46TH SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES GOLDEN GATE AWARD NOMINEES


Awards Recognize Innovative Works Spanning Multiple Film Disciplines

The 46th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 17 - May 1) unveiled its official selection for the Golden Gate Awards (GGA) competition, which honors superior innovation in documentary, animation, narrative shorts, experimental, television and works by youth. Winners will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards ceremony on April 30 at the Merchants Exchange Ballroom and Conference Center in San Francisco. Official selections will be screened in a variety of thematic programs throughout the Festival to give public audiences the opportunity to glimpse the talents of emerging filmmakers from around the globe.

"The Golden Gate Award films have been an essential element of the San Francisco International Film Festival since their inception," said Roxanne Messina Captor, executive director. "This year we are proud to expand our Awards ceremony to include the SKYY Prize for a first time narrative feature. The Golden Gate Awards ceremony will highlight the best of the competing films in all categories, judged by a panel of the filmmakers' peers and then a jury of internationally known film professionals."

The GGA competition has brought early acclaim to accomplished up-and-comers. Last year's winner of the documentary category, DAUGHTER OF DANANG is an Academy Award nominee this year. Another 2003 Academy Award nominee, I'LL WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE… is a French narrative short nominated for a GGA this year and is scheduled to screen as part of the SEE WHAT YOU WANT shorts program during the Festival.

The Festival's documentary program explores a broad range of thought-provoking social subjects and phenomena that impact people from around the world, with GGA nominees originating from India, France, Poland and the USA. THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND is a timely documentary that traces a group of student activists who carried out violent protests against the U.S. government in response to the war in Vietnam and widespread racism in America. HEART OF THE SEA is the touching account of a female Hawaiian surf legend whose activism and heroic battle with breast cancer made her an icon.

GGA-nominated shorts will complement feature-length documentaries in joint screenings and entice viewers in three diverse shorts lineups. In SOMETHING FROM NOTHING, films investigate the creative process. SEE WHAT YOU WANT includes seven tales of strange places and stranger situations and the films in WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE seek to discover the uncharted terrains of travel.

The entertaining and innovative films nominated in the animated short category will light up the screen in the STAY TOONED program with their original and sometimes quirky approach to storytelling. THE FREAK depicts how a brightly garbed freak disturbs the order of the day. THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY is a surreal mini-musical in which Nietzsche sings his philosophy. NORTHERN ICE, GOLDEN SUN is an exploration of how the Inuit people face the threat of modern industrial life.

Young filmmakers take the spotlight in the Festival's GGA Youth Works competition. Tackling both serious and lighthearted topics, THE YOUNG AND THE FEARLESS program highlights the impressive works of ambitious teens. GOT NICE? traces the collision of a grocery clerk and a homeless man while ECLIPSE is a comical piece in which four animated characters explain solar and lunar eclipses.

Evidence of the thriving multigenerational film community in the Bay Area, the Festival's GGA official selection boasts a local father-and-son duo who received individual nominations in two separate categories. Brendan Bellomo was nominated in the youth works category for his short GOT NICE?, and his father, Victor Bellomo, was nominated for his animated short THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY.

"We took a fresh approach to the Golden Gate Award competition this year and implemented some new techniques aimed at simplifying the selection process," said , associate director of programming. "As a result, the films and Festival competition overall will benefit from a higher profile and will serve to bring early acclaim to the best and brightest filmmakers from around the world."

Panels comprised of Bay Area media professionals convened from December 2002 through January 2003 to view 1,600 entries and select the most distinguished films and videos across 13 categories based on excellence in form and content. Juries of renowned film professionals will assemble during the Festival to determine the winners who will receive trophies and cash prizes of up to $5,000 during the Golden Gate Awards ceremony on April 30. Additionally, the winner of the Best Documentary Feature will receive a Final Cut Pro system courtesy of Apple, the winner of the Best Bay Area Documentary Feature will receive $2,500 worth of lab services from AlphaCine Labs and the winners of the Best Documentary Short and Best Bay Area Documentary Short will receive film stock from Kodak.

The 46th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 17-May 1, 2003 at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres "The Home of the Festival", the Castro Theatre, the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley and the CinéArts at Palo Alto Square in Palo Alto. Advance ticket packages and Festival passes go on sale beginning February 17. Individual tickets for San Francisco Film Society members will be available beginning March 25, with individual tickets for the general public available starting March 31. To purchase tickets and for ticket information log on to www.sffs.org or call 925-275-9490. The Main Box Office, located in the atrium of the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres at 1881 Post Street will open for Film Society members on March 25 and for the general public on April 1. There will also be a Satellite Box Office at Crocker Galleria, 50 Post Street, second floor, opening on March 26. For up-to-date Festival information log on to www.sffs.org or call 415-931-FILM.

The 46th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 17-May 1, 2003) is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to lead in expanding the knowledge and appreciation of international film art and its artists by showcasing the most compelling, thought-provoking international films, special tributes, major restorations and today's brightest stars.