49th San Francisco International Film Festival

Hold Review Films

March 28, 2006

San Francisco, CA—The following films, playing in the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20-May 4), have U.S. distributors or expect to shortly. Please hold full reviews and features for these films until they open commercially. We do, however, encourage capsule reviews or mentions in overview articles. The San Francisco theatrical opening date, if known, is listed. We would appreciate it if, when your review runs, you would mention that the film premiered (if appropriate) or screened at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival. Thank you.

FILM TITLE DISTRIBUTOR RELEASE DATE
Al Franken: God Spoke Pennebaker Hegedus Films
Art School Confidential   Sony Pictures Classics April 28
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros  Film Movement
The Bridge IFC TV
Brothers of the Head IFC Films
The Descent Lions Gate August
Factotum IFC Films
Gabrielle   Wellspring Media
Half Nelson ThinkFilm
The Heart of the Game Miramax Films June 14
The House of Sand  Sony Pictures Classics
Iraq in Fragments  Typecast Pictures
Iron Island  Kino International
Look Both Ways   Kino International
Lower City Palm Pictures
Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey Warner Bros.  May 19, Castro Theatre

FILM TITLE DISTRIBUTOR RELEASE DATE
A Prairie Home Companion Picturehouse June 9
Romance & Cigarettes  Roadside Attractions
The Shutka Book of Records Seventh Art Releasing
Sólo Dios Sabe Sincronia Films
Three Times IFC Films
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela    Imprint Pictures
Who Killed the Electric Car? Sony Pictures Classics
Wide Awake  HBO
The Wild Blue Yonder  518 Media and Hemispheric Pictures LLC, presentation by Executive
Producers in North and South America Peter Langs, Norm Hill and Carl Tostevin
Workingman’s Death   Seventh Art Releasing May 5, Roxie Cinema

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.