54th San Francisco International Film Festival wrapped

The San Francisco Film Society wrapped its 54th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21 - May 5) with 265 screenings of 193 films from 48 countries, which were attended by 278 filmmakers and industry guests from 22 countries around the globe.

"I had a hell of a good time!" exclaimed Frank Pierson, recipient of this year's Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting. "I enjoyed the informality of spirit and the professionalism of execution of the whole event."

This spirit was passed on to the audience, who helped the Festival to sell out 130 screenings during its 15-day run, emphasizing the strong demand for the unique programming that the Film

Society brings to the Bay Area. Of particular popularity were the 134 screenings featuring special guests.  

"Once again our audience brought a unique enthusiasm and knowledge to the Festival," said Graham Leggat, SFFS executive director. "This was combined with the Festival's original programming, headed by Director of Programming Rachel Rosen, which featured numerous live events and a record number of films by female directors.

Together they made this year's International truly one to remember."

The audience enthusiasm was also noticed by Nostalgia for the Light director Patricio Guzmán, who commented on the "excellent post-screening discussions."

Additionally, Film Society Awards Night, the organization's gala fundraiser, chaired this year by Melanie and Larry Blum, raised more than $500,000. Proceeds from this event benefit the

Film Society's Youth Education program, which serves roughly 10,000 Bay Area schoolchildren annually.

Star-Studded Nights

Film Society Awards Night

honored three world-class film talents at Bimbo's 365 Club on April 28.

Honorees were Oliver

Stone, recipient of the Founderʼs

Directing Award, presented by producer Ed

Pressman; Terence

Stamp, recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for his acting

career, presented by Sight

& Sound editor Nick

James; and Frank

Pierson, who was presented his award by former president of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Sid Ganis.

"It was a real epiphany

for me," said Terence Stamp. "The past few days have been a true

hallmark in my life. It felt like a whole evening of untethered love."

Attending the festivities

were director Lynn

Hershman Leeson of

!Women Art Revolution; board member Carla Emil and her husband Rich Silverstein of

Goodby Silverstein; Tom

Bernard, copresident of Sony Pictures Classics; board member Celeste Meier and

her husband Anthony

Meier of Anthony Meier Fine Arts; venture capitalist Dick Kramlich and

his wife Pamela;

board member Todd

Traina and his wife Katie;

gallery owner Serge

Sorokko and his wife, model Tatiana Sorokko; board member and

restaurateur Doug

Biederbeck and his wife Jennifer;

novelist Robert Mailer

Anderson and his wife Nicola

Miner; board member

Fred Levin and his wife Nancy

Livingston; filmmaker Jake

Kornbluth; art dealer Sabrina

Buell; president and founder of the Tin Man Fund Ann Hatch; head of

Chronicle Books Nion

McEvoy; former ambassador Jim Hormel; and Minority Leader of the

House of Representatives Nancy

Pelosi.

"Film Society Awards

Night was such a fun evening," observed an Awards Night guest.

"Bimbo's and the supper club format for the evening made it so intimate,

even though there were over 400 people. The Film Society really knows how to

put on an exciting large-scale event."

Numerous guests graced the

stage during SFIFF54, starting on Opening Night with Beginners director Mike Mills and actor

Ewan McGregor

and continuing throughout the Festival. Celebrated multimedia artist Matthew Barney was

in town to receive the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award. Film archivist,

programmer and showman Serge

Bromberg presented a display of some of the earliest examples

of 3-D films at the Castro Theatre.

"I was looking for an

excuse to come back here," said Bromberg. "The Castro is the right place to show

these films."

Legendary actor Terence Stamp

enthralled the audience during his interview with film critic Elvis Mitchell before

the screening of hard-to-find Frederico Fellini film Toby Dammit.

Up-and-coming actors Zoe

Saldana and Clifton

Collins Jr. entertained the audience while being honored with

the Midnight Awards. Director Errol

Morris returned to the Festival with his latest film, the

documentary Tabloid. 

"I owe my career in part

to the world premiere screening of The

Thin Blue Line at the Festival," reminisced Morris. "I

will keep coming back."

Writer/director/actress Miranda July was in

attendance with her latest work The

Future. Writer/actress Brit

Marling and actor William

Mapother presented their film Another Earth. The Mill and the Cross, the latest piece by

acclaimed Polish director Lech

Majewski, was shown to enthusiastic crowds. Director Maryam Keshavarz

brought her film Circumstance

to the Festival.

The Festival wound down with

a few final high profile screenings. The Centerpiece film, Terri, was shown with

director Azazel Jacobs

and stars John C.

Reilly,

Creed Bratton and

Jacob Wysocki in attendance. Closing Night then featured a

screening of On Tour,

which was accompanied by a performance by Mimi Le Meaux, Kitten on the Keys,

Evie Lovelle and Rocky Roulette, four of the burlesque dancers in the film.

Live & Onstage

Events

Kicking off the Live & Onstage

program on April 24 was the State

of Cinema Address, delivered by groundbreaking producer of

independent films Christine Vachon. Also on April 24 was From A to Zellner,

during which the prolific filmmaking duo the Zellner Brothers showcased selections

from their considerable collection of short films, complete with accompanying

song and dance numbers and their keyboard-playing grandfather. New Skin for the Old Ceremony

presented a tribute to the legendary Leonard Cohen on April 26. The event

featured 11 new short films inspired by his songs, a screening of the classic

documentary Ladies and

Gentlemen . . . Mr. Leonard Cohen and live renditions of several

Cohen songs by local musicians Kelley Stoltz and the duo Pale Hoarse. Composer

Stuart Staples collaborated with world-renowned French filmmaker Claire Denis

on Tindersticks:

Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009, in which Staples' band

Tindersticks performed live their original scores to scenes from six of Denis'

films. Finally, San Francisco's beloved Porchlight

storytelling series returned to the Festival, captivating story lovers on May

3. The event featured six storytellers accompanied by a video clips, each

telling tales of their filmmaking experiences.

Local Cinema

The 54th International

featured 23 local narrative and documentary features and short films. Among the

Bay Area features were The

Selling by Emily Lou, !Women Art Revolution by Lynn

Hershman Leeson, American

Teacher by Vanessa Roth, Better This World by Kelly Duane

de la Vega and Katie Galloway, Crime

After Crime by Yoav Potash, Miss Representation

by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Something

Ventured by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine. Bay Area shorts

were also abundant and included The

Cap (Arjun Rihan), Chromatastic (Kerry Laitala), Come to the Table

(Zoe Salnave), The

D Train (Jay Rosenblatt), Escape from Suburbia

(Mayana Bonapart), Fire

Bad (Isaac Wolfe), Independence in Sight (Sydney Paige

Matterson, Lauren Lindberg, Julian Compagni-Portis, Bonita Tindle), India Export

(Raphael Linden), Library

of Dust (Ondi Timoner, Robert James), The Math Test

(Sam Rubin), Play

by Play (Carlos Baena), Self Portrait as a PowerPoint Proposal for an Amusement

Park Ride (Jonn Herschend), The Snowman

(Kelly Wilson, Neil Wrischnik), Tourist

Trap (Skye Thorstenson), Young Dracula (Alfred Seccombe) and

Z-Man

(Nat Talbot).

Schools at the

Festival

This year SFFS Youth

Education's Schools at the Festival program celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Many filmmakers participated, with 23 local and international guests discussing

their films and craft in classrooms during the program's 31 school visits,

reaching 1360 elementary, middle and high school students. Teachers were also

invited to bring their students to 18 school screenings held at the Sundance

Kabuki Cinemas. More than 3,000 students from schools across the Bay Area

attended these Schools at the Festival screenings, part of the year-round Youth

Education program. SATF aims to develop media literacy, broaden insights into

other cultures, enhance foreign language aptitude, develop critical thinking

skills and inspire a lifelong appreciation of cinema.

An impromptu chant of

"Kids love movies!" broke out from the young audience at a screening

of the shorts collection Do You See What I See?, bringing this goal to

life. 

Salons and Master

Classes at the Festival

Participating in three Master

Classes, filmmakers and panelists engaged audiences with further discussion of

the ideas presented in their films and related works. French film critic Jean-Michel Frodon

explored the role of the critic in today's cinema; Frank Pierson

discussed the craft of screenwriting and how it has evolved through the years;

and finally, producer Alison

Dickey and director Azazel

Jacobs described their working relationship and how they came

together to bring this year's Centerpiece film to the screen. Two Salons

offered the opportunity for film scholars and filmmakers to engage in

discussions with local cinephiles and engage in in-depth conversations beyond

the typical postscreening Q&A. Author Susan Weiner lead Expressions of French Cinema,

and professor Bill Nichols explored The

Social Justice Documentary. In addition, SFIFF54 offered

industry members a number of professional sessions and networking

opportunities, an extension of the year-round Film Craft & Film Studies

program offered by the San Francisco Film Society.

Award-Winning Films

Eleven films were in juried

competition for the 15th annual $15,000 New Directors Award, given to a first-

time filmmaker whose work exhibits a unique artistic sensibility. The jury,

comprised of Nick James, Daniela Michel and Marie Therese Guirgis, chose

director Park Jung-bumʼs The

Journals of Musan (South Korea), explaining, "The

unexpected ways that the film fuses the personal with the sociopolitical makes

it truly original, especially its sophisticated use of imagery and point of

view."

The FIPRESCI jury, comprised

of Ulrick Eriksen, Barbara Lorey De Lacharrière and Adam Nayman, chose The Salesman by

Sébastien Pilote (Canada). The jury described it as "a first feature with

a precise sense of character and place, yet which is also provocatively

ambivalent about the value of work in the aftermath of local economic

collapse." FIPRESCI, the influential international organization of film

critics, supports cinema as an art and as an autonomous means of expression.

The San Francisco International Film Festival is one of only three festivals in

the United States to host a FIPRESCI jury and award a FIPRESCI prize.

The International awarded

close to $100,000 in total prizes this year with $60,000 to winners in three

categories: investigative documentary feature ($25,000), documentary feature

($20,000) and Bay Area documentary feature ($15,000). The Festivalʼs

Golden Gate Awards were held on Wednesday, May 4 at Temple Nightclub-Prana

Restaurant, with a jury comprised of Dan Krauss, Mike Maggiore and Esther

Robinson. The GGA for Best Investigative Documentary Feature was presented to Crime After Crime

by Yoav Potash (USA). Best Documentary Feature and Best Bay Area Documentary

Feature were both presented to Better

This World by Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway

(USA).

The short film jury was made

up of Andy Gillet, Max Goldberg and Kim Yutani. They awarded Best Documentary

Short to Into the

Middle of Nowhere by Anna Frances Ewert (Scotland/England).

The Best Narrative Short was Blokes

by Marialy Rivas (Chile). First place for Best Bay Area Short went to Tourist Trap by

Skye Thorstenson (USA), with second place going to Young Dracula by

Alfred Seccombe (USA). The GGA Youth Work winner was Z-Man by Nat

Talbot (USA), with The

Math Test by Sam Rubin (USA) receiving Honorable Mention.

The Best Work for Kids and Families was Specky Four Eyes by Jean-Claude Rozec

(France), with Honorable Mention going to The Snowman by Kelly Wilson and

Neil Wrischnik (USA). The Best Animated Short was The External World

by David O'Reilly (Ireland) and Best New Visions was Lost Lake by

Zackary Drucker (USA).

The SFIFF54 Audience Awards

gave filmgoers the opportunity to select their favorite narrative feature and

documentary. The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Denis

Villeneuveʼs Incendies,

with Takashi Miikeʼs 13

Assassins also scoring well with festivalgoers. The

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Yoav Potashʼs Crime After Crime,

with Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway's Better This World

also tallying high votes from the viewers.

For information visit fest11.sffs.org.

For photos and press

materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.

San Francisco Film

Society

Building on a 50-plus-year

legacy of bringing the best in world cinema to the Bay Area, the San Francisco

Film Society is a national leader in exhibition, education and filmmaker

services.

The Film Society presents 300

days of exhibition each year, reaching a total audience of 130,000 people. Its

acclaimed education program introduces international cinema and media literacy

to more than 15,000 teachers and students and presents 120 classes and

workshops annually. Through the filmmaker services program essential creative

and business services, and funding totaling millions of dollars, are provided

to deserving filmmakers of all levels.

The Film Society seeks to

elevate all aspects of film culture, offering a wide range of activities that

engage emotions, inspire action, change perceptions and advance knowledge. A

501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, it is largely donor and member supported.

Patronage and membership provides discounted prices, access to grants and

residencies, private events and a wealth of other benefits.

54th San Francisco

International Film Festival

The 54th San Francisco

International Film Festival runs April 21 - May 5 at the Sundance Kabuki

Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, New People and SFMOMA in San Francisco and the

Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the

International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and

innovation in the country's most beautiful city, featuring 15 juried awards,

200 films and live events with upwards of 100 participating filmmakers and

diverse audiences of 75,000+ people.

For more information visit sffs.org.