Alumna’s Studio Wins Oscar for ‘Last Repair Shop’
By Scott Craig   |   March 26, 2024

This month, as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of women, the legacy of Ruth Kerr, who co-founded Westmont in 1937, continues to shape lives with a vision ahead of its time. She encouraged women to embrace the world beyond the idyllic Montecito campus, inspiring them to pursue their dreams and make a difference on a […]

Movie Scenes, Music and Guests, oh my! 
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 12, 2024

If you find yourself still craving Academy Award-winning cinematic splendor on the big screen, the Santa Barbara Symphony has just the ticket. In its return to the Granada – following a forced move to the Lobero last month due to water damage at The G – the symphony builds on the Oscar buzz with its […]

 

Recently Trending

More from Montecito

Illuminate Ideas and Imagination Through Movies
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 12, 2024

The area’s newest film festival, and one with a decidedly different focus, gets going next month. The ILLUMINATE Film Festival, an annual celebration of short and full-length evolutionary cinematic endeavors that aspire to elevate humanity’s sense of self, purpose and possibility, is actually celebrating its 10th anniversary, but relocated from Sedona, Arizona last year. With […]

Segueing from SBIFF 
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2024

What was a singly superb 39th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival ended with a bit of a downer as Annette Bening, announced as the winner of the inaugural Arlington Award – the fest’s newest and the last to be awarded this month – had to cancel the tribute event due to illness. (On the […]

A Purrfect Project
By Richard Mineards   |   February 20, 2024

Montecito filmmaker Daniel DeVorzon, son of Oscar nominee Barry DeVorzon and his wife Jelinda, has found the purrfect project. Daniel, who is also the producer and composer, has made Nine Lives about the connection between one free spirited cat and the humans who love her. Despite a perilous start in life as a feral feline […]

The Zone of Interest
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   February 20, 2024

Jonathan Glazer’s new Oscar-nominated film, The Zone of Interest, has finally hit SB screens, and if you’ve yet to check it out, it’s a definite must-see. But be warned: it’s a difficult watch. Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, lives – quite literally – next to the largest and most notorious of concentration camps. There, […]

A SBIFF Wrap Up
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 20, 2024

SBIFF is surely sliding toward the end of this year’s festivities, but there’s still plenty to enjoy over the final three days, with opportunities to partake in pretty much all that the fest has to offer. That includes SBIFF’s tributes, the legendary sessions in which the actors engage in 90-minute or longer programs on their […]

Advertisement
  • Closing out SBIFF with Heather Graham
    By Steven Libowitz   |   February 20, 2024

    Heather Graham has made a career out of portraying the charming, sexy-but-sweet girl who’s lighthearted and lovable as she’s in on the joke. Think Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the girl Jon Favreau finally connects with in Swingers, roles on TV’s Scrubs and Californication, and even Rollergirl in Boogie Nights. Graham plays a […]

    The Words Get Stuck in my Throat
    By Jeff Wing   |   February 13, 2024

    Montecito is a movie town in many respects, and that is a marvelous thing. Yes, I’m a cinephile! My creative hero has long been the director/auteur – an art rebel with the heart, spine and creative ballast to swim upstream in pursuit of a singularly iconoclastic vision. David Lean, Truffaut, Campion, Bogdanovich, Welles, Ephron, Gerwig, […]

    Read more...

    Gettin’ SBIFF-y with It
    By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2024

    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 […]

    Filmmaker Shares Power of Storytelling
    By Scott Craig   |   January 30, 2024

    Wendy Eley Jackson draws on three decades of experience in film and television in her talk, “The Transformative Power of Storytelling,” for a Westmont Downtown Lecture on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 5:30 pm at the Community Arts Workshop (631 Garden Street), in downtown Santa Barbara. The event is free and open to the public; no […]

    Striking Gold: SBIFF Scores at Globes 
    By Steven Libowitz   |   January 23, 2024

    Just three weeks after this issue hits newsstands, the 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival launches 11 days of screenings, seminars, speakers and sensational opportunities for sightseeing of stars. As always, Academy Award nominees and other award show hopefuls will be gracing the stage at the Arlington for in-depth conversations about their art during the […]

    Gosling Going for Gold with SBIFF
    By Steven Libowitz   |   January 16, 2024

    The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has its annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film on tap in January as part of its pre-festival slate before the 39th festival takes over town February 7-17. Perennially praised actor Ryan Gosling is set to receive the prestigious prize at a black-tie dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara […]

    Portman, Moore, and Melton Stun in Todd Haynes’ New Murky Melodrama
    By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   December 19, 2023

    The quote from Todd Haynes, director of the new film May December, states: “…If there’s any universal theme in all my films, it seems to be disease… And I hope that changes, but I have a feeling it may not until things change in the world…” And while Haynes said that in 1995, it’s been […]

    Advertisement