Victoria Theatre

Thirteen-year-old African American teen Morris Gentry loves hip-hop, dislikes school and is starting to develop a keen interest in girls. He’s also been reluctantly uprooted from the US to live in Heidelberg, Germany, and this charming coming-of-a...

USA/Germany | 91

Railway enthusiast Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) looks forward to a life of solitude and endless solo walks along the railroad tracks when he inherits an abandoned train station, only to find himself pulled into a group of new friends, who push ...

150

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180

Life rarely works out as planned, but that doesn’t stop Maggie (Greta Gerwig) from trying to steer not just her own destiny, but also those of a dissatisfied anthropology professor (Ethan Hawke) and his intellectual wife Gretchen (Julianne Moore) ...

USA | 98

Two years after a sexting scandal derails New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s once promising career, he attempts a comeback with a run for New York mayor with a documentary crew in tow. The filmmakers are on the spot when controversy erupts over...

USA | 96

Threatened by homophobic violence on an almost daily basis, a group of African American gay and trans youngsters living in Washington, DC, form a gang to confront and defeat their victimizers in this rousing and often very funny documentary. But t...

USA | 90

Buckle up for a whimsical road trip with Microbe and Gasoline, two 14-year-old boys equipped with wild imaginations, insightful observations of the world and a vehicle they’ve hand-built to carry them across France. Visionary writer/director Miche...

France | 105

David Farrier, an out-and-proud gay male New Zealand journalist, stumbles upon an online fetish empire while researching a story about the sport of man-on-man competitive tickling. A simple click rapidly pulls him—and the viewer—into a cyber-infor...

New Zealand | 92

A compromised mission in a chaotic African country draws well-intentioned NGO employees into increasingly murky moral territory. This powerful drama, based on a true story, follows the group’s leader Jacques (Vincent Lindon) as he hustles fixers a...

France/Belgium | 112

A mysterious and poetic work that eludes easy interpretation, this drama returns Marco Bellocchio to his themes of corruption in Italian society, here stretched over many centuries. It is his particular genius that connects a 17th-century nun tort...

Italy/France/Switzerland | 107

In 1989, Barack Obama (played by Parker Sawyers in an uncanny performance) is a summer associate at a Chicago law firm. On a lovely summer’s day, he invites his colleague Michelle Robinson to a community meeting. Writer/director Richard Tanne char...

USA | 80

Looking for a fresh start, perennial philosophy flunk-out and sexually frustrated Madrid 30-something Gonzalo (Álvaro Ogalla) demands the Catholic Church relinquish its symbolic hold on his misspent life by removing his name from the baptismal rec...

Spain/France/Uruguay | 80

Katie Couric narrates this devastating documentary covering the current political battle over gun control and gun violence from the team that impressively tackled child obesity in Fed Up (SFIFF 2014). With a balanced eye that presents the history ...

USA | 110

This immensely entertaining series covers the history of contemporary recorded music through scores of original interviews with the famous producers and artists who created it. The two segments presented here focus, respectively, on the role of th...

USA | 102

Audrie & Daisy is an urgent real-life drama that examines the ripple effects on families, friends, schools and communities when two underage young women find that sexual crimes against them have been caught on camera. From acclaimed filmmakers Bon...

USA | 96

Hamid, the often exasperated program director of a Farsi-language radio station based in San Francisco, awaits a much-anticipated meeting between Metallica and real-life Afghani band Kabul Dreams at his studio. Meanwhile, he has to contend with th...

USA/Iran | 93

Amanda Micheli’s stirring and suspenseful documentary follows several aspiring parents who desperately want to have a baby but are struggling with infertility and the high cost of treatments. They place themselves in the hands of Las Vegas doctor ...

USA | 80

Quiet teenager Theo moves with his family from Manhattan to Brooklyn when they inherit his grandfather’s brownstone. There he forms a fast and thick bond with the charismatic son of the Chilean woman who rents the building’s storefront space, but ...

USA | 85

Each year, the San Francisco Film Society invites a visionary thinker to discuss the intersecting worlds of contemporary cinema and visual arts, culture and society, images and ideas. This year, Wesley Morris will argue for the radicalization of S...

60

A recently released felon working in an animal shelter becomes embroiled with an abused woman in this hard-hitting dramatic thriller starring Boyd Holbrook and Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss and set in Louisiana.

USA | 100

The power of cinema has rarely been revealed as strongly as in this documentary about an autistic man named Owen Suskind who, as a boy, discovers a way to communicate with his parents through Disney movies. Now a young man, Owen is getting ready t...

USA | 91

James Schamus (Kanbar Award Winner, SFIFF ), makes his directorial debut with an elegant adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel, a fictionalized story of the author’s own college experiences in the ‘50s. Logan Lerman gives a terrific performance as Ma...

USA | 110

Simultaneously an astute observation of nonfiction filmmaking’s dilemmas, and a wonderfully creative autobiographical collage, Cameraperson is a must-see for all documentary enthusiasts. Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, who has lensed such acclaim...

USA | 102

Susanna White’s vastly entertaining adaptation of John le Carré’s novel involves Perry Makepeace (Ewan McGregor), a mild-mannered poetry professor embroiled in the defection of a Russian money launderer with a prodigious head for numbers. Featurin...

UK | 107

Executive produced by Wim Wenders and Errol Morris, this elegant and chilling documentary provides a glimpse of what the US government doesn’t want you to know about drone warfare by focusing on three veterans whose service experience causes them ...

USA | 92

The secret wounds of a marriage unfold gently but surely as a shy piano teacher embarks on a mythic journey with her husband, returned from the dead. As their quest takes them on visits to several couples who have similarly fraught relationships, ...

Japan/France | 128

Filmmaker Todd Solondz stays true to unconventional form for his eighth feature, his dark sense of humor and dim view of the human condition intact as he chronicles the misadventures of an adorable dachshund. Essentially a series of vignettes, Wie...

USA | 90

Small fishing communities of the Faroe Islands, an isolated Nordic archipelago in the North Atlantic, endure an uneasy period of transition as disparate global pressures—including animal rights activism, plummeting wildlife populations and mercury...

Denmark/USA | 81

In this moody evocation of a troubled relationship, Frank (Michael Shannon), a gifted chef who hasn’t gotten his due, seduces Lola (Imogen Poots), a budding young designer, with a perfect omelet, but fear, jealousy and dark secrets from the past s...

USA | 88

Samantha Montgomery (an unforgettable star-in-the-making) is a New Orleans caregiver whose singing aspirations have been limited thus far to posting a cappella YouTube videos under the name Princess Shaw. When Israeli mashup artist Kutiman uses he...

Israel | 80

Small fishing communities of the Faroe Islands, an isolated Nordic archipelago in the North Atlantic, endure an uneasy period of transition as disparate global pressures—including animal rights activism, plummeting wildlife populations and mercury...

Denmark/USA | 81

In a society that doesn’t just frown on single people, but in fact repudiates them, David (Colin Farrell) is in a pickle. Dumped by his wife, he has 45 days to find a new mate at an isolated English resort or else face harsh consequences. Either w...

Ireland/UK/Greece/France | 119

A middle-aged artist, a young ingénue, existential crises, romantic fumblings and confessional drinkathons—like Monet and his water lilies, Hong Sang-soo keeps returning to the same core material and refining his pitch-perfect preoccupations of wh...

South Korea | 121

Nick Hamm’s tightly directed history re-imagines the beginning of detente in Northern Ireland as a chamber thriller, as Democrat Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall) and Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuiness (Colm Meaney) are forced by circum...

UK | 94

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have won the Palme d’Or twice for their incomparable portraits of underrepresented lives. Here, their protagonist is an empathetic and hard-working female doctor who feels morally obligated to uncover the identity of a...

Belgium/France | 106

Skillfully adapted from a Russian novella rather than Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth ferociously depicts a young woman, sold into marriage on the manor, as she finds her way to blood-soaked power and sexual fulfillment. Twenty-year-old Florence Pugh gi...

UK | 89

In this unsettling narrative, Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) plays an unkempt man named Buster who hides out in unoccupied vacation homes and calls into radio shows ranting about Y2K. In other sequences, he is a mild-mannered hotel concierge named Jonah w...

USA | 98

With the emotional force and power of a Bruce Springsteen song, Jeff Unay’s cinema vérité portrait of Joe Carman packs an emotional wallop. A family man who has promised not to return to competitive mixed martial arts fighting, the dangerous sport...

USA | 82

The effortlessly charming, bow-tie sporting scientist Bill Nye is beloved by all generations who grew up watching his show, Bill Nye the Science Guy, but vilified by climate change deniers and religious fundamentalists. Skilled documentarians (and...

USA | 90

Three storylines come together in this complex tale of a teenage surfer on life support, a woman with an acute heart condition, and the medical staff who have devoted their lives to providing hope for the living by harvesting the organs of the dea...

France/Belgium | 104

For the powerful second film in his trilogy concerning the relationship between public institutions and the communities they serve, Pete Nicks (The Waiting Room) takes a powerful, immersive look at the Oakland Police Department. Filming from 2014-...

USA | 93

A planeful of French soldiers finishing a tour in Afghanistan are flown to the island of Cyprus for a three-day recuperative stint of “sport, relaxation, and collective debriefing.” For longtime friends Aurore and Marine and their cohorts, this ex...

France/Greece | 102

Last year, we joined forces with our friends from THE THING Quarterly to present an illustrated evening of live storytelling heralding the unheralded: those details that linger in the backgrounds of movies. Whether delightful, confusing, or clarif...

75

Using YouTube videos and interviews, Oscar-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple tells the story of how Gregory Lazzarato became Gigi Gorgeous, the internet superstar, beauty expert, and mentor who documented her transition online. With tender mome...

USA | 92

On Thursday evenings, a children's karate school transforms into a male strip joint. Hundreds of women convene for a potluck fund raiser and the opportunity to throw singles at the hot New Jersey Nasty Boyz.

USA | 83

Over two consecutive nights, artist and filmmaker Terence Nance (Headlands Artist in Residence, 2014) presents an interactive virtual self-portrait of our society that reflects our biases and norms back to us. Accompanied by his brother, multidisc...

When Michal’s fiancé says he no longer loves her, she decides that rather than call off the wedding, she will just find another groom. Marrying romantic comedy with the traditions of Orthodox Judaism as she did with her prize-winning debut feature...

Israel | 110

Over two consecutive nights, artist and filmmaker Terence Nance (Headlands Artist in Residence, 2014) presents an interactive virtual self-portrait of our society that reflects our biases and norms back to us. Accompanied by his brother, multidisc...

It’s such a given that it is almost elemental: motion pictures and musical accompaniment complete each other. This comprehensive and relentlessly fascinating documentary traces the history of film scores, from the flame-thrower guitars of Mad Max:...

USA | 93

Canadian-Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk’s Maliglutit (Searchers) continues in the breathtaking vein of his unforgettable Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001) with this story of cruelty and cold revenge based loosely on John Ford’s The Searchers (195...

Canada | 94

Foreknowledge of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is by no means required to enjoy Argentine writer-director Matías Piñeiro’s quasi-adaptation, in which a young theater director comes to New York from Buenos Aires on a fellowship to translate Shakespeare...

USA/Argentina | 86

When Michal’s fiancé says he no longer loves her, she decides that rather than call off the wedding, she will just find another groom. Marrying romantic comedy with the traditions of Orthodox Judaism as she did with her prize-winning debut feature...

Israel | 110

With visual and verbal verve, The Student tells the story of Venya, a high school student who wields his worn copy of the Bible like a hammer to use against his mom, teachers, and peers. Serebrennikov offers a potent story of bullying behavior whe...

Russia | 118

The Wedding Ring is a rare achievement, a wondrously complex dramatic feature directed by an African woman that explores female desires and empowerment in a traditional Muslim society. Rahmatou Keïta tells the story of Tiyaa who returns to Niger w...

Niger/Burkina Faso/France | 96

Eighteen-year-old Xiaobin travels from China to Buenos Aires to join her conservative family members who refuse to learn Spanish. They want her to stay within their culture, but she rebels, taking a Spanish class where new lessons learned often le...

Argentina | 65

Ángel exerts grim control over his wife, while conducting an affair with her brother—until a mysterious stranger reveals an otherworldly being that changes their lives forever. This meditation on pleasure and destruction is a sensual, erotic, and ...

Mexico/Denmark/France/Germany/Norway/Switzerland | 100

Unveiling a twisting plot alongside some of the most visceral martial arts sequences in recent cinema, Headshot tells the story of an amnesiac named Ishmael (played by Indonesian martial arts master Iko Uwais (The Raid) trying to piece together hi...

Indonesia | 117

After his tour of duty in the Marines, Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) is having a hard time adjusting back to his Midwestern life and suffers from a vague dissatisfaction with his post-military job as a hitman.

USA | 90

Four friends hatch a plan to steal several rare books from Transylvania University, Kentucky, in 2004, but as history will tell you, things didn’t go according to plan.

USA | 116

The post-Impressionist painter’s first trip to French Polynesia in 1891 is the focus of this lush, semi-fictionalized biographical exploration of art and inspiration.

France | 102

As a nearby megachurch steadily claims the dwindling congregation of Reverend Toller (an unforgettable Ethan Hawke), he finds newfound meaning (and a reawakened desire) when a lovely parishioner named Mary comes for counseling about her increasing...

USA | 112

Meet Patriot, Poppet, Potomac, Primrose, and Phil, five impossibly adorable Labrador Retriever puppies.

USA | 81

A photographer (Ed Harris at his grumpy best), his nurse (Elizabeth Olson), and his estranged music businessman son (Jason Sudekis) warily embark on a road trip to Kansas.

Canada/USA | 105

The fact that Robert Shafran, Edward Galland, and David Kellman are triplets separated at birth who find one another in their early twenties is only the first revelation in this mind-blowing documentary.

USA | 96

Each year, SFFILM invites a visionary thinker to discuss the intersecting worlds of contemporary cinema and visual arts, culture and society, images and ideas.

60

In Amy Scott’s comprehensive and affectionate documentary, the capricious life and career of one of Hollywood’s iconic filmmakers, Hal Ashby, is brought to light.

USA | 90

“Everything’s different now,” says teenager Tom (Thomas McKenzie, a revelation) to her dad Will (Ben Foster) after they are forcibly removed from the Oregon state park where they’ve been living and are pressured to live more conventionally.

USA | 108

Still pining for his ex-boyfriend, Géraud has come to a French seaside town to present his new experimental film, but the only person keen on seeing it is the cinema's underage projectionist who becomes smitten with the handsome director.

France | 108

Director Jeremiah Zagar uses the dreamy language and impressionistic narrative of Justin Torres's novel of the same name to tell the coming-of-age story of three young Puerto Rican boys growing up in a loving family shadowed by domestic violence.

USA | 90

Four friends hatch a plan to steal several rare books from Transylvania University, Kentucky, in 2004, but as history will tell you, things didn’t go according to plan.

USA | 116

Bay Area filmmaker and two-time Golden Gate Award winner Katie Galloway’s documentary The Pushouts focuses on the alarming rate of high school dropouts and the critical state of public education through the inspiring story of Victor Rios.

USA | 58

Julita had three dreams in life – to have lots of kids, a monkey, and a castle – and as she conveys over the course of this funny and touching documentary, managed to obtain all three.

Spain | 91

Compassionately portraying the Filipino workers who comb through thousands of online images in the dark of night, The Cleaners exposes the dark side of information technology.

Germany/Brazil | 88

Join us for a very special advance screening of a star-studded period biopic with Gothic trappings depicting the origin story of one of literature's most iconic villains.

The masterful Emma Thompson delivers an exceptionally compassionate performance as Fiona May, a British High Court judge who is given a challenging case that asks her to balance deeply held religious beliefs and the state's duty to protect children.

UK | 105

A powerful batch of moonshine made in the barracks of an industrial compound causes problems for Emil after his coworkers become ill.

Denmark/Iceland | 94

Kayla (the extraordinary Elsie Fisher, who finished eighth grade one week before filming began) has just won the school award for Most Quiet, but actually has a lot to say.

USA | 94

Cory McAbee's irresistible new performance art project follows the story of a singing motivational speaker who travels the world urging people to give up their goals, stop reaching for the stars, and start looking for the stars within their own mi...

USA | 100

Join us at the 2018 SFFILM Festival for our members-only surprise screening.

Alex Truelove is on a quest to lose his virginity — eagerly awaited by his patient girlfriend, and cheered on by his rowdy friends — but circumstances propel him towards a hunky college-aged neighbor named Elliot. 

USA | 99

At a defining moment in New Wave provocateur Jean-Luc Godard’s artistic life when the didactic La Chinoise (1967) marked a shift in style as radical as his politics, the 37-year-old filmmaker also fell in love with his 20-year-old leading lady Ann...

France | 107

"I'm goin' West, of course!" exclaims Samuel, who has enlisted the help of Parson Henry to save his beloved Penelope so that he may propose to her, in David and Nathan Zellner's upended Western.

USA | 114

What to do when your father is a completely irresponsible parent, an unapologetic pot dealer, and also needs a ride down the coast after being kicked out of his senior home?

Canada/USA | 105

Intel's ISEF Fair is the science fair that kids all over the world want to qualify for.

USA | 105

On Thursday evenings, a children's karate school transforms into a male strip joint. Hundreds of women convene for a potluck fund raiser and the opportunity to throw singles at the hot New Jersey Nasty Boyz.

USA | 83

Amy Adrion's necessary documentary interviews scores of women in Hollywood, including Miranda July, Ava DuVernay, and Penelope Spheeris, to address the industry's woeful record of promoting, sustaining, and advocating for female filmmakers.

USA | 94

Pathbreaking and playful, Louise Lecavalier revolutionized the art of dance in the 1980s working with Montreal's Édouard Lock and the La La La Human Steps troupe, followed by a stint with David Bowie, and is now a world-renowned choreographer.

Canada | 103

Living in a riverside shack in Hong Kong's last remaining fishing village, a teenager is told by her overprotective father that she must always protect herself from the sun.

Hong Kong/Malaysia/Japan | 97

Employing striking (and super gory) imagery, an unsettling soundtrack, and an anarchic sense of humor, Ravenous puts a new twist on the zombie apocalypse, when a group of eccentric rural-dwelling Quebecois prove more than up to the challenge posed...

Canada | 100

In a boarded-up family estate situated in Argentina's mysterious and ancient Tigre delta, three generations gather to decide whether to sell their property to developers.

Argentina | 91

Julita had three dreams in life – to have lots of kids, a monkey, and a castle – and as she conveys over the course of this funny and touching documentary, managed to obtain all three.

Spain | 91

Irene, the mother of four boys, is thrown onto an emotional quandary when her eldest son, an expert athlete, is recruited to play for a German handball team.

Brazil/Uruguay | 98

Jordana Spiro’s heartfelt and nuanced debut feature concerns Angel, just out of juvenile detention, and her sister, currently in a foster home.

USA | 86