Tag archives: Santa Barbara International Film Festival

On the Wave Productions’ 22-minute documentary short film titled, Greetings from Summerland, Birthplace of Offshore Oil, is headed to Washington, D.C.’s bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. The film was produced and directed by filmmakers Harry Rabin and Joey Szalkiewicz. It premiered at the SBIFF and is scheduled for the Marjorie Luke Theatre for Earth Day. Its […]

The masterful moviemakers of 2023, at least as measured by the powers that be, have been speechifying down in L.A. at the SAG and PGA awards and across the pond for BAFTA. Many of them will likely get one last chance to orate on their opportunities and output at the Oscars, when the Academy Awards […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 – […]

The annual discount derby for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival next year is going on right now. SBIFF returns to town – or more accurately, dominates the entertainment calendar – from February 7-17, 2024, with its usual slate of celebrity tributes, industry panels, and 200 or so new independent and international films, including daily […]

Also making its post-pandemic return is SBIFF’s French Wave Film Festival, which takes over SBIFF’s Riviera Theatre July 14-20 to feature 11 new examples of contemporary French cinema – nearly all winners or nominees for César Awards (the French Oscars) or selections at Cannes. Details, screening times, and passes at https://sbiffriviera.com/wave.  

Montecito Journal correspondent Leslie Westbrook produced Voces de Old Town Carpinteria, the short documentary focusing on five Carpinterians who attended one of California’s last segregated schools – Aliso Elementary, which was “Mexicans Only” until it desegregated 75 years ago back in 1947. The film premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February, and […]

After hundreds of screenings and appearances by more Academy Award-hopefuls (and likely winners) gathered in one place this side of the Oscar luncheon, the 38th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival wrapped last weekend. But there’s still plenty of movie magic around beyond the cineplex and streaming.  UCSB Arts & Lectures’ annual visit from the […]

It’s no wonder that the young actor, producer, and TV writer, John Owen Lowe, called watching the world premiere of Grace Point – a thriller that marks his debut as a lead actor in a feature film – at the Metro 4 cinemas at SBIFF last weekend a “surreal experience.” “I grew up going to […]

Here comes the Santa Barbara International Film Festival: more than 200 movies, including 52 world premieres and 78 U.S. premieres, representing more than 40 countries and just about every film genre ever invented, including a wide swath of documentaries elucidating myriad topics. The usual Oscar nominee-decorated/movie star actor tributes and an even more Academy Award-hopeful […]

Few and far between are folks who are not familiar with the Miranda warnings, the ones that police have to read to criminal suspects that remind them of their right to be represented by an attorney and to refuse to answer questions at all. Far fewer are the people who know anything at all about […]

Santa Barbara-based filmmaker Brent Winebrenner and local duo Suzanne Requejo and Montecito Journal scribe Leslie Westbrook are excited to have their 15-minute documentary, Voces de Old Town Carpinteria, have its premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival next month. It features five older Carpinteria residents, including 103-year-old Josephine Villegas and narrator historian Dr. Jim […]

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 […]