Category Archives: Film Awards

SFFILM to Honor Park Chan-wook With Career Tribute and Screening of ‘No Other Choice’

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L to R. Director Park Chan-wook. Actor Lee Byung Hun in NO OTHER CHOICE. Photos: NEON.

San Francisco’s SFFILM will celebrate acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook with a Career Tribute and special screening of his new film No Other Choice on November 20 at the Phyllis Wattis Theater at SFMOMA.

The event will feature an onstage conversation with Park and a showing of No Other Choice, his first film since Decision to Leave. The film, from NEON, reunites Park with Lee Byung Hun (Joint Security Area) in a darkly comic satire about a man’s descent into desperation after losing his corporate job.

“With No Other Choice, Director Park returns to the sharp social commentary of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Stoker,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. “It’s a brilliantly savage look at capitalism, masculinity, and ambition—another masterful addition to his career.”

SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai called the tribute “a deep honor,” noting Park’s global influence and the organization’s commitment to international cinema.

Park, best known for Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Thirst, has won multiple Cannes awards and remains one of contemporary cinema’s most influential auteurs. No Other Choice, adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s The Ax, opens in select theaters December 25 via NEON and expands nationwide January 2026. Tickets: Available for SFFILM members October 30 and general audiences October 31 at sffilm.org
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Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler, Tessa Thompson Among Honorees for Critics Choice’s Celebration of Black Cinema & Television

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Critics Choice AssociationThe Critics Choice Association has announced honorees for its 8th Annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television, taking place December 9 in Los Angeles. Jay Pharoah returns as host, and STARZ is back as official media partner, with the ceremony airing in early 2026.

Spike Lee will receive the Career Achievement Award for his four-decade career, most recently Highest 2 Lowest. David Alan Grier earns the Vanguard Award for his acclaimed work across stage and screen, including St. Denis Medical. Ryan Coogler will be honored with the Director Award for Sinners, his record-breaking IMAX 70 mm feature for Warner Bros.

Reginald Hudlin and Shola Lynch take the Documentary Award for Apple TV’s Number One on the Call Sheet. Janelle James wins the Comedy Award for Abbott Elementary. Tessa Thompson, Sterling K. Brown, and Jurnee Smollett are recognized for Hedda, Paradise, and Smoke, respectively.

The Ensemble Award goes to Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti for One Battle After Another. Damson Idris earns Supporting Actor – Film for F1, and Skye P. Marshall wins Supporting Actress – Series for Matlock, receiving STARZ’s #TakeTheLead honor. Tenika Davis (Spartacus: House of Ashur) is named Breakthrough Performer, and Naya Desir-Johnson (Sarah’s Oil) takes Rising Star.

Singer-songwriter Aiyana-Lee will perform her song from Highest 2 Lowest. “It’s truly an honor to continue our tradition of celebrating excellence in Black cinema and television,” said executive producer Shawn Edwards.

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TIFF Unveils Trailer for Karla Badillo’s Debut Feature Oca

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OcaMexican filmmaker Karla Badillo’s debut feature Oca will have its world premiere in the Discovery section of the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 4–14, 2025).

Described as a lyrical fable of pilgrimage and revelation, the film follows Rafaela (Natalia Solián), a young nun traveling to a remote town where a new archbishop has been appointed. Along the way, she encounters a cross-section of Mexican society, testing her devotion and sense of purpose.

The cast also includes Cecilia Suárez, Leonardo Ortizgris, Gerardo Trejo-Luna, Raúl Briones, and Enrique Arreola, alongside non-professional performers from San Luis Potosí.

Shot by cinematographer Diana Garay, Oca was produced by María José Córdova, Badillo, Federico Eisnerbusyc, and Federico Sande. It is a Mexican-Argentine coproduction between Pina Films, Las Jaras, Pucará Cine, and Año Cero.

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Marion Cotillard Leads Hadžihalilović’s Surreal Drama The Ice Tower

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the-ice-towerAcclaimed French filmmaker Lucile Hadžihalilović (Innocence, Evolution, Earwig) returns with her fourth feature, The Ice Tower, which is set to open in theaters on October 3, 2025. The film stars Marion Cotillard, Clara Pacini, August Diehl, and Gaspar Noé.

Co-written with Geoff Cox, The Ice Tower premiered earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival. The project reunites Hadžihalilović with Cotillard, who also starred in her 2004 debut feature Innocence. Known for her surreal and unsettling narratives, the director brings her distinctive style to another collaboration with long-time creative partner Noé, with whom she co-founded the production company Les Cinémas de la Zone in the early 1990s.

Hadžihalilović’s work has previously received recognition at international festivals including San Sebastián, Toronto, and Cannes. The Ice Tower continues her exploration of atmospheric, psychological storytelling, blending elements of fantasy and existential unease.

The film will be released in U.S. theaters on October 3.

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Animated Short Pigasus Launches Globally on YouTube

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pegasusThe award-winning animated short Pigasus is now available worldwide following its debut on YouTube on August 21, 2025. Produced by Arcana Studio and directed by Sean Patrick O’Reilly, the film has screened at nearly 200 international festivals and earned more than 60 awards.

Based on Don McDowell’s book Pigasus: The Lost Paradise Elysium, Battle for Evermore, the story follows a young pig on a fantastical journey of self-discovery, accompanied by creatures like Pegasus and Unicorn. The film blends adventure and fantasy while exploring themes of growth, resilience, and hope.

Originally released in 2023, Pigasus has been recognized at festivals including the World Film Festival in Cannes, the Vegas Movie Awards, and the Hollywood Gold Awards. Its online release marks the first time the short is widely accessible to a global audience.

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“Preparation for the Next Life” Explores Love, Survival, and Displacement in a Divided City

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By Armando

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Director Bing Liu’s narrative debut Preparation for the Next Life will open in select U.S. theaters on September 5, 2025, with a newly released trailer offering a first look at the drama’s intimate focus on immigration, trauma, and connection.

Based on the acclaimed novel by Atticus Lish and adapted by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Martyna Majok, the film follows Aishe (Sebiye Behtiyar), a Uyghur woman working in the margins of New York City’s Chinatown. There, she meets Skinner (Fred Hechinger), a recently discharged U.S. soldier struggling to re-adjust after three tours in the Middle East.

The film centers on their evolving relationship, two people shaped by violence, displacement, and invisibility, who begin to imagine the possibility of a life different from the one they expected. Rather than offering a traditional romance, Preparation for the Next Life studies how love can exist amid precarity, revealing the quiet resilience of people surviving in the cracks of a divided city.

Liu, best known for his Oscar-nominated documentary Minding the Gap, brings a vérité sensibility to the story, blending documentary texture with deeply cinematic storytelling. His approach captures New York with an almost tactile realism, where each street corner feels lived-in and every moment carries emotional weight.

Produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, and Barry Jenkins, the film reflects Liu’s signature blend of empathy and social observation, balancing raw intimacy with political awareness.

Watch the trailer for Preparation for the Next Life below.

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Lucía Garibaldi’s Dystopian Sci-Fi A Bright Future to World Premiere at Tribeca

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bright-futureAward-winning Uruguayan director Lucía Garibaldi returns with her second feature, A Bright Future (Un futuro brillante), set to premiere in the Viewpoints section of the 2025 Tribeca Festival, running June 4–14 in New York City.

Building on the acclaim of her Sundance-winning debut The Sharks, Garibaldi presents a dystopian sci-fi tale centered on Elisa, an 18-year-old girl chosen to journey to the elusive “North”—a supposed promised land no one has ever returned from. As Elisa prepares for her departure, doubts emerge, especially after a mysterious nurse’s arrival disrupts her tightly controlled world. What unfolds is a defiant coming-of-age story about resistance, agency, and the myth of a better future.

Starring newcomer Martina Passeggi in a standout role, alongside Soledad Pelayo, Sofía Gala Castiglione, and Alfonso Tort, A Bright Future paints a stylized yet eerily familiar world where youth is a commodity and escape comes at a cost. The film blends bleak sci-fi vision with ironic clarity and emotional depth, offering a sharp critique of generational sacrifice and institutional control.

Garibaldi’s bold narrative and visually immersive world mark her as a leading voice in Latin American cinema, with A Bright Future positioned as a festival standout.

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Cannes 2025: ‘It Was Just an Accident’ Wins Palme d’Or Amid Strong Year for Global Cinema

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cannes-2025The 78th Cannes Film Festival concluded with Iranian director Jafar Panahi winning the Palme d’Or for It Was Just an Accident, a tense moral thriller inspired by his own imprisonment in Iran. The film, which follows a group of former detainees confronting their alleged torturer, marked Panahi’s first in-person appearance at Cannes in over two decades. His emotional return and the film’s urgent themes of oppression and justice drew widespread acclaim and a standing ovation at the ceremony.

Panahi, long banned from leaving Iran, dedicated the prize to artists exiled from their home countries. His win also extended indie distributor Neon’s streak to six consecutive Palme d’Or victories, including previous titles like Parasite and Anora.

Beyond Panahi’s triumph, the festival showcased a wide range of standout films. Joachim Trier won the Grand Prix for Sentimental Value, while the Jury Prize was split between Óliver Laxe’s Sirât and Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling. Brazil’s The Secret Agent took home Best Director for Kleber Mendonça Filho and Best Actor for Wagner Moura. Best Actress went to Nadia Melliti for The Little Sister.

The Camera d’Or for best first film was awarded to Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake, the first Iraqi film to win at Cannes. A special award was given to Bi Gan for Resurrection.

Despite a power outage affecting the region hours before the ceremony, the festival concluded without major disruption, ending what many considered one of Cannes’ strongest years in recent memory.

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SFFILM Announces Golden Gate Award and Audience Award Winners at the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival

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L to R, top row: New Directors Awardee: INK WASH, Global Visions Awardee: ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU. L to R, bottom row: Cine Latino Awardee: BELOVED TROPIC, Kirby Walker Documentary Award Awardee: SEEDS Seeds. Courtesy of SFFILM and rights holders.

Today, SFFILM announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Awards competition and the Audience Awards at the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival). Since the Festival’s first edition in 1957, the prestigious Golden Gate Awards have served as a launching pad for internationally renowned filmmakers who are early in their careers and have grown to include Audience Awards as well as serving as a qualifier for films under 40 minutes for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). In 2025, Academy Award-qualifying honors presented at the Festival included Narrative Short, Documentary Short, and Animated Short. 

Golden Gate Awards were given in the feature film categories of New Directors–Ink Wash, Global Visions–All That’s Left of You, Cine Latino–Beloved Tropic, and the newly named Kirby Walker Documentary Award–Seeds.

Honoring the best documentary feature, the Kirby Walker Documentary Award celebrates the legacy of Kirby Walker, beloved Bay Area activist and filmmaker, whose profound curiosity about the lives of others and the world in general sparked a lasting love and respect for documentary filmmaking that allows audiences to develop their own informed viewpoint.
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SFFILM Announces the Lineup for the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival

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L to R top row: Josh O’Connor, Lily LaTorre in REBUILDING. Nicole Beharie, André Holland in LOVE, BROOKLYN. Asia Kate Dillon, Ridley Asha Bateman in OUTERLANDS. L to R, bottom row: filmmaker Chris Columbus, and actor André Holland. Top row photos and A. Holland headshot courtesy of rights holders. C. Columbus photo courtesy of Netflix; photo by Giles Keyte.

Today, SFFILM announced the full lineup for the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival), the longest-running film festival in the Americas. Taking place April 17-27, the Festival returns to its full 11-day run bringing the best of this year’s global filmmaking to Bay Area audiences in theaters across San Francisco’s Marina and Presidio neighborhoods, the Mission, and in Berkeley. The festival lineup includes over 150 films from more than 50 countries including 11 World Premieres, 10 International Premieres, 10 North American Premieres, and six US Premieres. All feature films in competition, special events, and Marquee sections are California premieres. In addition to many filmmakers returning to the Festival, the program also includes 11 SFFILM Supported titles which are projects that received support from the organization’s youth education and artist development programs as grants, residencies, or funding, reflecting the year round mission of SFFILM.

“I am over the moon that we are back with 11 days of screenings, special Tributes, Awards, free talks, our annual Industry Days Conference, parties, city tours, and much more. It has been a delight to curate over 150 films for this year’s festival and we cannot wait to welcome local and international creatives to the city by the Bay,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. “The program is packed with discovery titles, emerging storytellers, buzzy new films, A-list talent, and a special horror retrospective—that will be sure to delight audiences and filmmakers alike.”

The Festival opens with Max Walker-Silverman’s Rebuilding, a poignant exploration of communal love and resilience in the wake of devastating wildfires. This intimate, timely drama stars Josh O’Connor (Challengers, La Chimera, The Crown) as a man determined to restore his family’s ranch and rediscover his purpose. The Centerpiece presentation is Rachael Abigail Holder’s Love, Brooklyn, a layered romantic comedy exploring urban isolation and Black life in the modern age. Executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and starring André Holland, Nicole Beharie, and DeWanda Wise, the film generates plenty of sparks and humor. The Centerpiece film is presented alongside a Festival Tribute celebrating the career and craft of André Holland (Selma, Moonlight, Passing) who has been dazzling audiences on stage, television, and screen over the past two decades. Alongside the Centerpiece film, Holland offers a remarkable performance in Andre Gaines’s The Dutchman in the Marquee spotlight.
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