This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILMFestival) – the 60th edition – opens on April 5 and runs through April 19. As always, it’s a Can’t Miss for Bay Area movie fans. This year’s program is especially loaded. Here are some enticing festival highlights:
- The indie smash Patti Cake$, which rocked Sundance and SXSW.
- A screening of Citizen Kane with William “Will” Randolph Hearst III discussing his family.
- James Ivory (Remains of the Day, Howards End) will receive an award and present a 30th anniversary screening of his Maurice. (Ivory isn’t British, he was born in Berkeley – who knew?)
- Noted film historian David Thomson will discuss what really frightens him in that San Francisco treat, Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
- Speaking of Hitchcock, there’s also the new documentary 78/52 on the 78 set ups and the 52 cuts in Psycho’s iconic shower scene. Talk about a Deep Dive…
- Ethan Hawke gets an award and presents his new film, Maudie.
- Prolific writer John Ridley (12 Years a Slave and a multitude of TV show) introduces his new miniseries Guerilla.
- Amir Bar-Lev (the Tillman Story) will present his documentary on the Grateful Dead Long Strange Trip (but, just like a Dead concert, it’s four hours long).
- That roguish 72-year-old sex symbol Sam Elliott will attend a screening of his new movie, The Hero.
- A critical favorite, director James Gray (The Lovers, The Immigrant, The Yards) will attend the screening of his newest film, The Lost City of Z.
- The new film from the Dardennes brothers (The Son, The Kid with a Bike, Two Days One Night), The Unknown Woman.
- The world premiere of the experimental film Discreet from Bay Area writer-director Travis Mathews. I’ve seen it, and it’s strangely compelling.
- The latest from Oscar-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA, Miss Sharon Jones!) – This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous.
- Sieranevada, the latest from Romanian director Cristi Puilu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu).
photo courtesy of SFFILM
The calendar of this year’s festival includes a rich program of indies, documentaries and foreign films. Among the foreign choices, I liked the little Irish self-discovery movie A Date for Mad Mary.
And, I don’t know anything about this film, but my favorite movie title in the fest is Donkeyote.
The 60th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILMFestival) opens this Wednesday. Here’s SFFILMFestival’s information on the program, the calendar and tickets and passes.
Throughout SFFILMFestival, I’ll be linking more festival coverage to my SFFILMFestival 2017 page, including both features and movie recommendations. Follow me on Twitter for the very latest coverage.
photo courtesy of SFFILM