaker Liz Manashil, who will discuss the current moment in creative distribution.

Born with spina bifida, 15-year-old Jim LeBrecht found first love and a tribe when he spent the summer of 1971 at a Catskills camp for the disabled. He and his new friends also discovered something else: their voices. How that experience leads to ...

USA | Documentary | 107

Join us for an in-depth conversation with co-directors Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht in which they will discuss the making of 'Crip Camp.'

107

Acclaimed DJ Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli will bring his dynamic turntablism to the Cas...

USA | Live Performance | 90

He retired in 1966 and never came back. Yet, he is the star we still think about because … he was so funny, yet so dark sometimes; so straight … yet enigmatic; so Cary Grant, yet so Archie Leach (his real name, born in Bristol, England). Davi...

60

The travails of a duty-bound husband and father who works in an economically struggling print shop are conveyed with humor and pathos in this beautifully performed Turkish film. Tufan is basically a kindhearted fellow who takes in a neighbor ...

Turkey | Fiction Feature | 95

Made with great love and imagination, Kirsten Johnson's tribute to her father gives a capacious sense of his life while focusing on his present struggles with memory loss.

USA | Documentary | 89

Join director and animator Brian Scott as he discusses the film he made as part of Disney's Short Circuit program, Elephant in the Room, and the vivid childhood memory that inspired the story.

USA | Short Film | 120

Join the SFFILM Programming Team for a virtual happy hour and preview of the 2020 Doc Stories film series.

Disneynature continues to inspire passion for conservation with its groundbreaking series of wildlife films. The latest, narrated by Natalie Portman, follows Echo, a young bottlenose dolphin, as he navigates the coral reef his family calls home, l...

USA | Fiction | 77

A last party between lifelong theater geek friends before they scatter to college reveals just how much they don't know about one another in Jonathan Wysocki's warm, funny, and moving coming-of-age dramedy.

USA | Fiction | 91

The songs that reverberated from Laurel Canyon in the '60s remain some of the greatest achievements in rock history. Celebrating 50 years since musicians migrated to the West Coast spot, musician Jakob Dylan takes to the stage, presenting new...

USA | Documentary | 83

Join Dan Lund, veteran effects animator with over 25 years of experience at Walt Disney Animation Studios, for a workshop that explores the magical elements of Frozen 2.

120

Join us for an in-depth conversation with Jacolby Satterwhite, a recent Artist in Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts, and a presentation of his two-channel epic Birds in Paradise (Jacolby Satterwhite, USA 2016, 63 min), a hybrid of 3D anim...

70

90

Louis Garrel stars in his own buoyant romantic farce as Abel, sweetly passive and buffeted by others’ whims. His lover, Marianne (Laetitia Casta), dumps him for his friend Paul, only to come back into the picture years later, while Paul’s win...

France | Fiction Feature | 75

After fleeing Angola’s civil war, Walter has spent 17 years in NYC, separated from his wife and daughter, so when they are finally reunited, they have a gulf of physical and emotional absence to bridge. With grace and nuance, Farewell Amor e...

USA | Fiction | 103

Pepe the Frog first appeared as a loveable and goofy character in the comic Boys Club by San Francisco cartoonist Matt Furie, cracking the line “feels good man” with his pants down. The frog’s image took an intense viral turn when it w...

USA | Documentary | 93

The division between urbanity and the wilderness is atmospherically explored in acclaimed documentarian Maya Da-Rin’s narrative debut. Middle-aged Justinio works security at the port of Manaus, but longs for the Amazonian environment where h...

Brazil | Fiction | 98

Since Trump took office, the ACLU has filed a record 147 lawsuits; this is the rousing story of four of them. As they prepare to litigate hot-button issues like reproductive choice, immigration policies, and transgender rights, the lead attorneys ...

USA | Documentary | 96

Festival favorite Stanley Kwan is one of cinema’s great directors of women, and his deliriously entertaining new film offers an almost entirely female cast. When transsexual playwright An hires two feuding actresses to star in her latest work...

Hong Kong | Fiction Feature | 100

A beach holiday turns into a wry romantic roundelay as an Argentinian couple and their kids are taken under the wing of a randy and vivacious Brazilian man who offers them his family’s home to rent. As the two different broods come to know on...

Argentina | Fiction Feature | 106

Join us for an online screening of the short film 'For Estefani, Third Grade, Who Sent Me a Card' and a Q&A with director Jordan Bruner.

3

Join us for an in-depth Q&A with Radha Blank, director, writer, and star of The Forty-Year-Old Version.

In the lush and dense countryside of Northern California, Devi (Krisha Fairchild, Krisha, Festival 2015) and her seasonal help – employees who are like family – have been harvesting legendary cannabis strains for years. But with new laws and restr...

USA | Fiction | 80

Why was Elsa born with magical powers? The answer is calling her and threatening her kingdom. Together with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven, she’ll set out on a dangerous but remarkable journey. In Frozen, Elsa feared her powers were too much...

USA | Fiction Feature | 103

Nominated for multiple Hong Kong Film Awards, Lee Cheuk-pan’s debut feature tells a dark story of murder, prostitution, and police corruption.

Hong Kong | Fiction Feature | 105

Join us for an online screening of the short film 'Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad' and a Q&A with director Camrus Johnson.

USA | Short Film | 5

As more and more states join the push to legalize marijuana, hip-hop pioneer, graffiti artist, and filmmaker Fab 5 Freddy joins the conversation with this vape-worthy documentary. Grass Is Greener dives deep into the history of cannabis in Am...

USA | Documentary | 97

Real life DJs Polywog, Forest Green, and John Digweed lend verisimilitude to this pulsing snapshot of San Francisco rave culture at the turn of the century. A disused SOMA warehouse transforms into an orgiastic gathering of youth moving as an ecst...

USA | Fiction | 86

If Alastair Crowley or Rosemary’s Baby (1968) are what come to mind when you hear about a group called The Satanic Temple, this playful and unexpectedly inspirational new documentary from Penny Lane (NUTS!, Festival 2016) will set you straigh...

USA | Documentary | 95

Skateboarder and academic achiever, Hala, is a blossoming teen who doesn’t have many close relationships, other than with her father. When chemistry with her classmate Jesse (Jack Kilmer, Palo Alto, Festival 2014) sparks sexual desires, her s...

USA | Fiction Feature | 94

Not only was Halston among the most influential figures to appear in American fashion, he also helped define a Golden Age of hedonistic alternative culture alongside Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, and the denizens of Studio 54. This fascinating ...

USA | Documentary | 120

The controversial show Ren & Stimpy (1991-95) was ostensibly for kids but quickly found an appreciative older audience and initiated the wave of adult animation programs that continues today. Though the program is remembered fondly, less is kn...

USA | Documentary | 107

Since we can’t be with you in person at this year’s Festival, the SFFILM Programming team would love to invite members to an informal online live-streamed video chat this Friday. We’ll talk about what we’re watching, listen...

Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of Macedonia, making a living cultivating honey using ancient beekeeping traditions. When an unruly family moves in next door, what at first seems like a balm for her solitude, becomes a s...

Macedonia | Documentary | 85

Join SFFILM and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, San Francisco, for a very special preview night for Hong Kong Cinema.

Driven hotel manager Katy Chow starts seeing ghosts after she suffers a nasty bump on the head in Yan Pak-wing’s spirited comedy.

Hong Kong | Fiction Feature | 99

Before the phrase “early adopter” existed, Pierre Cardin was one: The first designer of haute couture to make ready-to-wear for the masses, a pioneer of hiring models of color and in expanding his brand far beyond fashion. This engagin...

France | Documentary | 97

Being bright and bookish is rarely a recipe for high school popularity, and Joanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein, Booksmart, Festival 2019) spends as much time with the rock god posters on the wall of her Midlands bedroom as she does with her mates u...

UK | Fiction | 102

The brief moment at the end of the 20th century when it seemed that diplomacy might prevail in the long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with the collapse of that hope, are explored through the rueful recollections of US diplomats in Oscar-nomi...

USA | Documentary | 108

Iván is an aspiring chef in Mexico, struggling to make it in the kitchen and provide for his son. When he meets and falls for the effervescent Gerardo, he is denied seeing his child and decides to illegally cross the border to pursue his dream of ...

USA | Fiction | 111

In a Parisian laboratory, a severed hand escapes its unhappy fate and sets out to reconnect with its body.

France | Fiction Feature | 81

Beautifully choreographed, director Fernando Frías de la Parra’s second feature is a melancholic take on emigration, one fueled by a Cumbia beat. In Monterrey, Mexico, Ulises is the leader of a small street gang called Los Terkos. When it be...

Mexico | Fiction | 106

What if the apocalypse happens not with a bang but with a whimper? And what if you were the only survivor yet didn’t have an affinity for life in the first place? These are some of the issues explored with droll humor in Ulrich Köhler’s (Slee...

Germany | Fiction Feature | 119

Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on inside their head? Inside Out ventures inside the mind to find out.

USA | Fiction | 102

In this personal and rousing documentary, Joan Chen charts the inspiring life and career of “Jenny” Lang Ping, a fearless and independent Olympic athlete who propels China to international prominence in volleyball. On the court, her mo...

USA | Documentary | 99

Handsome 16-year-old Austyn Tester dreams of parlaying his moderate social media following into fame, as a way to escape his life in Tennessee and become a star. Garnering enough attention online to get a management, he finds out firsthand ho...

USA | Documentary | 99

Marvelously adapted from Patrick deWitt's novel, this picaresque Western tells the story of Eli (John C. Reilly, combining the silly and the heartfelt as only he can) and Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix) Sisters, hired by the mysterious Commodore to...

USA | Fiction Feature | 121

Join us for an online screening of John Lewis: Good Trouble and a special conversation with director Dawn Porter and former US Attorney General Eric Holder.

96

An action film with a moral message, Just 6.5 delves into the nooks and crannies of a Tehran drug bust, following cops and criminals alike. It begins with a thrilling foot chase through Tehran’s back alleys as narcotics detective Samad (Paym...

134

The deep-seated effects of decades of conflict in Afghanistan are memorably revealed through the lives of three Kabul residents in Aboozar Amini's mesmerizing observational documentary.In this deeply personal and resonant film, the resilience...

Afghanistan | Documentary | 88

When Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) distinguishes himself as the postal academy’s worst student, he is stationed on a frozen island above the Arctic Circle, where the feuding locals hardly exchange words let alone letters.

Spain | Fiction Feature | 96

Acclaimed writer and director Rian Johnson pays tribute to mystery mastermind Agatha Christie in this fresh, modern-day murder mystery where everyone is a suspect.

USA | Fiction Feature | 130

"We met a machine with a movement," says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14th District), and thank goodness director Rachel Lears was there to capture it. Profiling four women (including AOC) of disparate backgrounds running grassroots politic...

USA | Documentary | 86

From the Ivory Coast comes this daring 1969 drama that reflects the culture at a postcolonial crossroads. The unnamed male protagonist is an intellectual who finds reality a bit too much to bear. Haunted by visions of a woman who alternately threa...

Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) | Fiction | 80

In this daring exploration of female sexuality, Charlene Choi stars as Siu-man, an OB-GYN facing several life crises.

Hong Kong | Fiction Feature | 107

Doris is a young Wayuú woman who dreams of a reunion with her deceased cousin. After seeking advice from her grandmother, she learns that this vision obligates her to exhume her cousin’s remains from her grave and lead a "second burial,” whic...

Colombia | 75

On the remote Icelandic coast sits a sheep farm tended to by a husband and wife who have lived off the land for years, but have decided that this will be the last season they spend with their shimmying, braying herd.

Iceland | Documentary | 78

Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

USA | Fiction Feature | 120

Considered to be the most successful art forger of all time, Dutch painter Han van Meegeren (Guy Pearce) perfected the strokes of Vermeer so convincingly that he sold a fake to a high-ranking Nazi soldier. When the war ends, he’s declared a ...

USA | Fiction | 117

In Edward Zwick’s searing drama, adapted from a 2009 New Yorker article by David Grann, Cameron Todd Willingham (Jack O’Connell) is charged with murder for the arson deaths of his three children and placed on death row. In the film's second h...

USA | Fiction Feature | 127

Family ties have rarely been so fraught as they are in Tamara Jenkins' acerbic and beautifully acted film. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman are riveting as Wendy and Jon Savage, siblings who have been irrevocably damaged by their abusi...

USA | Fiction Feature | 113

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice celebrates an artist whose desire to share the music she loved, made generations of fans fall in love with her—and the sound of her voice.

USA | Documentary | 95

David Ki (Alex Lam) is an internationally ranked outdoor climber with his sights set on further glory when a freeway accident leaves him without the use of both legs.

96

History suggests that bad people in power don’t pay for their misdeeds, but Guatemalan dire...

96

Ultramarathon swimmer Patti Bauernfeind has conquered the English Channel, Cook Strait, and Monterey Bay, finding inspiration for these physically demanding swims through various social causes.

USA | Short Film | 16

Director Paolo Sorrentino and actor Tony Servillo (Il Divo, 2008; The Great Beauty, 2013) continue their rich cinematic collaboration and imaginative evisceration of current Italian politics and society with this fictionalized portrait of Sil...

Italy | Fiction Feature | 150

Join us for a fun and educational Q&A with the filmmakers of the newest Disney and Pixar film...

USA | Fiction | 95

At a drunken wrap party, film producer Lee Chan-sil finds herself out of a job when the director she’s long collaborated with drops dead of a heart attack. At loose ends, she starts working as an assistant to an actress friend while reevalua...

South Korea | Fiction | 96

Wong Chun’s first feature film Mad World quietly and perceptively tells the story of one man afflicted with bipolar disorder.

101

The Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award honors a filmmaker whose main body of work falls outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking. Madeline Anderson is a documentary filmmaker —a producer, director, and editor—whose career has be...

100

Maiden is the inspirational story of how Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook on charter boats, became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989.

UK | Documentary | 93

Join the SFFILM Makers team for a conversation with documentarian Kirsten Johnson and editor Nels Bangerter.

Join us for this online FilmHouse talk about the journey from script to screen for 'Lingua Franca.'

Join us for this online FilmHouse talk about the journey from script to screen for 'Miss Juneteenth.'

Marona is a mixed-breed pup who has a profound impact on every human she encounters. After an accident, she journeys into the past, revisiting all of the humans who shaped her perception of the world. This beautifully expressionistic depiction of ...

France | Fiction | 92

Bodies of water ebb and flow throughout this poetic experimental documentary by filmmaker Sky Hopinka. Honoring connections to nature and the cycles of life, maɬni separately follows two Native Americans from the Pacific Northwest as they share th...

USA | New Visions | 82

“Local governance is the most beautiful field of work in our country,” says two-term Christian Mayor of Ramallah, Musa Hadid. Between school visits, city rebranding meetings, and sewage cleanup, Mayor Musa works tirelessly to bring bas...

USA | Documentary | 89

Join the SFFILM Makers team for a live-streamed conversation about the 2021 FilmHouse residency program.

Join us for an informational session about the submission process for the 64th SFFILM Festival, which is being planned for April 2021.

The USSR’s last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, steps back into the limelight in this riveting documentary focused on a life that changed history. Now 87 and in precarious health, Gorbachev nevertheless possesses a mind as sharp as ever as he parr...

UK | Documentary | 91

A special insider preview of the 2019 SFFILM Festival, just for SFFILM members and their guests!

SFFILM members and their guests are invited to join us for an insider preview of the 2020 San Francisco International Festival, which runs April 8–21 at venues all over the Bay Area! Our programming team will deliver a multimedia walkthrough of th...

Sunny Chan’s bright and winning sports comedy portrays a group of hapless but well-meaning company workers who join a dragon boat racing team in the wake of company shakeups and looming layoffs.

Hong Kong | Fiction Feature | 92

The streets of New York have rarely looked as gritty as in this evocative, still provocative drama in which a naïve Texan (Jon Voight) seeking his fortune as a hustler strikes up a surprising friendship with a seedy conman (Dustin Hoffman). N...

USA | Fiction Feature | 113

The Ochoa family runs a hair-raisingly frenetic private ambulance service in Mexico City. Luke Lorentzen captures the madness of curbside negotiations – the service they provide is an add-on to Mexico’s under-resourced public health system – ...

USA | Documentary | 81

When the Taliban forces filmmakers and married couple Hassan Fazili and Fatima Hussaini to flee Afghanistan with their two daughters, they begin filming their time on the road, which includes running across borders, sleeping on roadsides, int...

USA | Documentary | 87

Only iconic filmmaker, Festival favorite Stanley Nelson, could create a documentary that matches the artistry and dynamism of Miles Davis, who defined and embodied "cool" through his music, casual demeanor, and chiseled good looks. Featuring...

USA | Documentary | 115

Scientist F. Percy Smith pioneered “micro-cinema” – building his own equipment for time-lapse photography and other techniques to film plants and organisms at a microscopic level. Weaving together Smith’s black-and-white found footage from th...

UK | 63

A poignant story of deferred dreams and a mother’s love, Miss Juneteenth tells the story of Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie), who pushes her daughter to compete in the titular African-American pageant that she herself won back in 2004. So in...

USA | Fiction | 103

A delightfully crude caper about three estranged female friends on a madcap search for breast milk could only come from the twisted mind of Hong Kong Cinema favorite Pang Ho-cheung.

Hong Kong | Fiction Feature | 88

In this intimate and wondrous program, Miwa Matreyek will perform two of her most recent pieces. Infinitely Yours (Miwa Matreyek, USA 2020, 30 min), her latest layered-projection performance, is a gorgeously moving and anguished cry in the face of...

70

Anezka has some serious family issues – her mom is relentlessly judgmental, her dad’s a know-it-all, and her grandmother has cancer – but tries to remain sanguine about the resulting demands placed on her. Lovely and down to earth, she seems ...

Czech Republic | Fiction Feature | 93

Wild and unhinged, full of surrealistic visuals and a pulsing score, Monos brings a tense, disturbing twist to the war-film genre, with flavors of Apocalypse Now (1979) and Lord of the Flies (1990). A group of young soldiers, part of a rebel ...

Colombia | Fiction Feature | 102

Award-winning filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky's latest work is an exquisite ode to family lineage and legacy. Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements is a personal and affecting portrait of Brodsky’s young son, Jonas, who is able to hear...

USA | Documentary | 90

Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), a lonely private detective living with Tourette Syndrome, ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis).

USA | Fiction Feature | 144

Best-pal neighbors and moms Céline and Alice see their friendship take a darker turn when a devastating accident hits one of their households in this delightfully twisty period thriller that combines the tense thematic perversities of Alfred ...

Belgium | Fiction Feature | 97

This year’s Mel Novikoff Award winner, the BBC series Arena, celebrated its 40th anniversary of arts programming in 2015, with Night and Day. Co-created and directed by Anthony Wall, the series’ longtime executive producer, the film is a dist...

UK | 540

Imagine a nondescript house in the middle of a wasted landscape where a man named Will (Winston Duke from Us and Black Panther) holds a series of “job interviews” where the job is existence itself. Posed a series of existential questio...

USA | Fiction | 124

Yonfan’s vibrant and erotic animated film about youthful obsessions utilizes a remarkable new process that turns 3D illustrations into 2D images. Set in 1967 Hong Kong, when students protested British colonial rule, the story offers the reme...

Hong Kong | Fiction | 125

Join SFFILM Makers for an online talk with independent filmmaker and doc consultant Carrie Lozano, who will discuss the current moment in doc funding.

Reflecting on her life’s work as one of the globe’s authorities on Mexican cuisine, 95-year-old Diana Kennedy says, “Always get a recipe.” Whether hosting cooking classes in her Michoacan home (“If anyone says they don’t like cilantro, please...

USA | Documentary | 68

Notions of public image and private persona collide in this funny subversion of the concert documentary. Wanting to capture footage from her Fear the Future tour, Annie Clark (better known as St. Vincent) offers best pal and Portlandia co-creator ...

USA | Fiction | 91

Director Arnaud Desplechin (Kings & Queen, Festival 2005) returns to his beloved hometown of Roubaix, but shifts gears from the family-centered dramas he’s known for to this tense police procedural. Police forces, though, often take on f...

France | Fiction | 119

When Maria (Chiara Mastroianni) breaks up with Richard (Benjamin Biolay), her husband of 20 years, and checks into a hotel across the street, she crosses into a magical realm where she’ll meet her guardian angel, several ex lovers, and the 2...

90

China ended its one-child policy in 2015, but the ramifications of the decades-long law are still reverberating throughout the country in traumatic and haunting ways. Inspired by the birth of her own son, co-director Nanfu Wang returns to her...

China | Documentary | 85

Along a single road running through Algeria, in the expansive Saharan desert, sits a lone café run by the brash, opinionated, yet hospitable Malika. Her establishment caters to all travelers needing respite from the road, offering them tea and a s...

Algeria | Documentary | 100

Join us for an online screening of Tasha Van Zandt's short documentary 'One Thousand Stories: The Making of a Mural' and a Q&A with the filmmaker and her subject, the artist JR.

14

Set in a suburban fantasy world, two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, go on an journey to discover if there is still a little magic left out there in order to spend one last day with their father, who died when they were too young t...

USA | 114

Filming a group of Texas teens selected to participate in the titular highly respected program, Boys State masterfully observes as they engage in a weeklong course of political instruction, forming parties and platforms and electing candidates.

USA | Documentary | 109

Inspired by the books of Armistead Maupin, Netflix Original Series Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City begins a new chapter in the beloved story.

Episodic | 57

Watch Over the Moon on Netflix then join us for a fun and educational Q&A to learn about the making of this visually stunning and moving animated musical adventure.

"Easy to criticize a religion when you’re outside it," says one of the subjects in Jeffrey Peixoto’s mesmerizing debut film, a poetic examination of the Church of Scientology that focuses on its fringes. Weaving together accounts of alien abd...

USA | Documentary | 71

In their feature debut, award-winning documentarians Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan intimately share the lives and aspirations of four high-school seniors of color as they anxiously prepare for life outside Pahokee High School. In a rural, t...

USA | Documentary | 112

When two large-scale paintings by Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova are stolen from a gallery in Oslo, she finds herself in the courtroom with one of the convicted thieves, Karl-Bertil Nordland. She asks to paint Nordland, both for compensation and t...

Norway | Documentary | 102

Based on the ancient Chinese creation myth, Pangu is a modern tale about parenthood and the differences between generations. Pangu creates a rigid world of angular shapes, but there’s just one problem: his son sees the world as curves.

China | Short Film | 6

Displaying a mature style and sensibility despite his age, Paper Flags director Ambrosioni (at 19, one of cinema’s youngest directors of a full-length feature ever) offers a complex and compelling story of sibling tensions. Vincent (shape-shi...

France | Fiction Feature | 102

A family tragicomedy depicting the inevitable collision that ensues when Ki Woo, the eldest son in a family of four unemployed adults, is introduced to the wealthy Park family for a well-paid tutoring job.

South Korea | 131

Ottinger’s latest film begins from the perspective of autobiography. It describes her experiences as a young artist living in Paris in the 1960s, when she came into contact with the intellectual and artistic community surrounding Fritz Picard’s an...

Germany | Documentary | 129

In a classic adventure tale worthy of Mark Twain, a down-on-his-luck fisherman and a young man bent on achieving an impossible dream make their way down the waterways of a mythical American South with the help of a succession of colorful strangers.

USA | Fiction Feature | 98

The Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award honors a filmmaker whose main body of work falls outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking. Since the late ’80s, Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa has developed a signature form of collabora...

Portugal | Fiction | 124

Saudi Arabia has one of the least satisfactory records with respect to women’s rights, but Haifaa Al Mansour’s latest film reminds us that great change often happens in incremental steps. Eminently capable physician Dr. Maryam is frust...

Senegal | Fiction | 101

Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, Festival 2009) reimagines Charles Dickens’ epic, autobiographical masterpiece as a curiously contemporary tragicomic adventure. An exuberant Dev Patel (The Man Who Knew Infinity, Festival 2015) sets an amiable tone a...

UK | Fiction | 120

This powerfully romantic and gently comedic film from India comes from the same director as the cult hit The Lunchbox (2013). It quietly traces the story of a street photographer who convinces an upper-class girl he meets at a tourist site to...

India | Fiction Feature | 108

The tender, heartbreaking, and complicated nature of young love is delicately and sensually captured in Rashaad Ernesto Green’s (Gun Hill Road) latest film. Ayanna is a talented poet spending her final summer in Harlem before leaving for coll...

USA | Fiction Feature | 89

Join SFFILM Makers for an online talk with independent producer Jameka Autry, who will debunk common myths in documentary filmmaking.

Kinetic action and a mind-bending plot highlight this star-studded film about a counterfeiting network directed by Infernal Affairs (2002) writer Felix Chong. The film begins in the mid-'90s as detectives extradite Lee Man (Aaron Kwok) from a...

Fiction Feature | 131

Carey Mulligan is nothing short of sensational as a one-time med student reduced to slinging coffee in Emerald Fennell’s (Killing Eve‘s executive producer) brilliant pitch-black comic thriller. Cassie’s candy-colored nails and ul...

113

Across the Bay from the NBA champion Golden State Warriors is another Warriors team, one that plays only home games. Felony convictions derailed the lives of the San Quentin Prison squad, some of them promising players.

Documentary | 97

Working from Lauren Redniss’s account of Marie and Pierre Curie’s lives, Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) embraces the spirit of experimentation, employing occasional animation and fanciful flourishes along with a unique, time-telescoping approach. Th...

UK | Fiction | 103

As journalism comes under attack with constant cries of “fake news,” this hugely entertaining documentary about the fierce and fearless writer and social commentator reminds us of how wit and well-channeled vitriol can speak truth to power.  ...

USA | Documentary | 93

After his father’s death, bicultural chef Masato heads to Singapore to find out more about his mother and the culinary bounty that has made the island city-state such a foodie destination. Guided by food blogger Miki, Masato seeks the perfect...

Singapore | Fiction Feature | 90

Ron Howard’s stirring documentary begins with visceral images of a town burning while resid...

USA | Documentary | 92

Legendary theater director Trevor Nunn and the incomparable Judi Dench combine their efforts to tell a riveting espionage thriller with the ethics of science at its core. Dench plays Joan, arrested late in life for her activities as a spy dur...

UK | Fiction Feature | 110

The Report is a riveting thriller based on actual events, in which idealistic staffer Daniel J. Jones is tasked by his boss Senator Dianne Feinstein to lead an investigation of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program

USA | Fiction Feature | 120

Join us for a special online Q&A with the 'River City Drumbeat' co-directors and special guests.

95

For 30 years, Ed “Nardie” White has dedicated his life to uplifting and empowering African-American youth through the River City Drum Corps, teaching kids about their African roots and culture through music.  Filmmakers Marlon Johnson ...

USA | Documentary | 95

Rocketman is an epic musical fantasy about the incredible human story of Elton John’s breakthrough years.

UK | Fiction Feature | 121

British-Nigerian teenager Rocks is a dynamic presence at her high school, doing her classmates’ makeup and initiating food fights in Home Ec class. What her friends don’t know is that she’s contending with an unstable mom who som...

UK | Fiction | 93

Set in 1975 Argentina, Benjamin Naishtat's (History of Fear, Festival 2014) noirish drama tells the story of a morally compromised lawyer. Claudio is being investigated over a shady real estate deal in the months leading up to the right-wing ...

Argentina | Fiction Feature | 110

Rose is a veterinary student whose complicated feelings around being adopted make her feel as though she hasn’t become the person she was meant to be. Her education takes a back seat when she decides to track down her birth parents and takes...

Ireland | Fiction | 100

Muna is a young woman in Saudi Arabia who is unable to live the life that she desperately wants. Restricted by laws and religious practices that prohibit women from doing anything alone – including leaving home to visit the store – Muna decides th...

Switzerland | Documentary | 88

A surprising intrusion shocks Brooklyn hipsters vacationing at an isolated cabin in the woods in this breezy comedy about “getting away from it all.” Jack (John Reynolds) and Su (Sunita Mani) are a devoted couple, but inept when it com...

USA | Fiction | 94

The volcanic rock that covers most of Iceland is not just beautiful and protected in the Nature Conservation register, it is also purportedly the home to elves, trolls, and other hidden people. When a new road is set to be built through a lav...

USA | Documentary | 86

Catty, territorial high school cliques are at the center of this fresh film by Tayarisha Poe. Selah Summers (standout newcomer Lovie Simone) is a senior at her private school and the head of one of five school-run factions, The Spades. Her reign i...

USA | Fiction | 97

Join us for an in-depth conversation with director Tayarisha Poe in which she will discuss the making of 'Selah and the Spades.'

97

Join us for an informational session from the SFFILM Makers team about SFFILM's three largest narrative grant programs.

For Shaun the Sheep’s second feature-length movie, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon takes the world’s favorite woolly hero and plunges him into an hilarious intergalactic adventure he will need to use all of his cheekiness and heart to work hi...

UK | Fiction Feature | 86

A psychological drama dipped in acid, this darkly funny fictional portrait of writer Shirley Jackson (“The Lottery”) soars on Elisabeth Moss’s fearless eponymous performance. Stricken with writer’s block and under the thumb...

USA | Fiction | 107

SF stripper Champagne White (multi-hyphenate talent D’Arcy Drollinger) is expecting her boyfriend Rod to pop the question; when he instead tells her of a secret plot involving booty bumps and the world’s largest retail store, it’...

USA | Fiction | 91

93

These shorts directed by an international group of emerging filmmakers present moving examples of individual acts of grace, courage, and compassion. From determined teenagers challenging conformity, to a woman coping with loss through physical end...

88

This collection of documentary and narrative shorts from mostly female directors explores the work of an iconic artist, family life, and the wonders of the natural world. The films address the challenges of responsible parenting, the ever-changing...

81

89

85

This international collection of dazzling and groundbreaking animated films showcases a wide range of distinct techniques to tell personal stories. Whether tackling the loss of loved ones, LGBTQ issues, or the unpredictability of city living, each...

84

75

From the high rises of Hong Kong, to carefully examined taxidermy, to home videos shot by Barbara Hammer on a motorcycle trip in Guatemala, these eight films travel far, but with a grounding of place and the space they operate within. While reflec...

65

Things are not always what they seem in this exciting collection of films from around the world. At first glance, a puddle is simply water accumulated on a sidewalk after an afternoon shower. A jumbled sequence of letters is surely just a child’s ...

66

88

66

See the world through the lenses of today’s young filmmakers! This selection of narrative, documentary, and animated films from all over the world, tells stories that mix genre, style, and passion to offer up a fresh perspective to the world of ci...

83

74

62

Reflecting on his short film The Fall, Jonathan Glazer quotes another master filmmaker, Anthony Minghella, who said that a short film should be like a perfect sentence. And the sentences that these eight directors craft are impeccable indeed. In a...

97

Iconic images of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and just about every legendary music act of the 1960s and '70s defined the career of San Francisco photographer Jim Marshall. Behind the scenes, a pugnacious personality and appetites for drugs and...

USA | Documentary | 92

A new patient triggers a psychotherapist’s obsessions in this psychological thriller. An aspiring writer, Sibyl (Virginie Efira) follows actress Margot (Adèle Exarchopoulos) to a remote island movie set under the guise of treatment. But, really, s...

France | Fiction | 100

Join us for an in-depth conversation with actor Sienna Miller, in which she will discuss her extensive career and acclaimed performances.

Now 18 and with full access to the internet, the young Bhutanese monk Peyangki from Happiness (Festival 2014), is more interested in video games and girls than in studying and praying. The film also follows Ugyen, a woman who’s been chatting...

France | Documentary | 99

Holiday tensions rise to a boil for the Argentinean family at the center of Paula Hernández’s masterfully controlled film. At a country house, an extended clan gathers to celebrate the New Year. The focus is on Luisa, who’s facing a tr...

Argentina | Fiction | 107

Wang Xiaoshuai’s (Red Amnesia, Festival 2015) unforgettable family portrait tackles the tragic implications of China’s one-child policy in epic form. It tells the story of two families from the 1970s to the present, revealing their trajector...

China | Fiction | 185

Florida’s The Villages is one of the highest-ranked senior-living communities in the country.  For those who are fortunate enough to reside in this “Disneyland for Seniors,” there are plenty of activities to indulge in, but behin...

USA | Documentary | 83

Join us for an online screening of the newest Pixar film Soul, a beautiful and moving celebration...

USA | Fiction | 101

The relationship between a paralyzed man and his Filipina caretaker develops with sensitivity and nuance in Oliver Chan's debut film.

111

A dramatic thriller directed by Academy Award® winner Tom McCarthy and starring Matt Damon, Still...

USA | Fiction | 140 minutes

Join us as we welcome writer/director Matthew A. Cherry and executive producer Frank E. Abney III for a peek behind-the-scenes of their new Sony Pictures Animation short film 'Hair Love.'

The world of three stray dogs commingling among the inhabitants of the sprawling city of Istanbul is the subject of Elizabeth Lo’s beguiling documentary feature debut. The viewer is thrust into their world as they wander the busy thoroughfares and...

USA | Documentary | 72

Mouthwatering documentaries are executive producer David Gelb’s specialty. The man who brought the world Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) and the series Chef’s Table (2015-) and Chef’s Table: France (2016) is back with a new show. After concentrat...

USA | Episodic | 60

Repeating motifs – sleep, birdwatching, buildings in decay – weave together two distinct storylines in Qiu Sheng's mysterious, atmospheric debut. In one story, land surveyors investigate a tilting building, while in the other a group of kids s...

China | 118

The challenges facing aging gay men are dramatized with great warmth in Ray Yeung’s Hong Kong-set portrait of a new love affair. Hoi and Pak have both acknowledged their sexuality late in life; Pak is still married when he makes a pass at Ho...

Hong Kong | Fiction | 92

Three Tehran residents, unlucky in love, make attempts to change their solo status in this wistful and poignant film. A bodybuilder, a funeral singer, and a woman who works in a beauty clinic – each character finds that the pursuit of their r...

Iran | Fiction Feature | 102

Ethan Hawke portrays Nikola Tesla as a kind of steampunk New Romantic in this captivating imaginative drama from Michael Almereyda (Experimenter, Festival 2015). Tesla recounts the life of the inventor of alternating current and the subsequent ele...

USA | Fiction | 102

Join us for an in-depth online conversation with 'Tesla' director Michael Almereyda and actor Blake DeLong.

This unique film combines rich cinematography, breathtaking landscapes, and arresting moments of contemporary dance to explore the inner worlds of two star-crossed lovers in a ravishing adaptation of a Henry James short story. Accomplished da...

Netherlands | Fiction Feature | 87

Twenty-four-year-old Evelia cleans rooms at an upscale Mexico City hotel while taking advantage of its adult education program in her off hours. Though introverted and task-focused, she becomes drawn into the lives of several guests and cowor...

Mexico | Fiction Feature | 102

Mystery and mishaps abound in this Fargo-esque comedy from Daniel Scheinert – one part of the team behind the cult-hit, Swiss Army Man (2016). Dick is dead and his bandmates, Zeke and Earl, are fumbling to cover up what really happened to the...

USA | Fiction Feature | 110

“Our democracy was founded on forgetting,” states filmmaker Petra Costa, an ever-present narrator guiding us through Brazil's political history, one that has been rife with an incredible amount of controversy. Examining her native country's d...

Brazil | Documentary | 123

When a long drought disrupts the Tsavo Region’s fragile ecosystem, a herd of elephants are forced to make a perilous migration to seek a sustainable water source. Their stirring adventure begins as the herd’s powerful leader, 50-year-old matr...

Kenya | Documentary | 96

A tantalizing, textile overload, experimental animator Jodie Mack’s feature debut vibrates with color, sound, and place. Shot on 16mm and guided by a playful and pulsating soundtrack, The Grand Bizarre is a visual delight of texture and fabri...

USA | 61

The “American Dream” – a concept that grows ever more politically charged – is examined and critiqued in Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s (Miss Representation, Festival 2011; The Mask You Live In, 2015) gripping third film. She weaves interviews with...

USA | Documentary | 88

Sensitive teenager Janno’s parents are deeply invested in religion, Afrikaner solidarity, and their farm, while the boy’s interests lie elsewhere. When his parents bring a troubled but charismatic kid named Pieter into the household, a strugg...

South Africa | Fiction Feature | 104

Prepare to journey underground, where darkness drapes the screen and only slivers of light from machines and headlamps lead the way. Cavernous, damp, and mesmerizing, Victor Moreno’s The Hidden City observes a world being built underneath Mad...

Spain | Documentary | 80

A take-no-prisoners deep dive into religious belief, Simon Jaquemet’s daring and devious second feature profiles Ruth, an evangelical woman who works in an animal testing facility and believes her former lover has mysteriously returned. As th...

Switzerland | Fiction Feature | 113

In 1950 Estonia, the Soviets are working to suppress a fledgling resistance movement that has arisen in the countryside. Six-year-old Leelo can't quite understand exactly why her mom has been arrested or why her father is disappointed to hear...

Estonia | Fiction Feature | 96

Though rarely spoken of, the unseen contents of a plain, white cargo van are at the center of Ognjen Glavonić’s tense and moving political drama about circles of moral responsibility during times of war and conflict. Leon Lucev plays Vlada, a...

Serbia | Fiction Feature | 98

Harrowing, ambitious, and visually spectacular, Jennifer Kent's (The Babadook, 2014) second feature, set in the wilds of 19th-century Tasmania, follows the epic journey of revenge undertaken by Irish former convict Clare (a riveting Aisling F...

Australia | Fiction Feature | 136

Peter Lucian (Peter Sarsgaard) holds the keys to Manhattan – at least to how it sounds. He is a house tuner, hiring himself out to people who are uneasy in their apartments, but his real life’s project is mapping the city according to the not...

USA | Fiction Feature | 87

In a sterile environment, unnamed experts meticulously replicate an elephant tusk and other objects with the help of 3D printers, molds, and brushes – as if excavating artifacts from the wild – all observed at an extreme closeness. Questioning the...

Argentina | New Visions | 67

As President Duterte’s reign of terror in the Philippines continues seemingly unchecked and underreported, his most powerful and influential foe is Maria Ressa, the fearless journalist who co-founded the online news site Rappler. Ramona S. Diaz’s ...

USA | Documentary | 120

The topic of this documentary is unjust prison sentencing, but its real subjects are time and love. The love Sibil Fox Richardson has for her incarcerated husband Robert and for their six sons. Over two decades of imprisonment, Sibil marks time by...

USA | Documentary | 81

"Words have power" says Toni Morrison, and she would know. With a warm gleam in her eye, Morrison recalls her life growing up, how she became an author, editor, and champion of new African-American literary voices. Weaving archival footage an...

USA | Documentary | 119

Join Academy Award nominated animation studio Tonko House for an exciting celebration of creativity and curiosity. Since 2014, SFFILM Education has been proudly supporting and showcasing the beautiful filmmaking and storytelling from this local tr...

Hong Kong cinema takes a bold and progressive leap forward with Jun Li’s powerful portrait of a middle-aged man recognizing he is transgender.

Hong Kong | Fiction Feature | 119

With her first two starring film roles, Sienna Miller established her range. In the 18th-century-set Casanova (2005), she proved adept at period roles and established her talent for comedy. Factory Girl (2006) was a different animal altogether, a ...

USA | Fiction | 97

A writer as well as an actor and brilliant comic, Steve Coogan has been making audiences on both sides of the Atlantic laugh for three decades now. After first establishing himself in a series of UK sketch shows – out of which arose one of his mos...

Documentary | 110

Join us for an in-depth conversation with director Michael Winterbottom in which he will discuss the making of the entire 'Trip' series on the occasion of the release of 'The Trip to Greece.'

110

1917’s George MacKay puts his charismatic stamp on the legendary 19th-century Australian outlaw in Justin Kurzel’s thrilling, drenched-in-blood adaptation of Peter Carey’s acclaimed novel. Rebelling against the British that have colonized his home...

Australia | Fiction | 124

Join us for an in-depth conversation with director Justin Kurzel in which he will discuss the making of 'True History of the Kelly Gang.'

124

Oakland residents have long considered Barbara Lee to be their fierce and visionary champion for social justice equity, but it was her historic “no” vote in the aftermath of 9/11 that captured the attention of the world. This comprehen...

USA | Documentary | 80

Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 1...

USA | 110

The challenges facing aging gay men are dramatized with great warmth in Ray Yeung’s Hong Kong-set portrait of a new love affair.

92

The perils of a closeted relationship take on an almost unbearable weight for Nina (the incomparable Barbara Sukowa), who finds her dreams of a shared life in Rome with her beloved Madeleine (Martine Chevallier) shattered when the older woman suff...

France | Fiction | 100

An intimate true story of one of the most dramatic transitions of power in the last 2,000 years.

UK | Fiction Feature | 126

Over three seasons in his endlessly fascinating, Emmy Award-winning CNN Original Series on life in the 21st Century United States, Bay Area cultural commentator, comedian, and author W. Kamau Bell has visited a vivid cross-section of American...

USA | Episodic | 42

Powerfully and heartbreakingly detailing the challenging process that LGBTQ refugees must go through to find safety and security while starting over in the US, Tom Shepard's (Scout’s Honor, 2001) inspiring new documentary profiles four people...

USA | Documentary | 84

Actor Arley de Jesús Carvallido Lobo is onscreen for almost all of Valley of Souls, and he is unforgettable. He plays José, a fisherman whose two sons are abducted by paramilitaries. With little fuss or ceremony and almost certain knowledge that t...

Colombia | Fiction | 136

High-school graduate Jette has plans to spend most of her gap year in Costa Rica. Though she wants to get out from under her domineering dad, Urs (Dark‘s Sebastian Rudolph), her departure means separation from her beloved boyfriend, Mario. W...

Germany | Fiction | 86

Renowned environmental artist Christo is trying to execute the project “The Floating Piers” that he and his late wife, Jeanne-Claude, started together in the 1970s. Lake Iseo, Italy, is to be the site of a three-kilometer floating walkway, co...

Italy | Documentary | 100

Warpaint's unique brand of intricate guitar lines, hypnotic vocals, and driving post-punk rhythms combine to create a gorgeous, enveloping sound. Both on record and on stage, Warpaint sounds like they're channeling something truly otherworldl...

100

Stewart Brand, the visionary founder of Whole Earth Catalog, and guru to Steve Jobs and other tec...

USA | Documentary | 92

Join us for a fun and educational Q&A with Julie Anderson, executive producer of the acclaimed documentary 'We Are the Dream,' and several of the film's subjects.

60

The Radical Monarchs are an Oakland-based leadership development troop, specifically for girls of color, that doesn't award badges for cookie sales but rather for social justice, activism, and “allyship.” Following the two moms, Anyavette and...

USA | Documentary | 96

Williamstown, Kentucky, is home to the Ark Encounter – a “life-size” creationist museum of Noah’s Ark, fitted with all of the creatures that traveled in its hull, including dinosaurs. With incredible access to the park leading up to its openi...

USA | Documentary | 99

David France’s vital new film uncovers extreme human-rights abuses against LGBTQ people in Chechnya. Profiling a group of Russian activists performing rescues and providing shelter for escaping refugees, the film hones in on two cases–a youn...

USA | Documentary | 107

Feast your eyes on the world of competitive dog grooming, where dogs are the canvas and the awards go to the wildest, most vibrant, and imaginative use of animal hair. In Rebecca Stern’s must-see-to-believe debut, groomers and their show-stop...

USA | Documentary | 88

The classic story of Peter Pan is wildly reimagined in this ragtag epic from Benh Zeitlin, director of Beasts of the Southern Wild.

USA | Fiction Feature | 111

From 1996–2002, the negatives of the Afghan Film Archive were bricked up behind a poster of Mullah Omar. In 2013, director Mariam Ghani gained access to this archive and found several unfinished films made between 1978 and 1991. From the lite...

Afghanistan | Documentary | 71

With sensitivity and a dreamy visual style, When I’m a Moth fictionalizes a moment in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s life when different paths could have been taken, while others seem destined. In the summer of 1969, Hillary (a brilliant Addison T...

USA | Fiction Feature | 91

The classic star-is-born scenario is delightfully turned on its ear in Tom Harper’s rousing Glasgow-set story of the irrepressible Rose-Lynn, a mother of two, freshly released from a short stint in prison, dreaming of Nashville and raring to ...

UK | Fiction Feature | 101

Join us for a fun and educational Q&A with Kris Pearn, director of the animated feature 'The Willoughbys.'

90

After watching the news about 9/11 with his family, Fernando travels from Mexico to New York City to find his father, an undocumented worker at the World Trade Center's famous Windows on the World restaurant.

USA | Fiction Feature | 103

While stranded overnight in a remote temple town, middle-aged couple Eun-ju and Heung-ju are cast adrift with strangers in a mysterious environment. The objective of the couple's visit was to try and capture the spark of their younger years b...

South Korea | Fiction Feature | 92

Join us for an online screening of Wolfwalkers, the beautiful and magical animated feature from the gifted storytellers at Ireland's Cartoon Saloon.

Ireland | Fiction | 103

Issues of inequalities in income and housing are at the heart of this powerful film. When an accident happens on the construction site of an expansive home and the company blames the employee, a crewman named Francisco creates an opportunity for h...

Mexico | Fiction | 82

Join the director and animator behind Sony Pictures Animation’s new short film 'Hair Love' as they lead a fun, hands-on workshop about personal character development and the importance of representation in media.

Bring a poem to life with Pushcart Prize nominee Nancy Kangas, using illustration and poetry to unlock the depth and complexity of creative expression. How does creating art help young people explore the wonderful wilderness of their feelings...

120

Join a special guest filmmaker Andrew 'Goldy' Goldsmith for a behind-the-scenes look Oscar-shortlisted Lost & Found and the innovative filmmaking behind it that utilizes one of the oldest crafts in cinema: stop-motion animation.

120

Join experienced filmmaker, actor, and educator Liz Anderson for a fun, hands-on workshop that will explore the complex relationship between directors and actors.

In this visually entrancing film debut from Sudan, religious superstition places a heavy burden on a young man’s life. Faced with a sheikh’s dire prediction of an early death, new mom Sakina becomes overprotective of her son Muzamil wh...

Sudan | Fiction | 105

Join us for an online screening of two youth-produced short films and a Q&A with young filmmakers Madison Empalmado and Kai Tomizawa.

Lume has nightmares – cow heads and flayed feet populate her dreams – leading her to wonder if they’re why she can’t get pregnant. They could also be symptoms of PTSD stemming from the Kosovo War of the late 1990s. When her mother-in-l...

Albania | Fiction | 97

It’s been almost 30 years since Frank Zappa’s death, yet his legacy is prodigious. Granted unfettered access to the musician’s archives, Alex Winter (Deep Web, Festival 2015) unearths stellar footage ranging from Zappa’s fi...

USA | Documentary | 129

Granted unfettered access to the Frank Zappa's archives, Alex Winter unearths stellar footage ranging from Zappa’s first high-school group to the Mothers of Invention to his wide-ranging solo career.

USA | Documentary | 129

Gorgeously shot in muted tones on the streets of San Francisco, Barry Jenkins' debut feature begins as a bittersweet, erotic romance between near strangers and evolves into a complex tale with wider implications.

USA | Fiction | 88

How do you relive a memory? Returning to a meaningful childhood location where he builds a cabin ...

Spain | Documentary | 122