49th San Francisco International Film Festival
To Honor Emerging Talent In The SKYY Prize Competition

March 28, 2006

San Francisco, CA—The 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20–May 4) is proud to present, for the tenth consecutive year, the SKYY Prize competition for narrative films by international filmmakers making their feature-film directorial debut. A jury of film industry professionals will judge the 11 eligible films representing 13 countries. The winning filmmaker will be announced at the Festival’s Golden Gate Awards on Wednesday May 3, 2006. The SKYY Prize—which offers a $10,000 cash award—is sponsored by SKYY Vodka.

“One of the great pleasures of presenting the International is the opportunity to discover terrific new talents in world cinema,” comments Graham Leggat, executive director of San Francisco Film Society. “Our showcase for this is the SKYY Prize, awarded each year to the best directorial debut in competition and graciously underwritten for the tenth year in a row by SKYY Vodka.”

Previous SKYY Prize winners have included Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July, USA, 2005), Squint Your Eyes (Andrzej Jakimowski, Poland, 2004), The Man of the Year (José Henrique Fonseca, Brazil, 2003), The Wild Bees (Bohdan Sláma, Czech Republic, 2002), The Business of Strangers (Patrick Stettner, USA, 2001) and Eeny Meeny (Alice Nellis, Czech Republic, 2000).

The 2006 jury will be made up of respected film professionals including Ed Arentz, theatrical sales and acquisitions manager at Palm Pictures and Richard Hershowitz, director of the Virginia Film Festival. A third jury member will be announced.

2006 SKYY Prize Nominations

Brothers of the Head (Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, England, 2005)
Dark and serious, this blur of reality and fiction tracks a documentary filmmaker’s examination of a legendary 1970s-era British proto-punk band and the conjoined twins who led it until sibling rivalry and substance abuse tore them apart. Brothers of the Head will screen at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Saturday, April 29 at 9:15 pm and on Tuesday, May 2 at 6:30 pm.

Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck, USA, 2005)
An idealistic Brooklyn junior high school teacher (played by Ryan Gosling, The Believer and The Notebook) battling institutional apathy and a crippling drug addiction strikes up an unlikely relationship with one of his students in this low-key, naturalistic look at friendship and inner-city life. Half Nelson will play at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Sunday, April 30 at 6:15 pm and Tuesday, May 2 at 9:00 pm.

Illumination (Pascale Breton, France, 2004)
A young fisherman living on the coast of Brittany falls for his grandmother’s nurse while negotiating his own precarious sense of reality in this invigorating, challenging and elusive debut feature. Illumination screens at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Tuesday, April 25 at 1:45 pm and Friday, April 28 at 8:45 pm. In addition it will also show at the Pacific Film Archive Theater on Saturday, April 22 at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, May 2 at 6:45 pm at Landmark’s Aquarius Theatre.

Look Both Ways (Sarah Watt, Australia, 2005)
At a train wreck, a graphic artist returning from her father’s funeral meets a reporter who just discovered he has cancer. This original tale of love and mortality uses clever animation to explore how we see life when haunted by death. Look Both Ways will screen at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Thursday, April 27 at 7:00 pm and Sunday, April 30 at 1:00 pm.

News from Afar (Ricardo Benet, Mexico, 2005)
A young boy grows into manhood in the no-man’s-land of a Mexican saltpeter flat, in a tiny hamlet known only as “17.” His journey to Mexico City is an odyssey at the center of a remarkably assured feature debut that is at once moving and surreal. News from Afar will play at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Saturday, April 29 at 6:00 pm and on Tuesday, May 2 at 3:00 pm. In addition it will screen at the Pacific Film Archive Theater on Tuesday, April 25 at 7:00 pm.

Northeast (Juan Solanas, Argentina/France/Spain/Belgium, 2005)
In a desperate effort to adopt a child, an affluent French businesswoman in her 40s goes to a rural, impoverished region of Argentina, a place where people are so poor they will do anything to survive. Northeast screens at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Sunday, April 30 at 3:15 pm and on Monday, May 1 at 9:00 pm. It will also show at Landmark’s Aquarius Theatre on Wednesday, May 3 at 9:15 pm.

One Long Winter Without Fire (Greg Zglinski, Switzerland/Belgium, 2005)
The barren vistas of Switzerland’s Jura mountains form the setting for this story of a farmer’s renewal after a domestic tragedy. This humanist tale offers a reconciliatory view of European unity in the aftermath of the war in the Balkans. One Long Winter Without Fire will screen at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Friday, April 28 at 9:45 pm and on Monday, May 1 at 6:15 pm. The film will also screen at the Pacific Film Archive Theater on Saturday, April 22 at 9:15 pm.

Play (Alicia Scherson, Chile, 2005)
Heartbroken Tristán and isolated Cristina, two strangers, wander the streets of Santiago looking for love. This urban fairy tale is a lively, witty, atmospheric film about the human need to connect in the postmodern world. Play will screen at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Wednesday, April 26 at 4:00 pm, Friday, April 28 at 6:30 pm and on Wednesday, May 3 at 9:45 pm. It will also screen at the Pacific Film Archive Theater on Sunday, April 23 at 9:00 pm.

Sa-Kwa (Kang Yi-Kwan, South Korea, 2005)
A deeply rewarding, delicately observant portrait of a modern young woman’s search for happiness and love, featuring an intensely physical performance by South Korea’s finest actress, Moon So-Ri. Sa-Kwa will screen at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Friday, April 21 at 4:45 pm, Monday, May 1 at 8:45 pm and on Thursday, May 4 at 4:30 pm.

The Silent Holy Stones (Wanma-caidan, China/Tibet, 2005)
Following a young lama whose preoccupation with television competes with his duties to the temple and his community, this serene document uses nonprofessional actors to show the mix of traditional and modern influences that comprise daily Tibetan life. The Silent Holy Stones will play at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Saturday, April 29 at 1:15 pm and on Thursday, May 4 at 8:00 pm. It will also show at the Pacific Film Archive Theater on Sunday, April 23 at 4:00 pm.

Taking Father Home (Ying Liang, China, 2005)
Teenager Xu Yun heads to the big city in search of his father, rumored to be rich. What he finds isn’t quite what he expected. New talent Ying Liang mixes social drama with pungent dark comedy to capture Chinese society’s current mood. Taking Father Home will screen at the Kabuki 8 Theatres on Sunday, April 30 at 3:30 pm and on Wednesday, May 3 at 6:15 pm. It will also show at the Pacific Film Archive Theater on Saturday, April 22 at 1:30 pm.

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.