49th San Francisco International Film Festival
April 20-May 4, 2006
General Information

March 28, 2006

227 FILMS
41 COUNTRIES REPRESENTED
74 NARRATIVE FEATURES
23 DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
130 SHORTS
1 WORLD PREMIERE
11 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERES
12 U.S. PREMIERES
38 WEST COAST PREMIERES

AWARDS/PRIZES/STATEMENT
Peter J. Owens Award – Ed Harris
Film Society Directing Award –Werner Herzog
Kanbar Award – Jean-Claude Carrière
Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award – Guy Maddin
State of Cinema – Tilda Swinton
Golden Gate Awards – 14 winners to be announced on May 3 at the Golden Gate Awards ceremony
SKYY Prize – Winner to be announced on May 3 at the Golden Gate Awards ceremony
FIPRESCI Jury Prize – Winner to be announced on May 3 at the Golden Gate Awards ceremony
Virgin Mega Audience Awards – To be announced on May 4 at Closing Night

DATES AND SCREENING/EVENT VENUES

April 21–May 4 at the Kabuki 8 Theatres, 1881 Post Street
April 20, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28 and May 4 at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street
April 21–May 4 at the Pacific Film Archive Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
April 30–May 3 at Landmark’s Aquarius Theatre, 430 Emerson Street, Palo Alto
April 21 at SFFD Fire Station #7, 19th and Folsom Street
April 24 at Edinburgh Castle, 950 Geary Street
April 25 at Bar of Contemporary Art (BoCA), 414 Jessie Street
April 29 at Baycat (Bayview Hunter’s Point Center for Arts & Technology), 2415 Third Street, Suite 230
April 30 at Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia Street
May 1 at Swedish American Hall, 2174 Market Street
May 2 at El Rio, 3158 Mission Street
May 3 at Mighty, 119 Utah Street
May 3 at Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center

Founded in 1957, the vanguard San Francisco International Film Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas. Held each spring for two weeks, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in the country’s most beautiful city, featuring some 200 films and live events with more than 100 filmmakers in attendance, presenting some 22 awards and attracting a diverse audience of nearly 80,000 people.

The 49th International runs April 20–May 4, 2006 at the Kabuki 8 Theatres, the Castro Theatre and the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco; the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley; and Landmark’s Aquarius Theatre in Palo Alto, as well as several smaller venues. To purchase tickets and for ticket information log on to www.sffs.org, call 925.866.9559 or visit the Main Ticket Outlet at the Kabuki 8 Theatres (1881 Post Street) or the Satellite Ticket Outlet at Virgin Megastore (2 Stockton Street). For additional information log on to www.sffs.org or call 415.561.5000.

San Francisco Film Society, presenter of the flagship SFIFF, is a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating the world of film and media in all its glorious forms. In early 2006 the Film Society unveiled SF360, a broad-spectrum series of initiatives designed to showcase the extraordinary vitality, variety and innovation of the San Francisco Bay Area film and media scene, including www.sf360.org, SF360 San Francisco Movie Night, SF360 InSchool Cinemas and the SF360 Festival of Festivals.

The Film Society will present the first annual San Francisco International Animation Festival from October 11–15, 2006 and a new SF International Youth Media Festival in 2007.

First to 50: SFIFF will hold its landmark 50th anniversary in April 2007.