Gettin’ SBIFF-y with It

Get ready, Santa Barbara. It’s time to roll out the red carpet and rev up for 11 roaring days and nights of film screenings, seminars, panels, actor tributes and other awards, plus parties, as the 39th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival takes over the town. Start stocking up on sleep and shore up your stamina, as SBIFF is perennially one of the more popular presentations around, one that is almost always ridiculously rewarding for even casual cinema fans. 

The star quotient will be, as always, sensational, as the fest has booked several actors, directors, screenwriters, producers and artisans (aka, the below-the-line filmmakers, as the industry puts it) who are favorites to take home a coveted statuette when the Oscars are handed out next month. Movie stars slated to appear at the Arlington are Maestro’s maestro Bradley Cooper (Outstanding Performer of the Year, Feb. 8); Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr., who took down the Golden Globe, (Modern Master, Feb. 9); Poor Things’ Mark Ruffalo (American Riviera, Feb. 11);and American Fiction’s Jeffrey Wright (Montecito Award, Feb. 15). Just added to the schedule: Paul Giamatti, the 30-year veteran of film (Sideways) and TV (Billions) who is up as best actor for his current role in The Holdovers, and will get SBIFF’s Cinema Vanguard Award on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. 

The best bang for your buck tribute-wise is SBIFF’s Virtuosos Award, a group event that honors eight actors for breakout performances and is emceed by the always entertaining, efficient, and well-informed Dave Karger, on February 10. This year’s lineup features five Academy Award nominees, plus a couple who perhaps should have been. And don’t miss the February 11 Artisans Awards, another group tribute featuring nine nominated individuals in such areas as hair styling, cinematography, editing and composing – nearly all of whom are odds-on favorites to snag an Oscar. 

There are no red carpets for the film screenings, but of course the movies are the reason for the event in the first place, and this year’s lineup looks to be a real winner. The nearly 200 films include 45 world premieres and 77 U.S. premieres from nearly 50 different countries, giving a lot of attention to the ‘I’ of SBIFF, which third-year Programming Director Claudia Puig is particularly proud of. 

“The festival is a real opportunity for people to see movies from places they will probably never go,” she said. “This year we have one from Burkina Faso for the first-time ever, and the opening night film (Madu) is from Nigeria.” 

Puig said she was also thrilled that a majority of the movies feature a woman filmmaker this year, especially first-time female directors. “The lion’s share of movies are still made by white males, so it’s great that we were able to program so many worthy films by women for the festival.” 

The 200 films are spread out among a wide range of genres, from dark documentaries to lighthearted comedies and everything in between; some that might particularly appeal to Santa Barbara (e.g. social justice, coastal/nature themes and Irish films), and other important films that need to be seen. 

“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle with hundreds of pieces,” she said. “Some movies are slam dunks to draw a crowd, and there are others we talk about, at least in terms of when to play it. It’s always a balance of what we know audiences will love because they’re entertaining, and what we think the audience should see, movies that might be edifying, enlightening or inspiring. It’s important to include films that are challenging, too.” 

SBIFF runs February 7-17. Visit www.sbiff.org for passes, event descriptions, app info and more.