Tag archives: movies

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Monty Roberts is the Salinas-bred cowboy who spent years trying to turn the equestrian community from “breaking” horses through violence to instead gaining their confidence through trust and gentility. The story of the owner of the decades-long Flag is Up Farms in Solvang and his ability to train horses through his kinder method isn’t a […]

Late additions to the schedule include Annette Bening, who leapfrogged Barbie’s Margot Robbie to grab a Best Actress nod for Nyad, and also grabbed the last spot in SBIFF’s tributes.Bening will be profiled with the fest’s inaugural Arlington Award on February 16. Rounding out the panel participants, representatives of all 10 Oscar-nominated movies will populate […]

SBIFF Program Director Claudia Puig shared a few of her favorite films that will be unspooling over the next 10 days at the festival: Madu – I adore this movie with all my heart. It’s a documentary about a 12-year-old Nigerian kid who wants to be a ballet dancer, but there is no ballet in […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

Montecito’s proximity to Los Angeles has long made our village the jewel in the crown for location scouts seeking blue-chip environs for unforgettable Hollywood classics. And then there is the great Olivia de Havilland’s silver screen zenith and its intersection with Montecito. “They shot Gone with the Wind in Montecito?!” No, you lovable fool. I’m […]

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 […]

I spoke with Writer/Director Iris Ortega Quevedo and Producer Isabella Leonard about their UCSB Film Studies project; a short, wordless feature called Overture that is already creating buzz. “Student film” suggests the fledgling efforts of young academic cinephiles feeling their way forward. On the other hand we have George Lucas’ THX 1138 [Star Wars], Greta […]

“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 – […]

The Music Academy’s Hahn Hall was socially gridlocked when the ILLUMINATE Film Festival, a leading event for evolutionary cinema, celebrated its 10th anniversary and move to Santa Barbara from Sedona, Arizona. The fun fest included an exclusive screening of The Monk and the Gun, a charming and provocative feature film set in Bhutan in 2006, […]

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 […]

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 […]

The NatureTrack Film Festival is back in a big way for South Coast folks as the nonprofit’s re-mounting of its nascent festival moves to Goleta’s Fairview Cinemas for a weekend packed with nature-centric movies spanning adventures and stories via feature film and documentaries October 6-8. With new curators in place, the fest promises to be […]

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 […]