The San Francisco International Film Festival is different. It’s the longest running film festival in North America but you can never put your finger on what it’s going to offer and you can never guess which films will be shown. The festival is run by the San Francisco Film Society and instead of sticking to a formula like many other festivals do, they try and curate a wide range of cinema that appeals to the wide range of audiences that inhabit San Francisco. Just as the city is mixed with all kinds of people and influences, so are the films that they show.
The 55th edition which runs for two weeks from Thursday, April 19th to Thursday, May 3rd at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, SF Film Society Cinema, SFMOMA and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley is no different. This year they offer a wide range of world cinema, riveting documentaries, all kinds of shorts, and local treats. But how is an outsider looking in supposed to know what to watch? The only thing missing from this lineup are those big name Hollywood blockbusters anybody can find each week. Instead, THE SFIFF brings the obscure and hard to find works that deserve to be seen and need these kind of festivals to promote them. We’ll give you a few hints of what we think is interesting but you should be fearless in watching movies you know nothing about.
Gimme The Loot
Gimme the Loot just reminds of beat street from its synopsis. It’s about 2 New York graffiti artists who have to raise money in order to pull off a prank to get revenge on a rival gang. I missed it at SXSW where it won the Grand Jury award for Best Narrative so I’m definitely going to catch it at SFIFF.
The Intouchables
The film won the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix (Best Film) award at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Award for Best Actor to both Francois Cluzet and Omar Sy. Omar Sy also won the César Award for Best Actor and Étoiles d’Or for Best Male Newcomer. It’s pretty controversial dealing with French racism which Americans still try to hide from.
Robot & Frank
Coming from Sundance, Robot & Frank got mixed reviews but for the tech-heavy influence of San Francisco, I’m sure this film will get a warm welcome. It’s about an old cat burglar (Frank Langella) who receives a helper robot against his will.
TWIXT
This may not sound like much until you call it Francis Ford Coppola’s TWIXT. There has been a lot of anticipation for this one as it makes its way around the festival circuit before it gets a wide release. It’s a genre film (horror thriller) written and directed by Coppola about an eerie small town with a mystery. And if you didn’t know, Coppola lives in the bay area so he might just be sitting next to you at the screening.
Informant
If you saw “Better This World” last year, you definitely want to see Informant this year which is a documentary about Brandon Darby, the FBI Informant known for taking down the two activists in last year’s documentary which won countless awards including the Best Documentary Feature at the 2011 San Francisco International Film Festival. It will be interesting to see how San Francisco’s progressive audiences react to the other side of the story.
Polisse
Polisse was the winner of the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Resembling a documentary, it’s a narrative going into the lives of the men and women of the Paris Child Protection Unit. It’s based on real-life cases but takes its liberties to give you a startling look into this disturbing world.
Last Minute Additions!
Even if you’ve studied the handy mini guide or program, you might not know that 6 new films have been added to the lineup:
- Bernie plays 9:30 pm, Saturday, April 21, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.
- Nobody Walks plays 9:30 pm, Wednesday, April 25, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.
- The Do-Deca-Pentathlon plays 9:00 pm, Thursday, April 26, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.
- Lola Versus plays 9:15 pm, Monday, April 30, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.
- John Dies at the End plays 9:45 pm, Wednesday, May 2, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.
- Chasing Ice plays 7:15 pm, Thursday, May 3, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.
This post is part of our SFIFF coverageHeld each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, featuring 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards and $70,000 in cash prizes, upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests and diverse and engaged audiences with more than 70,000 people in attendance.Visit an Francisco International Film Festival’s Official Website
This is one of those festival films which got a lot of buzz, got picked up by a distributor, and then baffled the suits on how to market the film to anybody. Catfish premiered at Sundance last year by virtually unknown filmmakers with little fanfare but gained a lot of attention as it screened. The logo and trailer being show to the general public have almost nothing to do with the actual movie. And neither will this review…This film is very hard to review because once you get into what the film is really about, you ruin the movie. So I’ll try not to spoil it and talk around the plot as much as possible.
