Keep an eye out for new films by masters like Claire Denis (35 Shots of Rum), John Boorman (The Tiger's Tail) and Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking); brilliant documentaries by Heddy Honigmann (Oblivion), Joe Berlinger (Crude) and Anne Aghion (My Neighbor, My Killer); and remarkable feature debuts from Benjamin Gilmour (Son of a Lion), Aida Begic (Snow) and Ivy Ho (Claustrophobia). 

For now, expected guests include: Ying Liang, director Good Cats, N.C. Heikin, director, Kimjongilia, Ursula Meier, director Home, Duncan Jones, director, Moon, Jonathan Parker, Adam Goldberg, Eion Bailey, Marley Shelton, director and lead actors, (Untitled), Fernando Eimbcke, director, Lake Tahoe, Doug Pray, director, Art & Copy, Barmak Akram, director, Kabuli Kid, Barbara Ettinger, director, A Sea Change, Pamela Yates, director, The Reckoning, and Carlos Sorin, director, The Window

Also this year, SFIFF52 FOUNDER'S AWARD FOR DIRECTING: FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

On May 1, the Festival will honor the brilliant career of one of the seminal figures in American and world cinema, director and producer Francis Ford Coppola.

This iconic director has opened an exciting new chapter in an already encyclopedic career beginning with Youth Without Youth and continuing with the highly anticipated Tetro, which opens in mid-June. Read more.

In a variation on the Festival's standard interview format, Coppola will be joined onstage by a number of his esteemed friends and collaborators, who, in a moderated discussion, will cover all manner of subjects, cinematic and otherwise. Film clips, including the new Tetro trailer, and an extended audience Q&A will round out the night.