May 6, 2016
Festival
San Francisco, CA — The San Francisco Film Society wrapped its 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21-May 5) with 243 screenings of 175 films from 46 countries, which were attended by some 350 filmmakers and industry guests from 15 countries. Over two weeks, SFIFF59 showed 60 narrative features, 37 documentary features, four New Visions features, and a total of 74 short films. The 59th San Francisco International Film festival awarded nearly $40,000 in prizes to emerging and established filmmakers with films representing ten countries. Particularly popular were the many screenings and events featuring attending filmmakers and guests as well as those with enhanced Q&As. For the second year in a row, SFIFF welcomed a record-breaking number of guests to the Festival, who engaged with audiences through in-depth post-screening conversations.
Audiences warmly embraced the Festival’s new venue configuration, with throngs of film lovers crowding the sidewalks of San Francisco’s Mission district. Spurred by a 15% increase in total audience capacity, Festival attendees flocked to the city’s newest and oldest cinema screens—from the newly renovated Alamo Drafthouse New Mission, to the beloved classic arthouses the Roxie Theater, the Victoria Theatre and the Castro Theatre—and across the bay at the brand-new BAMPFA. Festival filmmaker guests and filmgoers alike took advantage of the bustling cultural life of the Mission, partaking of the countless sources of world-class food, drink and entertainment.
“This has been an amazing two weeks for our film-loving community,” said Noah Cowan, SFFS executive director. “Over the course of the Festival, we have welcomed guests from all over the world, celebrated cinema in its many vibrant forms and piloted innovative new programs to enhance the Festival experience. We are elated that our passionate audiences have joined us in the Festival village we’ve built around our new venues in the Mission district, and we love the new reinvigorated feeling of our flagship event. The programming team, led by Rachel Rosen, and I are grateful that our sophisticated Bay Area audiences have responded so positively to all these exciting changes, and we’re more excited than ever for our 60th anniversary in 2017.”
Star-Studded Nights
Numerous guests graced the stage during SFIFF59, starting on Opening Night with Love & Friendship director Whit Stillman and leading actress Kate Beckinsale and continuing throughout the 15-day event. Scores of Festival screenings featured actors, filmmakers, writers, musicians and other creative professionals who participated in on-stage introductions and Q&A sessions with SFIFF audiences; these guests included Ellen Burstyn, Joel and Ethan Coen, Peter Coyote, Dominique Crenn, Stephen Fry, Marcia Gay Harden, Michael Jerome of Better Than Ezra, Stanlee Kine, Peter Lord, Tom McCarthy, Mercury Rev band members Jesse Chandler, Jonathan Donahue and Sean Mackowiak aka “Grasshopper,” Wesley Morris, Mira Nair, David Oyelowo, Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins, James Schamus, Rebecca Solnit and Lars Ulrich of Metallica, among many others.
Film Society Awards Night, the fundraising gala co-chaired by Heidi Castelein and Victoria Raiser, honored four world-class film talents at Fort Mason Center – Herbst Pavilion on April 25. Honorees were Mira Nair, recipient of the Irving M. Levin Directing Award, presented by Berkeley Repertory Theater Artistic Director Tony Taccone; Ellen Burstyn, recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for excellence in acting, presented by actress Marcia Gay Harden; Tom McCarthy, recipient of the Kanbar Award for excellence in storytelling, presented by filmmaker Pete Docter; and Peter Coyote, recipient of the George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award, presented by author Rebecca Solnit. A welcome toast offered by Stephen Fry exhibited his customary elegance, wit and charm. Film Society Awards Night was proudly sponsored by NET-A-PORTER.COM, the world’s premier online luxury fashion destination.
Additional award recipients honored during the Festival included Peter Lord, co-founder and creative director of renowned Aardman Animators, who received the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award on behalf of Aardman. Peter Becker and Jonathan Turell of Janus Films and the Criterion Collection received the Mel Novikoff Award on behalf of the international art-house cinema sister companies. Directors Joel and Ethan Coen participated in the on-stage discussion during the presentation, which was followed by a screening of Criterion’s most recent restoration and the Coen brothers’ first film, Blood Simple.
The Festival’s Big Nights continued successfully with the Bay Area premiere of the Centerpiece film, Indignation, featuring a Q&A with director James Schamus. The festivities ended on a high note with the Closing Night screening of The Bandit, attended by San Francisco director Jesse Moss.
Other notable personalities spotted attending SFIFF festivities included actors Jordana Brewster, Joan Chen, Olivia Culpo, Danny Glover and Delroy Lindo, artist Boots Riley and musicians Tracy Chapman, among many others.
Award-Winning Films
Nearly $40,000 in prizes was awarded by Golden Gate Awards juries at SFIFF this year. The Festival’s Golden Gate Awards were held on Wednesday, May 4, at Gray Area. Ten films were in juried competition for the $10,000 Golden Gate New Directors Prize, given to a first-time filmmaker whose work exhibits a unique artistic sensibility. The jury, composed of film critic Justin Chang, producer Benjamin Domenech, and IFP’s Executive Director Joana Vicente, selected Philippe Lesage‘s The Demons (Canada). A Special Jury Prize was given to Yaelle Kayam‘s Mountain (Israel/Denmark). $15,000 went to winners in two categories: Documentary Feature ($10,000) and Bay Area Documentary Feature ($5,000). The Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature competitions jury was comprised of journalist, film critic and programmer Eric Hynes; Sundance Institute’s Director of the Documentary Film Program Tabitha Jackson; and documentarian Jeff Malmberg, who presented the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature to Cameraperson (USA) by Kirsten Johnson. Special jury recognition was given to Notes on Blindness by Peter Middleton and James Spinney (UK/France). The jury presented the Golden Gate Award for Bay Area Documentary Feature to The Return (USA) by Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway.
The Golden Gate Award Short Film jury consisted of festival programmer Laura Thielen, Fandor’s Vice President of Film Acquisitions Amanda Salazar and independent media writer, producer and creative consultant Santhosh Daniel, who awarded $10,000 in cash prizes. The Best Narrative Short was awarded to Night Without Distance (Portugal/Spain) by Lois Patiño. Best Documentary Short was given to The Send-Off (USA) by Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas. The GGA for New Visions Short was given to Melissa Langer‘s My Aleppo (USA). First Prize for Best Bay Area Short went to Extremis (USA) by Dan Krauss and Second Prize was awarded to In Attla’s Tracks (USA) by Catharine Axley. The award for Best Animated Short went to Manoman (UK) by Simon Cartwright, with a Special Jury Prize to Glove (USA) by Alexa Lim Haas and Bernardo Britto.
The Family Film jury was comprised of Common Sense Media’s Executive Editor of Ratings & Reviews Betsy Bozdech, animator and filmmaker Jim Capobianco and animation director Simon J. Smith, who awarded Best Family Film to Bunny New Girl (Australia) by Natalie van den Dungen. Special Jury Prize went to Simon Tofield‘s Simon’s Cat: Off to the Vet (UK). The Youth Works jury was comprised of bay area high school students Sophia Anderson, Karla Mandujano and Kyle Wolfe, with adult supervisor Aldo Mora-Blanco of Film School Shorts at KQED. The Golden Gate Award for Youth Works went to Dennis Kim‘s Elliot, (South Korea/USA), which received a $1,000 cash prize, including $500 donated by Vancouver Film School. A Special Jury Prize went to Chester Milton‘s Lucky Numbers (USA), which received a $500 cash prize donated by Vancouver Film School.
The Google Breakthrough in Technology Award jury was comprised of members of Google’s Computer Science in Media and Industry Relations teams, including: Courtney McCarthy, Strategist in Computer Science in Media, and Julia Hamilton Trost, Account Executive, Google Media Sales. Maria Alvarez won the Google Breakthrough in Technology Award for From My Head to Hers, (USA), receiving a $500 cash prize donated by Google Inc.
The SFIFF59 Audience Awards gave festival-goers the opportunity to select their favorite narrative and documentary features. The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Taika Waititi‘s Hunt for the Wilderpeople (New Zealand), with Matthew Brown‘s The Man Who Knew Infinity (UK) and Babak Jalali‘s Radio Dreams (USA/Iran) vying closely as runners up. The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Roger Ross Williams‘ Life, Animated (USA), with Barbara Kopple‘s Miss Sharon Jones! (USA) and The Return (USA) by Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway also scoring high marks with SFIFF audiences.
Live & Onstage
This year’s Live & Onstage program presented Festival gems, including the pairing of live contemporary music with silent film projection — an audience favorite. Vampyr, Carl Theodore Dreyer‘s atmospheric 1932 horror classic, haunted audiences anew in the historic Castro Theatre backed by the shimmering compositions of an indie band super group composed of Mercury Rev band members Jesse Chandler, Jonathan Donahue and Sean Mackowiak aka “Grasshopper,” Michael Jerome of Better Than Ezra and Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins. New York Times critic at large and Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Wesley Morris delivered the much-anticipated State of Cinema address, contrasting the radicalization of Sidney Poitier to the current climate of race in the movies. Following his remarks, Morris blew off steam with an unscheduled appearance and impromptu performance at SFIFF Karaoke Night, regaling a packed Festival lounge with decisive renditions of Stone Temple Pilots tunes, complete with spontaneous, critic-at-large lyrical analysis. And Things in Films feasted festivalgoers with an evening of stories about objects in films from collaborative project Will Brown and from writers, artists, filmmakers and actors including Anthony Discenza, Anna Rose Holmer, Elizabeth Ito, Starlee Kine, Kate Rhoades, Nick Stargu (aka “DJ Real“) and Scott Vermeire.
Special Events
In addition to the Live & Onstage series, other special events punctuated the Festival calendar. Audiences congregated at PROXY, a temporary food, arts and retail environment for a free, outdoor screening of Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross‘ Contemporary Color. This inventive film documents a collaboration spearheaded by David Byrne between ten cutting-edge performers and ten color guard troupes that interpret music with synchronized flags, weapons and dance. Festival-goers immersed themselves in contemporary cinema and cutting-edge production technology at VR Day, a wildly successful pilot program at this year’s Festival that showcased emergent storytellers in virtual reality filmmaking at Gray Area, one of the nation’s leading electronic arts and performance venues. Netflix series Chef’s Table returned to the Festival with director Andrew Fried‘s profile of local culinary luminary Dominique Crenn, chef/owner of San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn and the first female in the US to be awarded two Michelin stars. Crenn’s screening appearance marked the launch of Food on Film, a new partnership between the San Francisco Film Society and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Presenting Princess Shaw subject Samantha Montgomery brought her online viral sensation to life with a performance of her songs during the Q&A following a screening. And Afghani heavy-metal band Kabul Dreams rocked the house after a late-night screening of Babak Jalali‘s Radio Dreams, which features and takes its name from the group. Legendary Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich riffed on his Waiting for Godot-like cameo at the film’s end with an unannounced appearance at the Q&A following the screening.
World Cinema Spotlight
Each year, the Festival reflects on the field of international filmmaking with its World Cinema Spotlight, a thematic series that brings to light hot topics, reinvigorates genres, celebrates underappreciated filmmakers or focuses on national cinemas. In a rich offering of feature films, shorts programs and a special awards presentation, this year’s Spotlight, Animating the Image, shone on a fundamental craft of moving image production: frame-by-frame animation. Feature films presented included Hanna Sköld‘s Granny’s Dancing on the Table (Sweden/Denmark), Roger Ross Williams‘ Life, Animated (USA), Penny Lane‘s NUTS! (USA), Phantom Boy (France/Belgium) by Jean Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol and Lewis Klahr‘s Sixty Six (USA). The series also included Shorts 3: Animation and Shorts 5: Family Films programs as well as the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award: An Afternoon with Aardman Animations. The SFIFF59 World Cinema Spotlight is generously supported by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Cinema by the Bay
SFIFF59 featured 13 shorts and 8 feature-length films from local talent or about the area across Festival sections. Among the Bay Area features were And when I die, I won’t stay dead by Billy Woodberry, Audrie & Daisy by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, Ayiti Mon Amour by Guetty Felin, The Bandit by Jesse Moss, Five Nights in Maine by Maris Curran, haveababy by Amanda Micheli, Radio Dreams by Babak Jalali, and The Return by Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway. Bay Area shorts were also abundant and included: Child for Sale (Fiona Bock), Extremis (Dan Krauss), In Attla’s Tracks (Catharine Axley), Is It True What They Say (Scott Stark), Moom (Robert Kondo, Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi), My Aleppo (Melissa Langer), Old Hat (Zach Iannazzi), Partners (Kate Imbach), Run, Run Away (Ruby Rae Drake), Someone Is Happy Somewhere (Alvaro Furloni, Mario Furloni), Splotch (Dan McHale) and When You Awake (Jay Rosenblatt).
Schools at the Festival
SFFS Education’s Schools at the Festival (SATF) program, run by Youth Education Manager Keith Zwolfer, welcomed more than 4,818 students (ages 6-18) and teachers from schools across the Bay Area attending 18 screenings of feature films and shorts programs over the course of the two-week Festival. Each screening included Q&A discussions with filmmakers and special guests. Twenty local and international guests (actors, animators, directors, producers and subjects) also discussed their films and craft in Bay Area classrooms during SATF’s 17 school visits, reaching an additional 844 elementary, middle and high school students and educators. Celebrating its 26th year, 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.
Master Classes
SFIFF59 featured three Master Classes with film professionals and industry leaders. The Journey of Tonko House: From The Dam Keeper to Moom offered families a behind-the-scenes look at the Academy-nominated Bay Area animation studio Tonko House with a presentation by Robert Kondo, who founded the studio with fellow Pixar alumnus Dice Tsutsumi. In Beginnings and Endings: Master Class with David Thomson, film critic and historian David Thomson drew from Citizen Kane and Psycho to reflect on the ways that movies experiment with our sense of reality by considering how they begin and how they end. And Academy Award-winning director and Moonbot Studios head Brandon Oldenburg guided children through the creative process of animation and inspired students to unleash their own creativity in Letting Your Imagination Soar with Moonbot Studios: A Workshop for Kids.
SFIFF59 Screening At Home
The San Francisco Film Society continued the SFIFF Online Screening Room, which provides an opportunity for SFFS members to stream select feature and short films free of charge for a limited time. Through this innovative pilot program made possible by technology partner FORA.tv, the SFIFF Online Screening Room offers nine feature films and nine shorts from the official SFIFF59 lineup. Each film became available to stream online starting the day of its final Festival screening, and will remain online through June 31. Visit watch.sffs.org for more details.
Filmmaker360
SFIFF59 featured a number of films supported by the Film Society’s Filmmaker360 program. The supported films that screened as part of this year’s Festival represent each of the several ways in which the San Francisco Film Society provides funding and creative services for independent film projects from around the globe as part of its year-round filmmaker services programs. A record number of nine SFFS-supported films hit Bay Area screens for the first time at the Festival and were lovingly received by local audiences, including a world and a US premiere as well as several features that garnered acclaim on the global festival circuit. Guetty Felin‘s Ayiti Mon Amour was developed as the director took part in the SFFS FilmHouse Residency program; Amanda Micheli‘s haveababy was enrolled in the SFFS Project Development program; Maris Curran‘s Five Nights in Maine was awarded a SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant for production; and Mike Plunkett‘s Salero, Moby Longinotto‘s The Joneses and Mike Day‘s The Islands and the Whales were Documentary Film Fund winners in 2012, 2014 and 2015 respectively. The Fixer, by Ian Olds, was supported by the Filmmaker360 program throughout its development and production, receiving the SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant and several SFFS / Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants.
Sponsors and Partners
The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival was supported by more than 200 sponsors and partners. These included the San Francisco Film Society’s lead sponsors, First Republic Bank and the New York Times; major sponsors FORA.tv, Dolby and Ingeniux; and champion sponsors Pereira & O’Dell and Muse Brands. Of note, the FORA.tv sponsorship enabled an expansion of the wildly popular Online Screening Room, which allows Film Society members to stream films year-round at watch.sffs.org and on a new iOS app. SFIFF presenting sponsors included the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Blue Angel Vodka and the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission. SFIFF signature sponsors were comprised of Hennessy, Nokia, and True Ventures, as well as Bank of the West, the Consulate General of France in San Francisco and the French American Cultural Society who also sponsored the Contemporary French Cinema program. SFIFF was also generously supported by partner sponsors Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and Lyft, supporting partner San Francisco Film Commission, media partner SF Weekly and premier hotel sponsor Joie de Vivre Hotels. VR Day was made possible through a special collaboration with the New York Times VR, VR Day presenting sponsor Nokia, and supporting sponsors Samsung, Oculus Story Studio, Huawei and Google. Film Society Awards Night was supported by presenting sponsor NET-A-PORTER. In addition, the Irving M. Levin Directing Award was made possible by support of Fred and Nancy Levin, the Kanbar Storytelling Award was supported by Maurice Kanbar, the George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award was supported by the Gund family and the Peter J. Owens Acting Award was supported by the Peter J. Owens Trust of the San Francisco Foundation.
The Festival is also grateful for the participation of 17 supporting sponsors, 42 food and beverage sponsors, and numerous media partners, technical and promotional sponsors, venue and transportation partners, hospitality and hotel sponsors and many individual film sponsors. Importantly, the San Francisco Film Society has received generous support from more than a dozen foundations, including the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Jenerosity Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Grants for the Arts and new supporters, the Bernard Osher Foundation, the Mortar Foundation and Kalliopeia Foundation. Through a new partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Film Society was thrilled to include for the first time a Science in Cinema Spotlight at SFIFF. Key to the Film Society’s presence in the Mission was the incredible support provided by Calle 24 and their Cultural Arts and Assets Committee.
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For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.