Film Fest’s 40th

The wait is over. SBIFF 40 is here, with a full day already in the rearview mirror. The festival covers a lot of ground with its impressive slate of awards and panels, and screenings of almost 200 films domestic and foreign, documentary and fiction, shorts and full-length features, animation and live action. 

What follows is a purely subjective overview of what’s in store over the next 11 days as SBIFF takes over four blocks of State Street and a few other locations through February 15. 

Looking for a reason to show up at a screening? More than 85 percent of the movies will have at least one filmmaker present, according to programming director Claudia Puig. You don’t get that on a streamer. 

Panel-monium 

There are literally dozens of Oscar nominees headed our way over the next 11 days, including an astounding nine of the 10 best actor and actress hopefuls, with the late addition of I’m Still Here’s Fernanda Torres and The Apprentice’s Sebastian Stan to the Virtuoso’s Awards on February 9. Add in the directors awards (all five nominees), Artisans Awards (nine nominees in various categories) and panels with the writers (six), producers (four), animation directors (four), international feature directors (four) and the special women’s panel (five), and we’re sure to get fascinating conversations with a bunch of folks who will be taking home golden statuettes come Oscar night on March 2, which will be hosted by Carpinteria’s Conan O’Brien.

Montecito, etc., at the Movies

As always our community is well-represented at SBIFF. Among the highlights: Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue, which begins in the 1960s, when Campbell masterminded the juggernaut known as Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which began, much as SBIFF itself, to fill a mid-winter void. Directed by her daughter, Jill, the documentary chronicles Campbell’s32-year reign, with both visuals and conversation. The nonagenarian Campbell championed intelligence and empowered a slew of supermodels, including Kathy Ireland, the longtime Montecito resident who will participate in Q&A sessions after the screenings. 

Padaro Lane resident Kevin Costner will host the U.S. premiere of Horizon: Chapter 2, his self-financed Western series, with a Q&A to follow the Feb. 7 screening. And, of course, honoree Zoe Saldana is a new part-time Montecito resident. 

Fund Selects ‘Separated’ 

After a number of years hiatus, The Fund for Santa Barbara has returned to picking a Social Justice Award winner for SBIFF, this year choosing Separated among four films provided by the festival. Directed by Academy Award-winner Errol Morris and based on NBC/MSNBC journalist Jacob Soboroff’s book, the film looks at the underlying political and psychological motivations and impacts of immigrant family separations during the first Trump administration – a policy that was called “torture” by Amnesty International and “child abuse” by the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

“We believe that movies can create movements and Separated is such an urgent example,” said Eder Gaona-Macedo, the Fund’s executive director, in a statement. “The (new Trump) administration’s recent actions have traumatized our immigrant neighbors, inflicting fear and uncertainty… We hope the film screening and award will galvanize the region to support our immigrant communities.” 

But Separated also touches on other important issues, said Mahil Senathirajah, longtime Fund board member and a former SBIFF screener. “The film shows the importance of investigative journalism, and the quiet heroism of a principled civil servant, both of which are also under threat.” 

Docs to Discover 

Elsewhere in the documentary division, early perusal and preview screeners have revealed a number of informative and moving films, including the particularly timely In the Red, a world premiere film that chronicles the lives of six young men who change their troubled history into a promising future by becoming firefighters and first responders, creating their own opportunities through dedication and hard work. Icebreakers covers two current news subjects, as it probes into a parallel skating universe where same-sex pairs – who are forbidden in the Olympics and other elite figure skating competitions – get a chance to shine. 

Also disturbingly timely: Democracy Under Siege, with top U.S. commentators exploring the complex history and challenges facing the world’s political-governmental system, accompanied by a razor-sharp critique of political hypocrisy from Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes of The Washington Post – well, formerly of The Washington Post. Telnaes resigned in January after the paper killed her cartoon depicting Post publisher Jeff Bezos genuflecting – alongside other tech moguls – before then President-elect Trump. 

Fans of Spellbound will enjoy Speak, which documents a year in the lives of a handful of competitors in the public speaking and debate realm, their oratory addressing topics of much greater consequence than the correct spelling of words. The film probes their lives and their skills with plenty of humor. Following Harry dives into the last dozen years of Harry Belafonte’s life, when the musician and civil rights leader was reflecting on his journey and what the future might hold. 

For film insiders, Her Name Was Moviola is a very detailed and specific cinematic love letter to the now obsolete Moviola film editing machine, with Academy Award-winning editor/sound editor Walter Murch (The English Patient, Apocalypse Now) and his team sharing how the machine was a big player in filmmaking for most of the 20th century, all the while editing an actual feature length film. 

Also recommended: The Song Cycle, about a veteran rocker who wants to return to the Glastonbury Festival, but this time in a more ecological way via bicycle from his home in Ireland. The trip is both informative and fun due to the charming director-subject Nick Kelly, who, of course, will be arriving at SBIFF on his bike – guitar in hand to play a song or two at the post-screening Q&A if time permits. 

In the fiction film universe, I was impressed by An Arrangement, a twisty and often disturbing world premiere about a politician’s substance-abusing wife who after nearly derailing his gubernatorial campaign goes into rehab at a remote location with her husband and an unconventional nurse. The acting and scenery, if not the ultimate plot twists, make this worth seeing. 

Free Screenings for Everyone

Platinum and other film passes don’t come cheap at SBIFF, but the festival deserves serious kudos for all of its free programs, not the least of which is a relatively new addition of daily screenings of many of the year’s most highly-decorated movies. One is actually the centerpiece of a three-day affair devoted to a retrospective of Demi Moore’s career, in honor of the fact that she’s now the odds-on favorite to take home the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Substance. Indecent Proposal will be shown at the SBIFF’s Film Center, the festival’s hub, on February 7, and Ghost at the Arlington on February 10, with Substance screenings in between on February 9, followed by a Q&A with Moore. 

Also showing for free: Nickel Boys and Conclave (Feb. 6); Wicked, followed by a conversation with Costume Designer Paul Tazewell (Feb. 8); Animation nominee Memoir of a Snail, followed by Q&A with writer-director Adam Elliot; A Complete Unknown, followed by Q&A with writer-director James Mangold (Feb. 11), Emilia Pérez (Feb. 12), The Brutalist (Feb. 13), Sing Sing (Feb. 14). Several of the SBIFF films will also be shown at the Arlington for free. Over at the Marjorie Luke Theatre, the other four nominated animated films will be screened for free as part of the AppleBox Family Film series, including Inside Out 2 and Flow on Feb. 8, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and The Wild Robot on Feb.15. 

SBIFF Filmmaker Seminars are also free and open to the public, covering topics that reflect the festival’s sections, sidebars and other subjects, including editing, crafting narrative, visual storytelling and directing actors. The conversations feature filmmakers who have films screening at the festival. Check SBIFF’s app for details.