SFFILM News

Wrap Notes: Bay Area Filmmakers Shine at the 2023 SFFILM Festival

The 66th San Francisco International Film Festival brought audiences into theaters across the Bay Area, and showcased works from 37 countries. Now, the reviews are in: It was a resounding success! Keep reading to find the dates for the 2024 SFFILM Festival.

Producer Ryan Coogler and director Peter Nicks (photo courtesy SFFILM/Tommy Lau); director Savanah Leaf (photo courtesy SFFILM/Pamela Gentile); director Matt Johnson (photo courtesy SFFILM/Tommy Lau); and the crew of What These Walls Won’t Hold (photo courtesy SFFILM/Tommy Lau).

In its 66th iteration, the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) ran from April 13–23, and welcomed moviegoers into theaters across the Bay Area—from the historic Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland to community-centered Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) to the CGV San Francisco, which served as the Festival hub. “The 2023 SFFILM Festival was a resounding celebration of filmmaking and community,” Anne Lai, Executive Director of SFFILM, said. “Not only did we unite filmmakers and audiences in a centralized hub, but we shared the program and Festival spirit with the entire Bay Area.”

With a full slate of in-person programming and events, the 2023 SFFILM Festival featured essential stories from both local and international filmmakers, who hailed from 37 countries. SFFILM, which puts on the Americas’ longest-running film festival, illustrated its ongoing commitment to platforming artists with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences; half of the films in the lineup were helmed by women or non-binary filmmakers—for the third year in a row. “Moviegoing is not just alive, it’s thriving in our communities,” Lai said, and that sentiment is clearly shared by audiences and filmmakers alike.

Award Winners at the 2023 SFFILM Festival

Since its founding in 1957, the SFFILM Festival has proven to be a telling barometer for what’s to come in the year ahead. Not only does the curatorial vision reflect some of the year’s best and brightest films and filmmakers, but the organization’s long-running Golden Gate Awards honored works that are sure to move audiences as they find distributors and hit theaters in 2023. A prime example? Director Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama, a much-celebrated film that has been acquired by A24, held its hometown premiere during the SFFILM Festival, with stars Tia Nomore and Keta Price also in attendance. Festival-goers will agree: here’s hoping Earth Mama’s Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature is the first of many accolades to come for the SFFILM-Supported filmmaker.

Other narrative films that left an impression on jurors and audiences alike included Laura Baumeister’s nuanced and riveting Daughter of Rage (La Hija de todas las Rabias), which won the Cine Latino Jury Award, and made history as the first film by a Nicaraguan woman filmmaker; the suspenseful, atmospheric Snow and the Bear (Kar ve Ayı), which nabbed Selcen Ergun the New Directors Award; and Iyabo Kwayana’s By Water, a Golden Gate Award-winning animated short that masterfully mixes mediums to paint an unforgettable, searingly intimate film. The Festival’s Centerpiece film, Past Lives, affirmed that first-time filmmaker Celine Song will soon be a household name, along with star Greta Lee, who turns in a striking, devastatingly intimate performance.

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Miri Navasky, Joan Baez, and Karen O’Connor

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Celine Song and Greta Lee at the centerpiece screening of Past Lives

Celine Song and Greta Lee at the centerpiece screening of Past Lives

Photo by Pamela Gentile

2023 Festival Lounge

2023 Festival Lounge presented by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Hummingbirds

Filmmakers Estefanía "Beba" Contreras and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños at their screening of Hummingbirds

Photo by Tommy Lau

BlackBerry director Matthew Johnson

BlackBerry director Matthew Johnson receives the SFFILM Sloan Science on Screen Prize.

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Firelight Media Co-Founders Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith

Firelight Media Co-Founders Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith accept SFFILM's Mel Novikoff Award

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Maya E. Rudolph and Allison O’Daniel - The Tuba Thieves

Maya E. Rudolph and Allison O’Daniel hold balloons as part of a sensory experience for all audiences at The Tuba Thieves.

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Stephen Curry: Underrated

Stephen Curry: Underrated opened this year’s festival at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Earth Mama

Savannah Leaf’s Earth Mama had its Californian premiere at this year’s festival.

On the documentary side, quite a few titles resonated with audiences and jurors. The SFFILM Festival opened, of course, with the hometown premiere of Stephen Curry: Underrated, with director Peter Nicks and producer Ryan Coogler among those in attendance for the two sold-out showings at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre. The Castro Theatre hosted a nearly sold-out screening of Joan Baez I Am A Noise, with the legendary musician and activist in attendance, while the CGV San Francisco boasted the California premieres of Sundance award-winner Bad Press, directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, and supermodel-and-activist-turned-filmmaker Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng’s (Halston; Dior and I) Invisible Beauty all of whom delighted audiences during lively Q&As.

Festival-goers were also treated to the world premiere of What These Walls Won’t Hold, Adamu Chan’s impeccably crafted and unwavering look at life inside San Quentin State Prison, which earned a juried Golden Gate Award for Best Mid-Length film. The prestigious McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Award went to Home Is a Hotel, which also garnered the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature during its world premiere-run at the SFFILM Festival. Directed by Kevin Duncan Wong, Todd Sills, and Kar Yin Tham, the film was dubbed “essential viewing” by the McBaine jurors for its unflinching look at the Bay Area housing crisis. In addition to the fantastic turnout from local filmmakers, Anna Hints, the first Estonian woman director, won the McBaine Documentary Feature Award for her achingly intimate, visually stunning Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.

To close out the show, audiences returned via the big screen to where this year’s Festival began: Oakland. Visionary local and SFFILM-Supported filmmaker Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You, Festival 2018) presented the first four episodes of his new Prime Video series, I’m A Virgo. Starring Emmy-winning actor Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight; When They See Us), the series is a darkly comedic, fantastical coming-of-age joyride about a 13-foot-tall Black man that, in being a mythical odyssey, questions the purpose of the mythical odyssey. “I think that this is an ‘I told you so,’” Riley said before the episodes screened, recalling that it was quite the concept to pitch.

“I want people to be able to access the means to make their art,” Riley told the audience during one of two sold-out post-screening Q&A sessions. “It’s important to me, but it’s also very selfish. This is where I’m from, and I’m a better artist when I’m here.” Riley’s sentiment encapsulates what’s at the core of the SFFILM Festival; although the films are from all over the world, the Festival is a place where all of that comes together, making essential art more accessible for moviegoers, and providing a platform for filmmakers with something fresh to share.

About the Author

Kate Bove is a freelance writer, whose entertainment writing appears on GameRant, CBR, Ask.com, and other publications. Their short-form fiction has been featured in Portland Review, Exposition Literary, and Lambda Literary’s Emerge magazine, among others.

Upcoming Events

SFFILM has so much fantastic programming set for this summer and fall! Join us for multiple screenings that are soon to be announced and Doc Stories coming November 2–5, 2023. If you like to plan even further in advance, mark your calendars for the 2024 SFFILM Festival, which runs April 24–28, 2024 in venues around the Bay Area.

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SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM works hard to bring the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.

SFFILM Festival Opening Night Features New Film About Local Legend Stephen Curry

Here’s why we’re excited for the West Coast and hometown premiere of Stephen Curry: Underrated, Peter Nicks’ new documentary about the four-time NBA champ.

Stephen Curry interviewing at Davidson College. Photo Courtesy of Apple Original Films.

The 66th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) will tip off with a feature-length documentary that scored some serious points from audiences at the 2023 Sundance International Film Festival: Stephen Curry: Underrated. Directed by Oakland local and Emmy Award-winner Peter Nicks, Underrated is the latest Apple Original Films and A24 movie you need to see.. The Steph Curry doc is also produced by Oaklander and Fruitvale Station and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, who recently accepted the Irving M. Levin Award for Film Direction at SFFILM Awards Night. All of these Oakland connections are part of what makes us most excited for the SFFILM Festival Opening Night screenings of Underrated at the city’s historic Grand Lake Theatre.

What Is Stephen Curry: Underrated About?

Stephen Curry: Underrated is the remarkable coming-of-age story of one of the most influential, dynamic, and unexpected players in the history of basketball: Stephen Curry. This feature documentary—which blends intimate cinéma vérité, archival footage, and on-camera interviews—documents Curry’s rise from an undersized college player at a tiny Division I college to a four-time NBA champion, who built one of the most dominant sports dynasties in the world.

It is directed by Peter Nicks, who returns to the Festival for the fourth time. Nicks previously screened The Waiting Room (SFFILM Festival, 2012), The Force (SFFILM Festival, 2016), and Homeroom (SFFILM Festival, 2021) here at SFFILM and his latest film celebrates the iconic NBA superstar Stephen Curry. Nicks intertwines Curry’s emergence on the court at Davidson College with thrilling footage of the 2021–2022 Golden State Warriors season, when the team won its fourth championship of the Curry era. In the film, Nicks turns his lens to Curry’s feelings and thoughts about not only his sports ambitions but also his family and academic aspirations as well.

Stephen Curry: Underrated premiered at Sundance, and includes quiet moments of reflection from Steph Curry along with a wealth of behind the scenes access to the local legend. The film is produced by Peter Nicks, Ryan Coogler, Erick Peyton, Sean Havey, Ben Cotner, and Marissa Torres Ericson with Emily Osborne, Sev Ohanian, and Zinzi Coogler as executive producers.

Stephen Curry in warmup gear before a game. Photo Courtesy of Apple Original Films.

Who Is Peter Nicks?

Emmy award-winning director and producer Peter Nicks has called Oakland, California home since 1997. He has been part of the SFFILM community as a filmmaker, grantee, honoree, mentor, and valued partner for well over a decade. His Oakland Trilogy has been part of three SFFILM Festival programs respectively: The Waiting Room (SFFILM Festival, 2012), The Force (SFFILM Festival, 2017), and Homeroom (SFFILM Festival, 2021).

“SFFILM has been a supporter of mine from the beginning of my trilogy about Oakland institutions and I’m proud to partner with them on my latest project, which is about another Bay Area institution of sorts,” said Director, Peter Nicks. “Stephen Curry’s story is at once universal and personal, a thrilling expression of the power of pushing beyond expectations and fighting to be seen. These themes are not only woven deeply into Stephen’s story but also that of the town itself and I’m excited to share the film soon at Oakland’s legendary Grand Lake Theater.”

Director Peter Nicks on the red carpet of the Golden Gate Awards at the 2017 SFFILM Festival. Photo Courtesy of SFFILM.

Where Can I Watch Steph Curry: Underrated?

Stephen Curry: Underrated will open the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival with two screenings at the historic Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland. It’s exciting to welcome an Oakland-based filmmaker into a legendary local movie palace for a documentary about a person who remains near and dear to many residents of The Town. Director Peter Nicks and producer Ryan Coogler are expected to join us for both screenings.

Want to celebrate even more? A limited number of tickets will be available for public purchase to the Opening Night Party which will be held at OMCA, the Oakland Museum of California. See the film, hear from the filmmakers, and join us for our opening night party on Thursday, April 13. The two screenings of the film will happen at 6:30 pm PT and 9:30 pm PT. The SFFILM Opening Night Party will start at 9 pm PT and run until midnight.

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2022 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellows Announced

$70,000 in fellowships has been awarded to filmmakers Temi Ojo and Mark Ingber for uplifting science in narrative films

SFFILM—in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the nation’s leading philanthropic grantor for science and the arts—has announced the recipients of fellowships for the SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Initiative. SFFILM launched the program in 2015 to celebrate and highlight cinema that brings together science and the art of storytelling, showing how these two seemingly disparate areas can combine to enhance the power of one another. The selections are meant to immerse a broad public audience in the challenges and rewards of scientific discovery, as well as to engage members of the scientific community.

The initiative includes exhibition programs, awards, and screenwriting fellowships that foster collaboration between scientists and artists and elevate filmmakers who tackle scientific or technological themes and characters. Past awards and exhibitions include Colin West’s Linoleum, starring Jim Gaffigan and Rhea Seehorn and Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio among many others.

Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellows

Two filmmakers have been selected to receive Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships, which will support the development of their narrative feature screenplays. The fellowship is designed to ensure that narrative feature films that tell compelling stories about the worlds of science and technology continue to be made and seen. From an open call for submissions, the 2022 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships have been awarded to two outstanding filmmakers.

Microchip engineer-turned-filmmaker Temi Ojo’s screenplay A Man with a Missing Face tells the story of an elderly Black man undergoing a life-risking face transplant surgery. His daughter must reconcile her emotional trauma with the new person her father is becoming. Ojo’s project is Inspired by the true story of Robert Chelsea, the first Black man and oldest person to date to receive a full face transplant.

Filmmaker Mark Ingber delves into the world of winemaking for his screenplay Terroir. When Marianne, a rebellious biochemistry PhD candidate, is called back from university to her family’s failing Bordeaux vineyard, she inadvertently plummets the winery into an existential crisis when, in an attempt to save the business, she creates a wine in a laboratory better than any ever made from their grapes.

“We are excited to be awarding this grant to two powerful projects that explore fascinating scientific advancements while also addressing socially prevalent issues through artful storytelling,” the prize’s review committee said in a statement. “From a comedic and nuanced story about a struggling winery and how the advancement of synthetic wine may either make it or break it, to a heartfelt true story of a major life-changing surgery and the complicated journey to healing, both films lead conversations on the application of controversial technologies and how we grapple with truth, identity, the vital questions society must address, and how science holds the answers. We are thrilled to be able to support the distinct voices of these writers and their unique approaches to storytelling. SFFILM and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation are excited to continue to work together in championing films and filmmakers that inspire and expand the public understanding of science and technology.”

The review committee members who reviewed the finalists’ projects included: Aneeta Akhurst, Vice President of Content & Community, XPRIZE; Brad Balukjian, Ph.D., Director of Natural History & Sustainability Program at Merritt College; Patrick House, Ph.D., writer and neuroscientist; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Associate Manager of Narrative Programs at SFFILM; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development at SFFILM; Kelly Sutherland, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Biology at Oregon Institute of Marine Biology; Indre Viskontas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of San Francisco; and Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Winners of the Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship will receive a $35,000 cash grant and a two-month residency at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s suite of production offices for local and visiting independent filmmakers. The residency program provides filmmakers with artistic guidance, office space, a vibrant creative community, and mentorship from established filmmakers and members of the independent film industry. To strengthen their film’s portrayal of science or technology, each fellow will be connected to a science advisor with expertise in the subjects at the center of their screenplays, as well as leaders in the Bay Area’s science and technology communities.

To learn more about Artist Development opportunities at SFFILM, browse our website and sign up for our newsletter.

Announcing the 2022 SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant Winner

SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grantee to receive $25,000

Writer Sarah Granger and her film, The Pain-Free Day, has been selected to receive funding through SFFILM’s suite of artist development programs, which provides financial and artistic support to artists worldwide. The SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant, introduced in 2020, supports Bay Area-based filmmakers whose films specifically address stories from the disability community. Ensuring historically excluded communities have access to artistic and financial support in order to create a more inclusive film landscape is at the core of SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s partnership.

“We are thrilled to be supporting Sarah and her film at this exciting screenwriting stage. We are deeply moved by the personal nature of the story and the sensitive mother-daughter relationship at its core,” the panel who chose the grantee noted in a statement. “The Pain-Free Day is a powerfully written script, as well as a particularly exciting opportunity to expand the scope of understanding disability within our communities. We are extremely grateful to the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for their continued partnership in new initiatives to support filmmakers in sharing their stories with the world.”

The panel that reviewed submissions for the SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant included Emily Smith Beitkis, Associate Director, Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Associate Manager: Narrative Film, SFFILM; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development, SFFILM; and Shelley Trott, Chief Program Officer, Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

About the Filmmaker and Film

Sarah Granger is a writer and producer drawn to stories of misunderstood people seeking connection—to one another and the world around them. Originally from Kansas City, she studied computer science, playwriting, and screenwriting at the University of Michigan before making her way to the San Francisco area, where she built a career working with technology, digital media, and social good organizations.

In 2006, Sarah sustained pelvic nerve damage while giving birth, leading to permanent neuralgia—and a pivot to writing, first as a journalist and author, and then as a screenwriter in 2018. Her feature screenplay, The Pain-Free Day, was selected as one of eight juried scripts on the 2020 Disability List curated by The Black List and the WGA Writers with Disabilities Committee. Her scripts have been recognized in multiple competitions and she participated in the 2021 RespectAbility Entertainment Lab and 2022 Stowe Story Lab.

Sarah strives to amplify underrepresented voices. She is an associate producer on three upcoming short films and executive producer of a micro-budget feature, Stay With Me, which is now at festivals. Sarah’s own narrative projects tend to include at least one character with a visible or invisible disability. Her bestselling nonfiction book, The Digital Mystique, was published by Seal Press, while her articles her articles have been published in The Huffington Post, LA Weekly, Slate, Inverse, and SFGate.

The Pain-Free Day Synopsis

After struggling for years housebound with severe pelvic pain, a dejected mother takes a risk and pulls her teenage daughter out of school for one day in an attempt to mend their strained relationship.

About the SFFILM Rainin Grant

The SFFILM and Kenneth Rainin Foundation partnership is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the United States. SFFILM Rainin Grants are awarded to filmmakers whose narrative feature films will have a significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community and/or meaningfully explore pressing social issues.

The SFFILM Rainin Grant is currently accepting applications for the 2023 cycle; the final deadline to apply is April 28, 2023. For more information learn more here.

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SFFILM Supported Titles Headed to Sundance

Three SFFILM-supported projects are in the 2022 Sundance lineup. Read more about the projects here!

We are thrilled that SFFILM Invest continues to fund projects that go on to Sundance and more, and beyond proud to see Reid Davenport’s project I Didn’t See You There from our inaugural SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers With Disability grant as both part of the slate and the winner of Sundance’s US Documentary Directing Award. We hope you get a chance to check out these inspiring projects at the festival this year and as they hit streaming sites in the future. Congratulations to all the films and filmmakers making their Sundance debut!

Here are our SFFILM Makers-supported films:

A Love Song
Next
(USA) Max Walker-Silverman, director; Dan Janvey, Jesse Hope, Max Walker-Silverman, producers
— SFFILM Invest

After unhitching her camper at a lakeside in the mountains, Faye finds her rhythm cooking meals, retrieving crawfish from a trap, and scanning her old box radio for a station. She looks expectantly at the approach of a car or the mailman, explaining to neighboring campers that she’s waiting for a childhood sweetheart she hasn’t seen in decades. When he does arrive, Lito and Faye, both widowed, spend an evening reminiscing about their lives, losses, and loneliness.

A whimsical romance, Max Walker-Silverman’s captivating debut feature shows an “American West” full of quietude, compassion, and introspection. It’s both naturalistic and vaguely surreal, blurring our sense of time and beauty, loss and vivacity, the grandiose natural world and intimate humanism. Career performances from Dale Dickey and Wes Studi bring an inescapable presence to people we don’t often see portrayed on film. They are gentle outliers possessed of resilience and existential spirit, seeking to process something elusive: a feeling of love for what’s no longer there. Like Faye turning her radio dial, they listen hopefully for the faint trace of a song.

Mija
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(USA) Isabel Castro, director; Tabs Breese, Isabel Castro, Yesenia Tlahuel, producers
— SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellowship

Doris Muñoz desperately longed for better representation in the indie music she listened to as a teenager. At 23, she took matters into her own hands and began a career in music talent management, passionately advocating for rising Latinx artists. Her swift success transformed her into a pillar for a community of first- and second-generation Americans seeking collective acceptance and healing through song. When Doris receives news that forces her to reconsider working in music, she finds Jacks Haupt, an auspicious young singer eager to break out of her parent’s home in Dallas, Texas. Beyond the sweet moments of joy, glitter, and hope, Doris and Jacks share the ever-present guilt of being the first American-born members of their undocumented families. For them, the pressure of financial success is heightened because it facilitates green card processing and family reunification.

Mija is an immensely emotional and intimate portrait honoring the resilience of immigrants and their children. Director Isabel Castro’s debut feature constructs an ethereal love letter to their indomitable spirit in the face of constant instability, and heartily affirms that all humans have the right to shine and to dream.

I Didn’t See You There
US Documentary Competition
Winner of the U.S. Documentary Directing Award
(USA) Reid Davenport, director; Keith Wilson, producer
—SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers With Disability Grantee

As a visibly disabled person, filmmaker Reid Davenport is often either the subject of an unwanted gaze — gawked at by strangers — or paradoxically rendered invisible, ignored or dismissed by society. The arrival of a circus tent just outside his apartment prompts him to consider the history and legacy of the freak show, in which individuals who were deemed atypical were put on display for the amusement and shock of a paying public. Contemplating how this relates to his own filmmaking practice, which explicitly foregrounds disability, Davenport sets out to make a film about how he sees the world from his wheelchair without having to be seen himself.

Informed by his position in space, lower to the ground, Davenport captures indelible images, often abstracted into shapes and patterns separate from their meaning. But the circus tent looms in the background, and reality regularly intrudes, from unsolicited offers of help to careless blocking of access ramps. Personal and unflinching, I Didn’t See You There forces the viewer to confront the spectacle and invisibility of disability.