SFFILM Announces Golden Gate Award Winners at the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival

Posted on April 24, 2023 by admin

The juried awards recognize narrative and documentary films, and works from the Cine Latino and Youth Works spotlights. Winners of the Audience Awards were also announced. The SFFILM Festival ran April 13–23 in theaters across the Bay Area, and featured local and international filmmakers and works.

This morning, SFFILM announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Awards competition at the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival). Created the same year the Festival was founded in 1957, the prestigious Golden Gate Awards have served as a launching pad for internationally renowned filmmakers who are early in their careers.

The awards are also notable as a qualifier for films under 40 minutes for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Previous Golden Gate Award winners include Panah Panahi, Reid Davenport, Nadav Lapid, Marlon Riggs, Céline Sciamma, Jia Zhang-ke, Stanley Nelson, Tasha Van Zandt, and many others across nearly seven decades.

This year, the SFFILM Festival ran from April 13–23, with events held in theaters across the Bay Area, including the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), and several San Francisco-based theaters: the Dolby Cinema @ 1275 Market, the Castro Theatre, the Premier Theater, The Walt Disney Family Museum Theater, and the Festival’s hub at the CGV San Francisco.

With a full slate of in-person programming and events, the 66th iteration of the Festival featured essential stories from both local and international filmmakers, who hailed from 37 countries. The SFFILM Festival also remained firm in its commitment to showcasing programming from artists with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, with half of the films in the lineup being helmed by women or non-binary filmmakers.
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“Anonymous Sister” Documentary Sets Release In Theaters June 2

Posted on April 22, 2023 by admin

The film is from the Producer of Dick Johnson is Dead, Cameraperson, Charm City, and Trapped. Jamie Boyle’s deeply personal and critically-acclaimed documentary feature From the Producer of Dick Johnson is Dead, Cameraperson, Charm City, and Trapped

Jamie Boyle’s Deeply Personal and Critically-Acclaimed Documentary Feature opens in New York, Friday, June 2 at IFC Center, and Los Angeles on Friday, June 16
at Laemmle Monica Film Center.

Anonymous Sister begins in the 1980s, as the close-knit Boyle family is introduced through home movie footage of their lives in the Colorado countryside. As the years tick by, the youngest family member, Jamie, is drawn to the camera in early childhood, begging to operate it at any opportunity while her older sister, Jordan, embarks on what will become a prodigious figure-skating career.

By the time she reaches her late teenage years Jamie is documenting, in excruciating detail, Jordan and her mom, Julie, as both simultaneously descend into opioid addiction while battling chronic pain. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Jamie was capturing the reality of the opioid epidemic long before it was acknowledged or named, when it entered your home under the guise of healthcare, when those to whom we entrust our lives became the greatest threat to it.

Thirteen years later finds both family members sober and Jordan newly pregnant with her first child. The pregnancy will mark her first major interaction with the medical community since getting off opioids. Jamie once again picks up the camera as her mom and sister face new hurdles in their hard won sobriety. What she sees this time is not just a family, but an entire nation, in turmoil.

Director Jamie Boyle is a two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker living and working in Brooklyn NY, the unceded land of the Lenape people. In 2019, she was selected to be part of the inaugural Sundance Talent Forum & Catalyst Lab and on DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 list. She was the editor, producer, and cinematographer of Jackson (SHOWTIME), winner of the 2018 News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. Jackson premiered at the LA Film Festival and was awarded Best Documentary at over fifteen festivals.

Dark Sky Films Brings “The Third Saturday In October Part V and Part I” to Digital and VOD May 5th

Posted on April 17, 2023 by admin

What if a lost horror franchise made during the peak of the slasher genre was unearthed today, but only two of the films could be restored? Filmmaker Jay Burleson imagined just that with “The Third Saturday In October: Part V” and “The Third Saturday in October: Part I” coming to VOD + Digital Platforms May 5th from Dark Sky Films.

A double feature of terror, “The Third Saturday In October: Part V” sees unstoppable killer Jakkariah Harding once again stalking and butchering the football-loving residents of a small Alabama town, this time finding a treasure trove of victims after he chances upon a football watch party. And then get ready to see how the horror began in “The Third Saturday in October: Part I”, which tells the story of Harding’s death row escape and ensuing slaughter as two survivors of his initial attack hunt him down.

Aiming to recreate the by-gone video store days when horror fans might have had to watch a franchise out of order, the filmmakers intended for viewers to start with Part V and then go back to Part 1.

Twice the scares, twice the laughs, and a world-building start of a franchise that’s as outlandishly clever in its deception as every gore set piece it throws on screen, “The Third Saturday in October” films are a red-blooded American slice of southern gothic infused with a deliciously twisted sense of humor.

SFFILM Announces Full Lineup for 66th San Francisco International Film Festival

Posted on March 22, 2023 by admin

Today, SFFILM announced the full lineup for the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival), the longest-running film festival in the Americas. This year’s program, curated from over 5,000 submissions and invitations, will screen exclusively in theaters across San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley from April 13–April 23.

“It is SFFILM Festival season once again and I cannot wait to share this year’s program with local audiences,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. “The line-up includes a wealth of Bay Area filmmakers across all sections, and highlights new—and seminal—work from eminent filmmakers. Our curatorial team, dedicated to showcasing evocative stories, prioritized films that unite us all through cinematic expression and outstanding narrative craft. We continue SFFILM’s legacy of bringing international work to the Bay with stories from 37 countries and an exciting array of emerging artists. For the third year in a row, half of this thematically diverse program is helmed by female or non-binary filmmakers and we are so proud to share these stories with festival attendees.”

The 2023 SFFILM Festival will run in theaters across the Bay Area, including the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, the Dolby Cinema @ 1275 Market, the Castro Theatre, the Premier Theater, The Walt Disney Family Museum, and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). The central hub of the Festival will be at CGV San Francisco to allow for maximum viewing; this location will also feature a hospitality lounge presented by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for guests to meet and mingle with each other in between screenings.

“We are thrilled to bring an array of exciting new films and filmmakers to our discerning and passionate Bay Area film lovers,” said Anne Lai, Executive Director of SFFILM. “Each year, our Festival unites us both inside and outside of theaters where we engage in conversations across audiences, filmmakers, industry guests, and others who help us deepen our understanding of the craft, and of the fascinating world we all share. I am particularly delighted that in addition to hosting screenings in venues across the Bay Area, we will have a Festival hub at the CGV San Francisco. We are excited to host a space this year that harnesses the energy of multiple screens. As audiences gravitate towards different fare, they will also be able to spend time in a gathering place designed to create connection, possibility, and opportunity with one another. Find your spot, and we’ll see you there.”
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“Balloon Animal” Trailer Debut

Posted on March 9, 2023 by admin

First Bloom Films production has recently released the trailer for its latest film “Balloon Animal”. The film is set to be available on VOD on Friday, April 7, 2023 (U.S. & U.K.) in Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Comcast/Xfinity, Charter, Cox, etc.

Written and directed by Em Johnson, the drama film s Katherine Waddell, Ilia Volok, Erin Li, Dani Baez, and Michael David Wilson.

“Balloon Animal” follows Poppy Valentine, a young circus performer who has grown up in her family’s traveling circus, begins dreaming of what life would be like outside of its fences.

Now in her mid-20s and with more unwelcomed responsibility weighing her down, she’s desperate to figure out if this life is for her. As she slowly begins to take time for herself, finding independence and even love, she strains her relationship with those around her in the tight-knit circus community. Amidst her overprotective father, stressful circus expectations, and a blossoming curiosity for a life of her own, Poppy must decide if the risk is worth leaving everything she’s ever known behind.

A First Bloom Films production, “Balloon Animal” is written and directed by Em Johnson. Cinematography by Megan Stacey. Produced by Ruvi Leider, Monica O’Hara, and Katherine Waddell. Composed by Alexa L. Borden and Connor Cook. Edited by Gregory Tuzin.

The Makers of “Sharknado” Brings “Methgator”

Posted on February 28, 2023 by admin

In the tradition of the season’s surprise hit “Cocaine Bear”, comes a new film that’s similarly going viral: “Methgator”.

“Hold our bear…I mean, beer. Coming for your life this summer,” as posted from the official twitter page of The Asylum, the film studio behind the film.

In a 2019 news bulletin, police warned residents to refrain from flushing methamphetamine down the toilet to prevent “meth-gators.” Down in Sweet Water Point, Florida, they didn’t listen.

Starring Robbie Rist (Oliver from The Brady Bunch) and Patrick Labyorteaux (Little House on the Prairie), the recently recently wrapped production in the swamps of Florida, “Methgator” is set to be released this summer.

From the creators of “Sharknado”, The Asylum has long been known for their mockbusters. This year, the company kicked off their 25th Anniversary by throwing a private party on the Santa Monica Pier, attracting thousands of industry VIPs… and also a full power outage.

XYZ Films Sets Release of Jason Trost’s FP-4EVZ

Posted on February 15, 2023 by admin

XYZ Films is set to release Jason Trost’s FP-4EVZ, a film about a legendary family of rhythm game warriors that must battle their way deep into the future to save what remains of a booze fueled humanity.

The film will be released on VOD and digital platforms on February 23, 2023.

FP-4EVZ was written and directed by Jason Trost (All Superheros Must Die, The FP, FP2:Beats of Rage).

The film also stars Tallay Wickham (All Super Hero’s Must Die 2: The Last Super Hero), Art Hsu (Crank: High Voltage, The FP), Lib Campbell (All Super Hero’s Must Die 2: The Last Super Hero), Ryan Gibson (Kangaroo Jack FP3: Escape From Bako), Mike O’Gorman (Vice Principals, FP3: Escape From Bako), Bru Muller (All Super Hero’s Must Die 2: The Last Super Hero, FP3), Sean Whalen (Halloween II, The FP) and Leigh Myles.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:

FP- 4EVZ A legendary family of rhythm game warriors must battle their way deep into the future to save what remains of a booze fueled humanity from a horrific calamity that threatens to turn them all stone cold sober 4 EVZ.

All About Documentary Feature: “A House Made Of Splinters”

Posted on February 8, 2023 by admin

Starting at Sundance last year, where the film won the Directing Award, “A House Made Of Splinters” has gone on to be nominated for: a Film Independent Spirit Award, IDA Awards for Best Documentary, Best Director and Cinematography, Cinema Eye Honors for Production and Cinematography, and a European Film Award for Best Documentary.

The documentary is a poignant and deeply intimate documentary three kids temporarily removed from their parents find friendship and flickers of hope inside the worn walls of a remarkable orphanage in Eastern Ukraine, as a group of dedicated social-workers create moments of joy and respite from childhoods all but lost.

In this war-worn and impoverished corner of Eastern Ukraine where addiction casts a long shadow, there sits a safe haven for children temporarily removed from their parents. A House Made of Splinters follows three kids awaiting their fate: will they go back or move on to a new home, while as a group of dedicated social-workers create small moments of joy and respite from childhoods all but lost.

The film is ffilmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont’s follow-up to his acclaimed first feature, The Distant Barking of Dogs, offering a unique look into how the long-term consequences of war on a society already under strain impacts the most vulnerable. His is a poignant and deeply intimate portrait of a remarkable way station filled with care, support, and trust for a group of kids who are in desperate need of more.

See the trailer below for “A House Made Of Splinters”:

“Joonam” Sets World Premiere In U.S. Documentary Competition

Posted on January 12, 2023 by admin

“Joonam”, the documentary from director, editor, cinematographer Sierra Urich is set to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Urich is a Persian-American interdisciplinary visual artist and filmmaker based in Vermont. The film features Behjat Samimi, Mitra Samimi-Urich, and Sierra Urich.

Named for a Farsi term of endearment, Joonam is infused with humor and heart like only a film about family could be.

Official film synopsis:
Spurred by a provocative family memory and a lifetime of separation from the country her mother left behind, a young filmmaker delves into her mother and grandmother’s complicated pasts, and her own fractured Iranian identity.

For screening times, go to programs list at festival.sundance.org.

“The Unsettling” Trailer Debut And Release Date Announced

Posted on January 12, 2023 by admin

Dark Sky Films is set to bring the release of thriller film “The Unsettling” to theaters and VOD/digital on February 10th.

Written and directed by Harry Owens, the film stars Zephani Idoko, Bambadjan Bamba, Libby Munro, Benedikt Sebastian, Chloë Caro, Rojawn Khoshnam.

The film tells the story of Abena and Kwame, a Ghanaian couple, whho are struggling to recover from a devastating tragedy. They travel to Los Angeles for a vacation that they hope will help them find their way back to one another.

Instead, during an awkward dinner with estranged friends, Vivian and Anthony, Abena is increasingly terrorized by an evil possessing the house. The house that was meant to provide refuge slowly stalks her, consuming her sorrow and trapping her in a nightmare. As her terror grows, it ultimately engulfs all four with horrifying consequences.

See the trailer below for “The Unsettling”.