Who Moves America
2026-04-27 20:45 - 22:45, 2026-05-01 15:45 - 17:20 (America/Los_Angeles) | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Who Moves America explores the lives of UPS Teamsters facing long hours, unsafe conditions, and relentless physical demands. The film reveals the pressures on delivery drivers and logistics workers who keep cities—and the country—moving, highlighting the stakes behind everyday services often taken for granted. Through intimate portraits and on-the-ground reporting, the documentary showcases the power of collective action, capturing organizing efforts led by union leaders as they negotiate fair pay, safer working conditions, and job security for members of North America’s largest labor organization. By tracing the strategies, struggles, and solidarity of these workers, Who Moves America illuminates the human backbone of modern commerce and offers a vivid, urgent portrait of labor in motion—a story of resilience, organizing, and the fight to reclaim dignity on the job. —Jessie Fairbanks

Figaro Up, Figaro Down
2026-04-28 16:30 - 18:14 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
A Juilliard-trained baritone, Tim Blevins performed on the world’s most prestigious opera stages, tackling challenging roles with skill and power. A rare Black presence in a white-dominated art form, he rose to fame—but lost everything to addiction: his career, family, and home, leaving him unhoused in the Tenderloin. After decades in despair, Blevins takes control of his destiny, staging a comeback that restores not only his place on stage but also his role in his family’s life. Filmed with care and grace, this San Francisco-set tale of fame, loss, and redemption illuminates a life as remarkable as the operas he mastered. —Bedatri Choudhury

Centerpiece: I Love Boosters
2026-04-28 18:30 - 20:49 | Grand Lake Theatre, 3200 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94610, United States
A fearless crew of inventive young women turns shoplifting into a radical act of defiance. Led by Corvette (Keke Palmer), they move across Oakland, boosting coveted goods as both survival and protest—challenging a system built on exclusion and excess. They even offer a community service, selling their stolen wares at deep discounts to make fashion accessible to all. When their exploits draw unwanted viral attention and their feud with fashion mogul Christine Smith (a hilarious Demi Moore) turns personal, the Boosters plan one final, audacious heist. Joined by unexpected allies wielding supernatural powers and time-bending technology, they discover a chance to ignite revolutionary change. Bursting with eye-popping visuals and razor-sharp social commentary, I Love Boosters is a brash, hilarious, and wholly unexpected joyride of friendship and style. – Jessie Fairbanks

Enough Is Enough
2026-04-29 17:00 - 18:14 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
Arriving fresh from it’s World Premiere at Berlinale, this documentary is a rare window into the Kivu War. Enough Is Enough follows Congolese filmmaker Elisé Sawasawa, whose displacement and refugee experience shapes his unflinching journalistic lens. On the ground amid armed conflicts between Democratic Republic of Congo, rebel forces, and neighboring Rwanda military, Elisé and his friends navigate a world driven by power, greed, and the frenzy over rare minerals. With shocking firsthand footage and intimate accounts from refugees targeted by their own army, the film immerses audiences in the harrowing realities of survival and resistance. Brave, bold, and uncompromising, Sawasawa delivers a documentary that is as challenging as it is essential, offering an urgent portrait of conflict, displacement, and resilience. —Jessie Fairbanks

Those Who Whistle After Dark
2026-04-29 17:45 - 20:01 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
In Pinar Yorgancıoğlu’s atmospheric and darkly humorous tale, recently retired Melih struggles to find purpose in his post-career life. He jostles for his family’s attention while slowly preparing his late sister’s property for rent. Meanwhile, his wife and daughter pursue risky gambits in the hope of quick fortune, putting the household at risk and overlooking Melih’s mounting despondency. Into this fragile domestic world drift figures that may be ghosts—or blurred memories. Their unexpected appearance offers Melih a distraction, prompting him to conduct scientific experiments that draw him further from his wife and daughter, as both face increasing peril. Full of ironic humor and sly observations, Those Who Whistle After Dark revels in the contradictions of family life. Brimming with warmth, wit, and unexpected charm, it weaves intimate dynamics with surreal touches, creating a story that is delightfully imaginative. —Jessie Fairbanks

Shorts Block 4: Shades of Menace
2026-04-29 18:00 - 19:57 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
In the absence of love, menace takes shape. Six sinister stories invite viewers on a journey from the familiar corners of homes and highways to darker and more treacherous places in the spirit of twisted family traditions. Depravity reaches new heights, bringing unsuspecting souls into the clutches of supernatural forces in this spellbinding tapestry of shorts. Filmmakers from six nations deftly wield their mastery over their craft as they demonstrate the many shades of humanity’s dark side. —Jordan Klein
Films are in alphabetical order rather than order of play. Total runtime 89 min
Callback
Matthew Puccini (USA 2026, 16 min)
Max’s acting career has hit rock bottom, but when his boyfriend nabs a callback for a coveted role, Max discovers how much lower he can go.
Corpus Christi
Bea Lema (Spain 2025, 12 min)
A seamstress begins seeing nightmarish visions, but the fabric of her reality is far more sinister than what is woven deeply into her psyche.
The Fall
Maxime Tevissen, Tom Alcamo, Hugo Hannache, Dylan Cam, Alexandre Velves, Titouan Kervajan, Yaëlle Alberti (France 2025, 7 min)
At the site of a plane crash in the high Alps, a mysterious masked mountaineer makes an ominous discovery … they are not alone.
The Veil
Gabriel Motta (Brazil 2025, 20 min)
When he reluctantly participates in one of father’s cultish rituals, Junior witnesses something horrifying beneath a ghostly white veil.
Vultures
Dian Weys (France, South Africa 2025, 15 min)
In the dead of night, a tow truck driver arrives at the scene of an accident where he discovers his payday is far more than he had bargained for.
A Year of Marriage
Pablo Camargo López (Mexico 2025, 19 min)
Things go bump in the night when a newly wedded couple receives a gift, part of a longstanding tradition. A tradition that hungers for raw meat.

The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford
2026-04-29 18:00 - 20:11 | Premier Theater at One Letterman, 1 Letterman Dr # B, San Francisco, CA, 94129, United States
In a windswept Scottish village, widower Kenneth (Peter Mullan) takes pride in his role as the local history guide, donning period costume to honor his claimed ancestor, Sir Douglas Weatherford, an eccentric 18th‑century philosopher and inventor. But when a flamboyant fantasy television production descends on the town and commandeers the local visitor center, the invasion sidelines cherished traditions. Kenneth’s carefully ordered world begins to unravel. As costumed fans flood the streets and pop‑culture spectacle overshadows local lore, Kenneth’s grasp on reality falters and he plots his own lo‑fi film production. Anchored by Mullan’s commanding performance and a brilliant ensemble, The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford delivers sharp satire and witty reflections on family, obsession, and the quirks of smalltown life, all set against evocative imagery and the stunning Scottish countryside. —Jessie Fairbanks

POV Award: Lynne Sachs + Every Contact Leaves a Trace
2026-04-29 19:00 - 21:17 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
In forensic science, “trace” is the material left behind at crime scenes: fibers, gunshot residue, and other evidence that detectives use as they develop suspects and leads. SFFILM Persistence of Vision award winner Lynne Sachs takes inspiration from this concept to investigate her own life and assumptions, using as her “trace” 600 business cards she amassed over 40 years, representing everyone from a boy she slept with in college to tradespeople to film world associates. She settles on a handful to probe in depth—including a textile artist, a hairdresser, a therapist, a film festival director, and Lawrence Brose, a gay filmmaker “canceled” after his controversial conviction for possessing child pornography. With a mass of swirling imagery, Sachs’s own narration, and a sonic sound design underpinned by Stephen Vitiello’s omnipresent score, the film becomes a personal epiphany as Sachs comes to realize that the trace is not only in the cards but in her own imperfect memory. —Pam Grady

Blue Heron
2026-04-29 20:30 - 22:28 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
A masterful debut, this depiction of a young girl whose family is contending with a challenging older sibling weaves autobiographical and documentary elements seamlessly into a singularly poignant package. Sasha’s family emigrated from Hungary to Vancouver Island in the 1990s. Life there is pretty bucolic—outdoor swims, watching cartoons—but there are outbursts of increasingly odd, antisocial behavior from her older brother Jeremy. Sasha takes these moments in stride but notes her parents’ conversations in their native tongue that suggest something more serious and worrisome is happening. Director Sophy Romvari captures the sights and sounds of adolescence impeccably and, when the film employs a brave narrative gambit around its halfway point, she ineffably delineates the blur of memory and the tragic inability to avert crisis where one’s personal history is concerned. The extremely intentional camerawork by Maya Bankovic is vibrant but unobtrusive, observing the family (and especially Sasha) with a gentle but probing eye. —Rod Armstrong

Cronos
2026-04-29 20:45 - 22:26 | Premier Theater at One Letterman, 1 Letterman Dr # B, San Francisco, CA, 94129, United States
Cronos is a vampire movie with a Latin American twist as director/writer Guillermo del Toro gets to the heart of the eternal myth in Mexican style. The tale begins in 1536, when an alchemist, fleeing the Inquisition, arrives in Veracruz with a fantastic invention that prolongs and regenerates life. Almost 500 years later, the Cronos device turns up in an antique store. By accident, Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi) learns part of its secret and soon develops a longing for blood—any sort of blood will do, but human is best. All of this is observed by Jesus’s small granddaughter, who alone seems to understand what is happening to him. The film treats its subject matter seriously, but there’s a delicious current of humor underlying the narrative. The sets and art direction are superb; the actors walk a razor-thin line between the overwrought and the ridiculous, without missing a step. Del Toro mixes genres with elegant rhythm and style. This intelligent film is one hell of a debut. —Festival 1994.
Cronos screened at The Festival in 1994 with Guillermo del Toro in person.
Films from the Vault revisits previously presented titles at the San Francisco International Film Festival, highlighting the Festival’s role in championing emerging artists and iconic auteurs and inviting audiences to rediscover these films anew. —Jessie Fairbanks

Lost Land
2026-04-29 20:45 - 22:32 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Nine-year-old Somira and her younger brother Shafi are the focus of this moving drama that follows the Rohingya siblings as they journey from a refugee camp in Bangladesh to a relative’s home in Malaysia. By boat, in trucks, and on foot, the children and their family along with other refugees face smugglers’ extortionate demands, natural and human dangers that arise on their trek, and the terrifying possibility of separation as they travel towards some new notion of home. Japanese director Akio Fujimoto has been working on films in Malaysia for over a decade and, after witnessing the cruelty inflicted upon the Rohingya people firsthand, he began work on this powerful film. Working closely with cinematographer Yoshio Kitagawa with the camera often at the eye level of the two children who anchor his film, the resulting work has an immediacy that raises awareness of the crisis while also telling a remarkable human story. —Rod Armstrong

Sloan Science on Screen Award: Silent Friend
2026-04-30 16:00 - 18:36 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
On the cusp of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tony (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), a Hong Kong neuroscientist conducting research at a German university, observes a botanical garden’s ancient gingko tree one lonesome and chilly evening. The mysterious arboreal entity enchants him, leading him to a synthesis between scientific pursuit and the beauty of nature. Tony is not the first to feel the pull of that tree, the quiet and enduring witness to the passage of time and ultimately a leafy companion to people whose connection to the environment is inseparable. Ildikó Enyedi’s ethereal cinematic triumph captures the essence of humanity across more than a century, a triptych of stories that take place in 1908, 1972, and 2020. With a mesmerizing array of cinematographic styles, Silent Friend creates an evocative portrait of the evolution of intellectual thought and irrepressible curiosities. Léa Seydoux costars. —Jordan Klein

Cookie Queens
2026-04-30 17:30 - 19:09 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Ara, Shannon Elizabeth, Nikki, and Olive live by the mantra, “Sell! Sell! Sell!” Each Girl Scout in this diverse group has her own sales goal to reach or maybe even surpass during the short cookie-selling season. The race to become the Cookie Queen is not for the faint of the heart with a surprising amount of money and rewards like summer camp and European trips on the line. In between lugging wagons piled high with boxes across town and weekends spent manning cookie booths, the girls find themselves pulled between their ambition to succeed and the desire to just be a kid and play. This adorable coming-of-age story—a Sundance hit—follows the highs and lows of a single season, illuminating both the pressures of entrepreneurship at such a young age, and the empowerment of nurturing their aspirations. —Amber Love
Note: The April 30 screening will be presented with Open Captions.

The Arch
2026-04-30 18:00 - 19:57 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
The Arch is reminiscent of a classical story in the Ibsen or Jamesian mode—in an 18th-century village, a proud widow, Madam Tung, has allowed herself to be treated almost as a deity because of her virtuous behavior. When a troop of soldiers arrive to protect the farmers from bandits, the villagers believe this is a reward from the Emperor for having requested that an arch be constructed in honor of Madam Tung and her saintliness. Exactly how Madam Tung manages to control her emotions when the troop captain attracts her (and her daughter also responds to the same man) is the crisis of this romantic tale. The visual aspects of The Arch are delicately beautiful (one notices that the cameraman is Satyajit Ray’s famous technician) and the acting is profoundly moving and romantic. There is an indescribably, haunting quality about this film—the sort that lingers in the mind when one has seen something rare, exotic, and new. —Albert Johnson, Festival 1968
The original black-and-white 35mm negatives of the film have been lost. The restoration was made using extant materials from 1968, including a 35mm release print preserved at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and a 35mm release print preserved and scanned at the BFI National Archive. The digital restoration was undertaken at Silver Salt Restoration. Special thanks to the descendants of Paul Lee; Les Blank Films; and the Hong Kong Film Archive, Leisure and Cultural Services Department. The Arch is one of the films under M+ Restored, an initiative supported by CHANEL. The Arch is presented in support by Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco.
Films from the Vault revisits previously presented titles at the San Francisco International Film Festival, highlighting the Festival’s role in championing emerging artists and iconic auteurs and inviting audiences to rediscover these films anew. —Jessie Fairbanks

The Son and the Sea
2026-04-30 19:30 - 21:41 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
British writer/director Stroma Cairns makes a resonant feature debut with this coming-of-age drama focused on a young man trying to find his place in the world. The film is a family affair as Cairns collaborated on the screenplay with her mother Imogen West and cast as the tempestuous protagonist her brother Jonah West. In his first film role, he impresses as Jonah, who is determined to sort himself but unsure of what that means as he travels from London to Scotland’s Aberdeenshire, his mate Lee (Stanley Brock) in tow. The two make a new friend in deaf Charlie (Connor Tompkins), who is dealing with his own issues. Ruben Woodin Dechamps’s glorious cinematography captures the wild beauty of the Scottish coast as the roiling sea reflects Jonah’s emotional state as he grapples with the uncertainty in his life and what it means to be a man. —Pam Grady

Mel Novikoff Award: Michelle Satter + Beasts of the Southern Wild
2026-04-30 19:30 - 21:59 | Premier Theater at One Letterman, 1 Letterman Dr # B, San Francisco, CA, 94129, United States
Below the levee, the Bathtub exists as a tightknit community unto itself, practically a separate nation from Louisiana and the rest of the United States. There, six-year-old Hushpuppy (Oscar® Best Actress nominee Quvenzhané Wallis) lives a hardscrabble existence with her ill, alcoholic father Wink (Dwight Henry). When Katrina hits, the rising waters engulf the Bathtub while advancing aurochs further threaten Hushpuppy and the rest of the tiny enclave. Benh Zeitlin’s astonishing directing debut won the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize and captured four Academy Award® nominations for a drama that observes the chaos and loss brought forth by the 2005 hurricane through the eyes of a child. What unfolds in this gorgeously shot drama is dreamy and even hallucinatory. And as dire as things sometimes seem, a sense of hope remains in this resilient little girl, carried forth by her boundless imagination. —Pam Grady

Elder Son
2026-04-30 20:15 - 22:21 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
“Where are you from?” That question asked of native-born Argentinian teenager Lila (Anita B. Queen), whose parents immigrated from Korea, hovers over Cecilia Kang’s remarkable drama inspired by her own family’s story. The documentary director’s first narrative feature unfolds in three parts as Lila and her taciturn father Antonio (Chang Sung Kim) join a reunion with his rowdy friends to fish and talk about the old days. Then traveling back in time, the drama observes a brash, young Antonio (Sang Bin Suh) in Uruguay as he struggles to make a life for himself and with guilt over leaving his wife and Lila’s older sister in Korea. The last act gets to the heart of the matter in documentary footage of Kang’s parents poring over old photos as they reminisce about settling in South America. Gorgeously photographed, in both fiction and fact, Kang pays loving homage to her parents’ immigrant journey. —Pam Grady

Still Playing + The Curfew + Nava
2026-04-30 20:30 - 22:11 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Three protagonists and their quietly courageous gestures of resilience weave together a cinematic journey across the world. Documenting a father’s struggle in Palestine, a woman’s fateful return to Iran, and the quotidian experiences of Pakistani diaspora, this trio of films raises essential questions about proximity to cruelty, colonialism’s lasting impacts, and what it means to show love and devotion under harrowing circumstances.
Films are listed in order of play. Total runtime is 72 min.
Still Playing
Mohamed Mesbah (France 2025, 37 min)
Palestinian video game creator Rasheed Abueideh raises two sons in the West Bank, where Israeli army raids are as common as his children’s robotics competitions. Interspersed with clips of streamers playing a game of Abueideh’s creation, Liyla and the Shadows of War, this documentary examines the depth of empathy—and apathy—for the Palestinian cause. In continued advocacy for Palestinian liberation, Abueideh’s programming work acts as a medium for grief that honors his land and fallen compatriots. Indeed, the film seeks to interrogate filmmakers and viewers alike, gauging their positionality as conditions in Gaza further deteriorate under Israeli occupation. A portrait of a father committed to his family, homeland, and craft, Still Playing raises essential questions about proximity to cruelty, life under occupation, and the power and limits of multimedia storytelling. —Sabrina Kim
The Curfew
Shehrezad Maher (USA 2025, 19 min)
As Pakistani American Ayaan moves into a new apartment and becomes the caretaker for his grandmother, he hears intergenerational echoes of language and history.
Nava
Dena Rassam (Iran 2025, 16 min)
Iranian singer Nava has 24 hours to spend with her father before she must leave the country.

Tuner
2026-05-01 15:30 - 16:57 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Academy Award®–winning director Daniel Roher (Navalny, Festival 2022) makes a striking leap into narrative filmmaking with this stylish, genre-bending thriller. Leo Woodall plays Niki, a meticulous piano tuner whose hypersensitive hearing makes the world painfully loud—but also gives him an uncanny ability to detect the inner workings of locks. His quiet life tuning pianos across New York alongside his mentor, played with wry warmth by Dustin Hoffman, takes an unexpected turn when Niki’s rare talent draws the attention of criminals eager to exploit it. As he becomes entangled in increasingly dangerous safecracking jobs, a tentative romance with a music student (Havana Rose Liu) presents another path. Propelled by inventive sound design and sharp performances, Tuner blends crime caper, romance, and character study into a tense, darkly funny exploration of talent, temptation, and the fragile line between survival and self-destruction. —Jessie Fairbanks

Salvation
2026-05-01 16:00 - 18:29 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
Winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear, Emin Alper’s (Frenzy, Festival 2016) electrifying drama of power struggles in a Turkish mountain village exposes the chaos that erupts when territorialism takes root. In the unnamed community, two tribes clash over land and the right to harvest it. Mesut, haunted by troubling dreams he believes are prophetic, stakes his claim as the new sheikh. As his power grab fans inflammatory rhetoric, he becomes the figure rallying those who long for revenge. Alper’s assured filmmaking blurs dreams and reality, while a tremendous ensemble cast conveys both vulnerability and menace. With striking visual flair, Salvation illuminates how fear, suspicion, and strongman rhetoric create circumstances where no one is safe … or saved. —Rod Armstrong

How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps
2026-05-01 18:00 - 19:48 | Premier Theater at One Letterman, 1 Letterman Dr # B, San Francisco, CA, 94129, United States
Family separation defined the childhood of filmmaker Carolina Gonzalez Valencia, whose mother Beatriz moved to the US from Colombia to provide for her children by working as a domestic house cleaner. Years later, when Gonzalez Valencia tries to make a film about her parent, she discovers it is easier to resort to playful conversations and lots of sequins than it is to probe the immense pain and sacrifice that define her mother’s life. What emerges in this striking directorial debut, replete with playful animated sequences, is a tribute that bends the formal limits of documentary by inviting magic and mischief into the tale. On the brink of another separation, González Valencia and her mother embark on a journey of healing, bringing their community along on an unexpectedly fun ride. How to Clean a House In 10 Easy Steps honors the labor that supports us while celebrating the joy that sustains us. —Bedatri Choudhury

Shorts Block 2: Under Pressure
2026-05-01 18:15 - 20:14 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Pressure builds quietly before it breaks. Across cultures, five individuals confront the forces pressing in on their lives, reflecting the fault lines shaping women’s place in the world today. A Portuguese mother struggles beneath the invisible mental load of an uneven household, while a daughter in rural Taiwan navigates tradition during a funeral rite. A teacher in the UK challenges systemic racism at her school, as a wife faces economic strain on her fragile marriage amid Ulaanbaatar’s suffocating traffic, and an autistic woman in the western US finds her voice after years of struggling to communicate. These films, all directed by women, explore the burdens their gender carries—as mothers, professionals, and community members—tracing moments when endurance gives way to reckoning, and reclaiming one’s voice becomes both urgent and necessary. —Mariana Finelli
Films are in alphabetical order rather than order of play. Total runtime 90 min
Because Today Is Saturday
Alice Eça Guimarães (Portugal, France, Spain 2025, 12 min)
On just another Saturday, a woman struggles to reconnect with herself beneath the weight of motherhood and the unseen mental load of an uneven household.
Buried Under Years of Dust
Sophie Sartain (USA 2026, 30 min)
After decades confined within herself, Emily Grodin, an autistic woman, unlocks her inner world and claims her voice, as her parents’ enduring love leads her to the right tool.
Dark Skin Bruises Differently
Susan Wokoma (UK 2025, 11 min)
When a student’s claim threatens her integrity, Ms. Lawson must choose between defending a misunderstood girl and protecting her own career.
Dua Ji
YuHan Tsai (Taiwan, USA 2025, 18 min)
In rural Taiwan, the eldest daughter bears the quiet weight of tradition during her mother’s funeral, as grief and stirring defiance threaten to fracture the entrenched ritual.
A South Facing Window
Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (France, Mongolia 2025, 19 min)
In Ulaanbaatar’s relentless traffic, a young mother searching for a home confronts her husband’s infidelity and their growing distance, forcing the couple to face whether their fragile marriage can survive.

Memory of Princess Mumbi
2026-05-01 18:30 - 19:57 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
With Memory of Princess Mumbi, Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker Damien Hauser delivers a dazzling film set in the future but pertinent to today. A war fought over addictive technology leads to its outlawing in many parts of the world by 2093. Despite this, AI remains in use to create worlds and alter actors’ facial expressions. Aspiring filmmaker Kuve travels to the African nation of Umata to make a documentary about the lingering effects of the war where he meets aspiring actress Mumbi. As they delve into their thoughts on cinema and the place of AI in it, the two develop a relationship destined to fail—an arranged marriage to a prince awaits Mumbi on her 21st birthday. Against an Afrofuturistic backdrop, this visually esoteric, luscious, and layered sci-fi mockumentary both celebrates and critiques AI while adding a dollop of romance in its depiction of the love triangle between two artists and a prince. —Amber Love

Filipiñana
2026-05-01 19:00 - 20:49 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
Isabel is a newly hired ball girl at a pristine golf course on Manila’s outskirts. An Ilokana from rural northern Philippines, she immediately feels out of place among the high-status guests. Motivated by the sweltering heat and her insatiable curiosity, Isabel slips away from her duties on the driving range. Over a languid afternoon, Isabel discovers the locations of blessed AC units, indulges in a finger of frosting from the buffet, and observes the peculiar routines of wealthy patrons. As her boldness grows, so do her unsettling discoveries, revealing insidious secrets lurking beneath the resort’s lavish surface. Filipiñana heralds the arrival of a striking new voice in filmmaking. Director Rafael Manuel’s first feature swings with visual splendor, wielding its imagery to deliver sharp, scintillating commentary on capitalism and corruption—even in the world’s most polished corners. —Jordan Klein

The Fox King
2026-05-01 20:30 - 22:12 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Amir and Ali are twins reeling from their mother’s death in childbirth. Plus, their deadbeat dad won’t let the boys stay with him, so they work for the owner of a fishing business who gives them rudimentary shelter. Amir speaks rarely, only using the names of animals to communicate, but his passion for reading creates a connection with new English teacher, Lara, who has past traumas of her own. Amid a human trafficking scandal and their father’s shady business schemes, Amir and Ali make a life for themselves with scant resources. But as a kite flying competition looms and Amir and Lara‘s bibliophilia alienates Ali, tensions between the brothers threaten their bond. Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jin, who returns to the Festival after Monday Morning Glory (Festival 2005) and Woman on Fire Looks for Water (Festival 2010), brings a fable-like charm to the poetic story, grounded in naturalistic performances by the main protagonists. –Rod Armstrong

American Doctor
2026-05-01 20:30 - 22:31 | Premier Theater at One Letterman, 1 Letterman Dr # B, San Francisco, CA, 94129, United States
In American Doctor, filmmaker Poh Si Teng follows three US physicians—Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian—striving to alleviate suffering in Gaza as the war shatters its medical infrastructure. What begins as an urgent mission of care becomes a searing confrontation with the limits of neutrality. The doctors shoulder impossible choices, witnessing profound suffering while navigating the dangers of a war zone. The film grapples with reconciling professional duty with civic obligation, and private anguish with public responsibility. As the documentary moves between operating rooms and American corridors of power, what emerges is a taut, deeply human portrait of courage, conscience, and the high price of speaking out in the face of injustice—an urgent, unflinching work that demands to be seen. —Jessie Fairbanks

Hot Water
2026-05-01 20:45 - 22:50 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Ramzi Bashour’s poignant road movie depicts an anxious mother transporting her delinquent son from Indiana to California, highlighting the glories of the American Midwest while unpacking the dynamics of parenting and letting go. Layal (Lubna Azabal, radiant) is a tightly wound Lebanese American who teaches Arabic to hapless students. While listening to a meditation program, she learns that 19-year-old Daniel suffered a concussion brawling after a hockey game. At her wits’ end, she demands that her ex-husband take the boy in, with Layal agreeing to transport Daniel across the country. Along the way, Bashour captures the vast beauty of the American landscape and the quirky characters they meet—including the free-spirited Sasha (Dale Dickey) and a frustrated hitchhiker (Max Walker-Silverman, Rebuilding, Festival 2024). Through shared challenges and unexpected encounters, mother and son gradually learn to accept one another’s foibles and embrace a new chapter of their lives. —Rod Armstrong

Teen Filmmaking Workshop: Collaboration & Creativity
2026-05-02 12:00 - 14:00 | Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St, San Francisco, CA, 94118, United States
Join director duo and multi-disciplinary artists Jess X. Snow (Roots That Reach Toward the Sky, Festival 2025) and Ashima Shiraishi, for a filmmaking workshop for teens focused on collaboration and creativity through multiple mediums. Recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” Jess has written and directed four short films currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. This workshop will delve into the process behind their narrative shorts as well as their latest collaborative experimental documentary, Tamashi (part of the Festival’s Shorts 1: Human Flow program), co-directed with artist and world record-breaking rock climber Ashima Shiraishi. Tamashi merges Ashima’s poetry, their father’s butoh dance, and their climbing to convey themes of ecological and family healing. The intersection of film and art will be explored through Jess’s previous work, including community murals, illustration, poetry, and more. They will lead students through the collaborative process of filmmaking and brainstorm how to merge their own unique artistic and creative mediums with film.
Students will have the chance to ask the director about their career and advice for getting started in independent filmmaking. Students are encouraged to bring a story that is important to them as well as a notebook.
This workshop runs for two hours and is open to students ages 13–18; space is limited. This workshop is for students only; parents and guardians may drop off their students.
Photo by Sheldon Chau.

One in a Million
2026-05-02 12:00 - 14:10 | Marina Theatre, 2149 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA, 94123, United States
Change unfolds swiftly and powerfully in this intimate, decade-spanning portrait of Syrian refugee Israa and her family as they navigate life across multiple countries. In 2015, directors Itab Azzam and Jacob MacInnes discover the vivacious 11-year-old selling cigarettes on the teeming sidewalks of Izmir, Turkey, where she introduces them to her favorite food vendors and reveals that the family is trying to make their way to Germany. Not only does this journey prove challenging—they board a dinghy filled with dozens of others for a nighttime crossing to Greece—but many other difficulties await them when they finally arrive in Germany. Israa grows into a rebellious teen, her father Tarek fumes about Europe’s permissiveness, while mom Nisreen finds her own quiet liberation. The filmmakers rivetingly juxtapose messy and loving family moments against luminously staged talking-head interviews that further delineate the family members’ conflicts as well as their differing memories of their homeland. —Rod Armstrong
