Tag archives: cinema

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 […]

Ocean Farming Film Opens the Cinema Seriesat Casa del Herrero
By Joanne A Calitri   |   January 30, 2024

A new Cinema Series has made its debut in Montecito at Casa del Herrero on Thursday evening, January 18. The film series is officially titled “Cinema at the Casa” and is focused on launching the organization as a center for creative and worldly discussions for the community. It follows suit with the Casa’s Book Club. […]

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 […]

‘Dream Scenario’
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   December 12, 2023

“Have you been dreaming about me?” It’s a question asked by Paul Matthews, played to perfection by Nicolas Cage, in Kristoffer Borgli’s newest surreal dark comedy, Dream Scenario. And the answer to that question? Yes. In fact, millions of people around the world have! In a bizarre, Luis Buñuel-esque turn of events, Paul Matthews – […]

Cinema Society Soaring 
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 5, 2023

SBIFF’s private preview series with post-screening talent Q&A sessions – which is not exclusively private these days – heats up mightily in the waning weeks before winter as the Oscar hopefuls queue up for attention. Screenings at the Riviera Theatre this week start (Friday, December 1, at 7 pm) with Armenia’s Oscar Submission Amerikatsi – […]

Outing to Ojai 
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 7, 2023

Film festivals are coming fast and furious in the middle of fall, with the Jewish Film Festival continuing for four more days through November 5, and the Ojai Film Festival set to hit the theater November 2-6. The latter fest found in the mountain community will screen more than four score films from around the […]

Film Fests from Around the World
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 31, 2023

The Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival returns to the New Vic Theatre November 1-5 at a tense time in Israel and around the world, but aside from beefing up security at the theater, the festival is focusing on what it does best, which is to present some of the finest international cinema about the Jewish […]

Focus on Film: Swimming to the Riv
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 17, 2023

SBIFF Cinema Society screens a preview of Nyad at the Riviera, the dramatic biopic of famed distance swimmer Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach, finally achieved her lifelong dream of completing the 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida. The film, which […]

Further Focus on Film: Projecting the Coastal Media Project
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 29, 2023

The Carsey-Wolf Center’s nine-week intensive environmental media production and documentary studies program involves students from a wide range of backgrounds collaborating to produce short films that tell vital and timely stories about the coastal environment. This year’s quartet of shorts include the very up-to-date Stranded, which dives into the phenomenon that resulted in more than […]

A Reel-y Good Time
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 29, 2023

Dave Haws worked at Metropolitan Theatres while still in high school, including during the wintertime film festival, which sparked not only a lifelong love for movies, but also the desire to make a living in the industry. Haws, who was born and raised in Santa Barbara, headed out of town to get an education, majored […]

‘Monica’ Explores Deep Wounds With Mother and Daughter
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   August 15, 2023

Monica’s mother is dying. Monica hasn’t seen her mother in years. In fact, Monica’s mother doesn’t even recognize Monica. And that’s because she hasn’t seen her daughter since she fully transitioned and was cast out from the family. It’s been a long time. And a difficult one. In Andrea Pallaoro’s latest film, Monica, Trace Lysette […]

‘Contempt’ by Jean-Luc Godard (1963)
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   July 25, 2023

“Cinema shows us a world that fits our desires.” French film critic André Bazin’s quote is spoken by Jean-Luc Godard in the opening credits of his film Contempt.A camera crew tracks along towards us, until the camera itself nearly films the frame. It tilts down and turns its lens on us.  What if the line […]

‘Enys Men’
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   April 18, 2023

Have you ever been stuck in a rut? Doing the same thing day in, day out. The same rituals, the same tasks, the same autopilot life? Now imagine that – but you’re on some uninhabited island off the coast of England where your only friends are a group of rare flowers. If you weren’t on […]

The Conformist
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   March 28, 2023

Readers, movie lovers; we’re in for a serious treat. Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1970 masterpiece, The Conformist, is coming to a theater near you. Oh, count our lucky stars! Based on the book of the same name by Alberto Moravia, The Conformist is about a young Fascist, Marcello Clerici (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is ordered to […]

Fire of Love
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   March 21, 2023

For all of you that got to see Fire of Love in theaters, I truly envy you. But for those of you who didn’t get the chance, like myself, there’s hope yet! The must-see 2022 documentary by Sara Dosa has finally made it to streaming! Fire of Love tells the story of two daring volcanologists, […]

‘The Fabelmans’
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   January 17, 2023

Has the movie-going public gone crazy? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself, and a question that – in some way or another – has been making the rounds in public discourse for years. If you aren’t familiar with the Scorsese vs. Marvel fiasco that continues to plague the poor man many years later, I […]

Film Fest Fervor Mounting
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 17, 2023

The Banshees of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson– who reteamed for Martin McDonagh’s award-season darling dark comedy after having first appeared together in the director’s brilliant 2008 film In Bruges – have been tapped to together receive SBIFF’s Cinema Vanguard Award on February 16. The announcement rounds out this year’s acting awards at […]

‘The Runner’ (1984) Review
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   December 20, 2022

Every once in a while, a movie will cross your path and just absolutely rock you. One that overwhelms with emotions and ideas. The Runner by Amir Naderi is one of those movies. This powerful 1984 film – one of the first films post-Iranian Revolution to attract worldwide acclaim – follows Amiro, a young orphan […]

Film News: SBIFF Comes Into Focus
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 29, 2022

We’re still nearly 80 days away from the 2023 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which returns after two years of accommodations for COVID to its traditional mid-winter time slot for an 11-day span, February 8-18. But SBIFF’s big gala, the 15th annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, which will honor Michelle Yeoh at […]