50th San Francisco International Film Festival Celebrates Golden Anniversary in Grand Style

Longest Running Film Festival in the Americas Sets Gold Standard, Screening Record Number of Programs in more Venues than ever before with a 52 Percent Increase in Sold Out Screenings from Previous Year

May 21, 2007

The San Francisco Film Society wrapped its landmark 50th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 26 – May 10) with a record 325 screenings, nearly 200 filmmaker guests and 125 industry guests in attendance, with an estimated 84,000 filmgoers celebrating the filmmaking community across the Bay Area and around the world.

“Presenting an International Film Festival commensurate with the historical significance of a 50th anniversary is no easy feat, but I believe we can say in good conscience that we have acquitted ourselves honorably,” said Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society. “Our numbers are superb and the critical reception has been very positive. Equally important, thanks to the breadth and quality of our programming and the peerless professionalism of the Festival staff, our filmgoing public and our many industry guests have, by all accounts, enjoyed the time of their lives. We are very happy with what we have achieved on this historic occasion and look forward to our next 50 years.”

Audiences Come Out In Full Force
The Festival had 105 sold out screenings, a record number and an increase of 52 percent over last year and a 144 percent increase since 2005. Thirty-two percent of the 50th International’s screenings were sold-out, compared to 25 percent in 2006 and 15 percent in 2005. The increase in filmgoers has also translated into an increase in membership. The Film Society has increased membership by 72 percent since the 48th International in 2005.

Based at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki, SFIFF50 spread across the city, with an increase in the number of days at the Castro Theatre (nine, compared to six in 2006), and two new theaters added to the venue lineup: Landmark’s Clay Theatre, with 25 percent of its screenings selling out; and SFMOMA, which featured six days of programming.  Expanding beyond San Francisco, the Festival once again enjoyed a full 14-day run at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley and a four-day run at Landmark’s Aquarius Theatre in Palo Alto.

Citywide Support
From a spectacular Opening Night party at City Hall to Mayor Gavin Newsom attending the annual Film Society Awards Night, the city of San Francisco celebrated and supported the 50th International. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delighted audiences by coming to the screening of Fog City Mavericks and earned a standing ovation before the show started. Mavericks was one of the seven films highlighted in the Festival’s Cinema by the Bay program, which shone a spotlight on Bay Area films and filmmakers. In all, some 53 local filmmakers and 31 local musicians were featured in the Festival.

Local businesses were eager to work with the 50th, as the Festival welcomed support with hospitality from more than 50 local restaurants and received a donation of 530 hotel room nights—an increased donation of 31 percent—with a majority of the room nights coming from returning host hotel sponsor Joie de Vivre Hotels. Sponsorship revenue for the 50th International saw an overall year-over-year increase of 27 percent with 20 percent coming from new partnerships. Since 2005, corporate sponsorship has more than doubled.

Star-Studded Nights
Film Society Awards Night, the San Francisco Film Society’s gala fundraising event, the proceeds of which benefit the Film Society’s education program, honored four world-class film talents on May 3 and raised 73 percent more money than last year and 120 percent more than 2005. Film Society Awards Night honorees included George Lucas, recipient of the one-time-only Irving M. Levin Award, named in honor of the Festival’s founder, presented by John Lasseter; Spike Lee, recipient of the Film Society Directing Award, presented by Jim Brown; Robin Williams, recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for his achievement in acting, presented by Bonnie Hunt; and Peter Morgan, recipient of the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting, presented by Ron Howard. Armistead Maupin joined the festivities, as did San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and filmmaker Chris Columbus.

Another star-studded night was the Fog City Mavericks world premiere on April 29 with legendary filmmakers and talent appearing onstage:  Dominic Angerame, Carroll Ballard, Brad Bird, Ben Burtt, Chris Columbus, Peter Coyote, Robert Dalva, Peter Docter, John Korty, John Lasseter, Gary Leva (the film’s director), George Lucas, Walter Murch, Rob Nilsson, Matthew Robbins, Andrew Stanton, Robin Williams and Saul Zaentz.

The 50th San Francisco International Film Festival also presented the first annual Midnight Awards, a late night awards ceremony created to honor dynamic Hollywood actors. This year’s Midnight Award recipients were Sam Rockwell and Rosario Dawson, who accepted their cocktail shaker-shaped awards in front of an energized late night crowd.

Several other talented stars also attended SFIFF50. Parker Posey stars in two Festival features, Broken English and Fay Grim. Directors Zoë Cassevetes (Broken English) and Hal Hartley (Fay Grim) joined Posey to round out an evening of iconoclasts in American independent cinema. Actress Alison Lohman was in town with director Tom DiCillo to present his latest flick Delirious, the Festival’s Centerpiece. Danny Glover was on hand to discuss Bamako, which he executive-produced, and Q’orianka Kilcher (Pocahantas in Terrence Malick’s The New World) presented the award to the winner of the Festival’s GreenWorld contest at the Festival’s Golden Gate Awards Ceremony.

Innovative filmmaker and 2005 Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award (POV) recipient Guy Maddin returned this year with the sold-out West Coast premiere of Brand Upon the Brain!, with Joan Chen performing the live narration. Peter Sellars, the maverick theater and opera director who made a whirlwind tour at the Festival this year, delivered a moving State of Cinema Address and attended screenings of Wonders Are Many (in which he is featured) as well as Opera Jawa and Daratt (two of the seven films he commissioned as artistic director for the New Crowned Hope Festival). Archivist, author, documentarian, and director Kevin Brownlow was honored with the Mel Novikoff Award for his extensive and peerless body of work and Heddy Honigmann received this year’s POV Award, highlighting a 25-year career in which she has brought her a determined and boundless curiosity to documentary films chronicling the lives of displaced people worldwide.

Schools At The Festival
A greater number of filmmakers participated in the Schools at the Festival (SAF) program this year with 19 visiting international filmmakers discussing their craft in classroom settings during the program’s 21 school visits. The SAF program even had its first visit to the UCSF Children’s Hospital. Schools were invited to bring their students to special SAF screenings held at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki. Overall, more than 4,000 local children from 65 schools participated in Schools programs.

Online Initiatives Take Festival Global
New online initiatives during the Festival allowed film fans across the world to be a part of SFIFF. With International Online, a new partnership with Jaman, Festival fans worldwide were able to watch select work from SFIFF50 online. In partnership with the Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University, SFIFF50 Global Reach included the SFIFF/Online Directors Forum, moderated by journalist David D’Arcy, in which Festival directors Rajnesh Domalpalli (Vanaja), Pierre Hébert and Bob Ostertag (Special Forces) and Mary Olive Smith (A Walk to Beautiful), took part in a live international multicast across the next-generation Internet. Audiences in Tokyo, Toronto, Paris and Dublin interacted in real time via broadband with these filmmakers and a studio audience in San Francisco.

SFIFF50 also teamed up with Jumpcut and Yahoo! Video for the SFIFF50 GreenWorld Contest, in which filmmakers were asked to produce a two-minute film showing the importance of being “green”. Nine finalists were selected from 39 submissions, and the winner of the $1,000 prize—oops! by Travis Darcy—was announced live at the Festival’s Golden Gate Awards Ceremony on May 9. The Festival also produced the first-ever video edition of its popular Scoop du Jour, which featured interviews with filmmakers and audiences posted on the Festival’s Web site.

Eco-Friendly Programs in SFIFF/Green
The green theme continued as the 50th International highlighted the environment with two documentaries (Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand’s Everything’s Cool and Laura Dunn’s The Unforeseen) and the It’s a New (Green) World panel, moderated by CEO of Act Now Productions and former Sierra Club president Adam Werbach. Halou, Tarentel and the GreenWorld, a special musical performance and celebration of green initiatives, was presented at Mighty. Part of the Festival’s carbon footprint was offset by a donation of wind power by NativeEnergy, and several green organizations, including Heart of Green. Community organizations 18seconds.org, Amazon Watch, ASCAP (American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers), Circle of Life, Drive Around the World, Environmental Media Association, ForestEthics, National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), The Trust for Public Land and Wildlife Conservation Network endorsed the SFIFF50 GreenWorld Contest and the Festival’s eco-friendly efforts.

Award-Winning Films
Eleven films were in juried competition for the 11th annual SKYY Prize, a $10,000 cash award is given at the Festival for first or second feature films by emerging directors. The SKYY Prize was established in 1997 by the Festival and premier sponsor SKYY Vodka. This year’s SKYY Prize jury found Francisco Vargas Quevedo’s The Violin (Mexico, 2006) “to be a perfect balance of political content and aesthetic appeal. The Violin is poetic, suspenseful and worthy of wide distribution.”

The FIPRESCI Prize is given to a first-time filmmaker whose work exhibits a unique artistic sensibility or vision and deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. 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 purpose of FIPRESCI is to support cinema as an art and as an outstanding and autonomous means of expression. The FIPRESCI jury, comprised of three journalists from the renowned international organization of film critics, chose Parting Shot/Pas Douce, (France, 2006) directed by Jeanne Waltz.

The first annual Chris Holter Humor in Film Award, honoring the life and work of the San Francisco native, teacher and filmmaker, has been established in memoriam by Holter’s partner Ron Merk. The award is given to the filmmaker whose film paints the most humorous, heart-warming and life-affirming portrait of the human condition. The winner of this year’s Holter Award is Pavel Giroud’s The Silly Age (La Edad de la Peseta), a co-production of Spain/Cuba/Venezuela. The winner of the award is determined by audience ballot and includes a $2,500 cash prize. Audiences also voted on their overall favorite films in the Festival. The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Francisco Vargas Quevedo’s The Violin, with Sounds of Sand, Vanaja, The Yacoubian Building and Zolykha’s Secret rounding out the top five audience favorites in the category. The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Mary Olive Smith’s A Walk to Beautiful, with Forever, The Rape of Europa, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and Wonders are Many also popular among audiences.

The Festival’s Golden Gate Awards Ceremony was held on Wednesday, May 9 at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center. The Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary Feature was presented to Souvenirs, by Shahar Cohen and Halil Efrat (Israel, 2006). Best Bay Area Documentary Feature is The Key of G, by Robert Arnold (USA, 2006). Best Documentary Short is James Longley’s Sari’s Mother and Best Bay Area Documentary Short is Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott by Betsy Bayha.

The Best Narrative Short is The Tube With a Hat by Radu Jude. The Best Bay Area Non-Documentary Short is Muse of Cinema by Kerry Laitala. The Best Animated Short is Never Like the First Time! by Jonas Odell and Best New Visions is Dear Bill Gates by Sarah J. Christman. The Best Work for Kids and Families is The Fan and the Flower by Bill Plympton and Best Youth Work is Focus by Edward Elliott.

This year’s Golden Gate Awards for works made for television went to: TV Documentary Long Form—My Father the Turk, Marcus Vetter, Ariane Riecker (Germany, 2006); TV Documentary Short Form—Josephine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man’s World, Annette von Wangenheim (Germany, 2006); TV Narrative Long Form—Rage, Züli Aladag (Germany, 2006); and TV Narrative Short Form—Capelito, Rodolfo Pastor (Spain, 2006).

The San Francisco Film Society is a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating international film and the moving image.