SFFILM Announces Golden Gate Award Winners at the 67th San Francisco International Film Festival

San Francisco, CA – April 30, 2024 – Today, SFFILM announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Awards competition and the Audience Awards at the 67th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival). Created the same year the Festival was founded in 1957, the prestigious Golden Gate Awards have served as a launching pad for internationally renowned filmmakers who are early in their careers. The awards are also notable as a qualifier for films under 40 minutes for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Previous Golden Gate Award winners include Panah Panahi, Reid Davenport, Nadav Lapid, Marlon Riggs, Céline Sciamma, Jia Zhang-ke, Stanley Nelson, Tasha Van Zandt, and many others across nearly seven decades.

“I am delighted by the jury and audience selections from the 2024 lineup. The 2024 winners represent both the global scope and bold artistry on display at the festival this year,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. “I want to thank our jurors, who gathered here from around the country and screened films with our audiences every day of the festival. And we are very excited to continue this momentum with SFFILM’s Encore Presentation at The Roxie this weekend where you can catch the Audience Award winners and some of the jury titles.”

The Festival opened with a celebratory hometown premiere of Sean Wang’s Dìdi (弟弟) across two sold-out theaters. With the Oscar-nominated director, producers, and numerous local cast members in attendance, Opening Night reaffirmed SFFILM’s commitment to the Bay Area’s robust filmmaking community. Audiences were generous and excited throughout the Festival. Director Greg Kwedar’s much-anticipated Sing Sing, which stars Academy Award nominee Colman Domingo and local Bay Area artist Sean San José, received a warm welcome from a sold-out crowd on the Festival’s second night. Other notable moments included at-capacity screenings of Slava Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo’s Porcelain War; Vicki Abeles’ Counted Out, Julian Brave Noisecat and Emily Kassie’s Sugarcane; Shiori Ito’s Black Box Diaries; and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher. The Festival honored local pioneer and champion of film exhibition Gary Meyer with the Mel Novikoff Award, and paid tribute to multi-hyphenates Chiwetel Ejiofor (Rob Peace) and Joan Chen, a local legend whose directorial debut, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, screened on 35mm for Festival attendees after an intimate onstage conversation with producer and President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Janet Yang. Two sold-out screenings complete with standing ovations of Josh Margolin’s Thelma, which stars the steely-yet-hysterical June Squibb, closed the 2024 SFFILM Festival.

“The 2024 SFFILM Festival was a true celebration of Bay Area filmmaking and movie-goers,” said Anne Lai, Executive Director of SFFILM. “We saw theaters packed with fantastic audiences enjoying wonderful films from around the world and from a thriving pipeline of independent filmmakers we have supported being able to come back and share their work in hometown premieres. This was our most successful Festival in years, and I am already looking forward to planning for the 68th edition next year.”

This year, the 2024 SFFILM Festival ran from April 24–28, with events held in theaters across the Bay Area, including the Premier Theater at One Letterman, the Marina Theatre, the Vogue Theatre, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), the Dolby Cinema @ 1275 Market, and The Walt Disney Family Museum Theater. With a full slate of in-person programming and events, the 67th iteration of the Festival featured essential stories from both local and international filmmakers, who hailed from 40 countries.

Some of the special honors of the 2024 SFFILM Festival were previously announced alongside the program launch, including SFFILM’s Persistence of Vision Award, which went to Belgian filmmaker and multimedia artist Johan Grimonprez (Soundtrack for a Coup d’Etat), and the Mel Novikoff Award, which honored local film hero Gary Meyer, and was presented with a special retrospective screening of Meyer-curated films, the 1960 Mexican classic Macario and Jessica Yu‘s memorable short Sour Death Balls. The Sloan Science in Cinema Award went to Tania Hermida’s On the Invention of Species (La Invención de las especies).

The 2024 SFFILM Festival Golden Gate Award Juries are a diverse collection of critics, journalists, filmmakers, and film industry leaders. They included the following members:

Narratives Jury

The Narratives Jury for the 2024 SFFILM Festival included French Venezuelan filmmaker Alexis Gambis (Son of Monarchs, Festival 2021); IndieWire Editor-at-Large Anne Thompson; and Laura Michalchyshyn, film producer and chief creative officer at Blue Ant Media.

Documentary Jury

This year’s Documentary Jury included Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand; Grammy nominated and Emmy-winning director and producer Lisa Cortés (Precious; Little Richard: I Am Everything) (Doc Stories 2023); and Laura Kim, co-head of campaigns & engagement for Participant (Roma; All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Doc Stories 2022).

Shorts Jury

The Shorts Jury for the 2024 SFFILM Festival included Netflix creative executive Andrew Hahn (Downfall: The Case Against Boeing); award-winning documentary director and cinematographer Aurora Brachman (Still Waters, Bay Area Short Winner, Festival 2023); and Ash Hoyle, features programmer at the Sundance Film Festival.

Family Films Jury

This year’s Family Films Jury included Joanne Parsont, former director of education at the California Film Institute; Joel Serin-Christ, filmmaker and the founder and CEO of Collective Focus Films; and Pete Barma (Through the Windows), storyteller and co-founder of Artfarm Productions.

Youth Works Jury

This year’s Youth Works Jury included Dillon Ford, aspiring filmmaker and sophomore at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts for Film; Lowell High School senior and film club founder Logan Ragland; writer, filmmaker, and film programmer Osinachi Ibe, who is a 2024 SFFILM FilmHouse Resident; and performing artist Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green (Inside Out 2).

The winners of the 67th Annual SFFILM Golden Gate Awards Competition are as follows:

Global Visions Award

Great Absence
Kei Chika-ura (Japan 2023)
US Premiere
Kei Chika-ura’s Great Absence is a sophisticated, well-crafted contemporary family drama about reconciliation and love. Its delicate, restrained performances reveal intense anguish. This intricate, layered story moves through time and space as it ruminates on aging and the life cycle.

Documentary Award

Sugarcane
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie (Canada 2024)
Sugarcane is an extraordinary investigative thriller, a personal odyssey, and a cathartic exposé of the transgenerational impact of Canada’s residential schools. Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie’s sensitive collaboration is as much a cinematic condemnation of colonization and complicity as it is a sobering yet celebratory reclamation of history, voice, and vision in the name of healing, from one generation to the next.

Bay Area Documentary Award

Seeking Mavis Beacon
Jazmin Renée Jones (USA 2024)
For their boundary-pushing hybrid storytelling mixtape that reflectively looks at archive, digital ancestors, and the intersection of fact and fiction, we honor director Jazmin Renée Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross (associate producer and cyber doula) for Seeking Mavis Beacon with Best Bay Area Documentary Feature. Multilayered and provocative, it is a technological, cultural, and economic interrogation that is spirited and imaginative. Transparency, consent, and recognition are as core to the storytelling as it is to the legacy they honor.

Narrative Short Award

Bogotá Story
Esteban Pedraza (Colombia 2023)
It is rare a film can be as transportive as this one and yet offer such deep empathy that it conjures an imaginary but undeniable familiarity with its characters. For its precise craft, its beautiful cinematography, and its incredible specificity of place and history, the jury awards Bogotá Story with the Narrative Short Award.

Documentary Short Award

The Medallion
Ruth Hunduma (UK 2023)
This film impressed the jury with its ingenuity in form and deft navigations of scales—both expansively sociological and intimately personal. The jury was energetically engaged by the weave between gentleness and forcefulness this film achieved, and we applaud the ambition and success of this complex conception. For its urgent story and warm heart, the jury awards The Medallion with the Documentary Short Award.

Bay Area Short Award

a film is a goodbye that never ends
María Luisa Santos (Costa Rica 2024)
World Premiere
For it’s intimate portrayal of bonding and longing, keen eye for detail and texture, and poignant meditation on the passage of time and existing in the ‘in between’ spaces, the jury is excited to award María Luisa Santos with the Bay Area Shorts Prize for a film is a goodbye that never ends.

Animated Short Award

La Perra
Carla Melo Gampert (Colombia 2023)
With its visceral and deeply affecting exploration of parent-child relationships, sexuality, and grief, La Perra beautifully paints an unsettling and universal coming-of-age story. Carla Melo Gampert’s expressive, sketch-like, watercolor animation, and immersive, sensorial sound design, transports audiences into a fantastical and deeply felt world that is entirely its own. The jury ecstatically bestows La Perra with the Animated Short Award.

Family Film Award

Dynasty and Destiny
Travis Lee Ratcliff (USA 2024)
We found this touching, timely, and accessible story to be a true master class in documentary filmmaking. It is evident in every frame how much thought and care was put into the film, from the cinematography and editing to the music and storytelling. Dynasty & Destiny is a captivating experience that deeply respects the relationship between its main characters as well as the history and culture it explores.

Youth Works Award

Sil-tteu-gi
Yezy Suh (USA 2023)
The jury was incredibly moved by Yezy Suh’s intimate exploration of family, culture, and self. Her use of animation and personal family footage helps us see her family through her eyes, and reminds us that our memories can bridge physical and cultural distance. Sil-tteu-gi is a beautiful example of the power of personal expression and vulnerability. We cannot wait to see what Yezy does next!

Audience Award: Narrative Feature

The Teacher
Farah Nabulsi (UK/Palestine/Qatar 2023)

Audience Award: Documentary Feature

Agent of Happiness
Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó (Bhutan/Hungary 2024)

Both Audience Award-winning films will screen as part of the 2024 SFFILM Festival Encore at the Roxie (May 2–4). Get tickets at Roxie.com.

Honorable Mentions and Jury Recognition

Global Visions

Empty Nets
Behrooz Karamizade (Germany 2023)
Behrooz Karamizade’s compelling, propulsive romantic drama portrays a striving young fisherman, who’s in love and desperately seeks to break from Iran’s harsh societal restraints, all as his dreams and fantasies run up against the limits of the real world. We commend the filmmaker’s insistence on telling his story with such frankness while navigating censorship and the repercussions of making his film in Iran today.

New Director Jury Recognition

Banel & Adama
Ramata-Toulaye Sy (Senegal 2023)
A singular, genre-bending first feature crafted with powerful cinematography, Banel & Adama is a feminist eco-drama set in a drought-ridden remote village. Filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy mixes magic imagery with the realities of a nomadic community as a young wife resists ancient patriarchal superstitions.

Cine Latino Jury Recognition

Heartless
Nara Normande, Tião (Brazil 2023)
US Premiere
Nara Normande and Tião’s Heartless is a powerful, unpredictable coming-of-age film about identity, belonging, and desire. The film boasts a strong cast of young actors who portray an eclectic group of friends across a socioeconomic spectrum. The film is punctuated with striking vignettes of passion and compassion, family bonding, and beach life. The end-of-summer bliss foreshadows a darker reality of homophobia, racism, and violence.

Documentary Honorable Mention

Black Box Diaries
Shiori Ito (Japan 2024)
We recognize with an honorable mention, director Shiori Ito’s Black Box Diaries and the extraordinary artistry, journalistic integrity, and unflagging courage to push her story through. For this to be her first foray into the art of fusing rigorous visual journalism with first-person documentary-making is a monumental act worthy of our notice, gratitude, and cheering on.

Family Film Honorable Mention

Yuck!
Loïc Espuche (France 2024)
We were charmed by this film’s ability to capture the universal experience of coming of age. Yuck! portrays moments of curiosity and discovery in a thoughtful and authentic way, all while honoring the innocence of childhood.

Youth Works Honorable Mention

Gentle Breeze
Wenwei Hu (China 2023)
North American Premiere
Gentle Breeze is a visually stunning film that celebrates kindness and unexpected bonds. The jury was touched by Wenwei Hu’s wonderful film and commends his efforts!

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67th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival)

The San Francisco International Film Festival presented by SFFILM runs April 24–28 at venues in San Francisco and Berkeley. The official program—curated from nearly 5,000 submissions and invitations—includes premieres, eagerly anticipated award titles, debut work from emerging storytellers, international narrative and documentary films, shorts, and the Golden Gate Award juried competition. Filmmakers will be networking at industry meetings and talks, and everyone will get to celebrate the magic of cinema with SFFILM’s prestigious Persistence of Vision, Mel Novikoff, Sloan Science in Cinema Award, and tributes to special honorees.
The SFFILM Festival always centers the Bay Area with selections by local creators and crews, and serves students, teachers, and families with Youth Works, family friendly workshops, and educational screenings through Schools at the Festival that reaches thousands of students each year. The SFFILM Festival Encore Days program runs at the Roxie Theater Thursday through Saturday, May 2–4 with award winners and selections from the main Festival program.

SFFILM

SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM inspires and connects audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through film exhibition, youth education, and artist development programs. Annual public film programs presented by SFFILM include the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) which is the longest running film festival in the Americas, Doc Stories documentary series, special events with the best and brightest in contemporary film, and family programming. SFFILM Education serves more than 15,000 students and educators with learning opportunities designed to cultivate media literacy, global citizenship, and a lifelong love of movies. SFFILM Makers supports the careers of independent filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond with grants, residencies, and other creative development services.
For more information visit sffilm.org.

This press release is available online at sffilm.org/press/releases.
For further information and press inquiries, please contact Jessie Cohen PR & Consulting (JCPR&C):
Nicole Kerr
nicole@jcpr-c.com
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