Event Listing - City Events
Thu Apr 26, 2007 - Thu May 10, 2007

San Francisco Film Society presents

50th San Francisco International Film Festival

200 Films From 54 Countries in 15 days of films and festivities


Website
Tickets
Box Office: 925-866-9559

Location
Date and Time
Sundance Kabuki Cinema
1881 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
cross street: Fillmore Street
district: Japantown/Fillmore

Fri Apr 27, 2007 (See website for showtimes) - www.fest07.sffs.org
Sat Apr 28, 2007 (See website for showtimes) - www.fest07.sffs.org
Sun Apr 29, 2007 (See website for showtimes) - www.fest07.sffs.org
Mon Apr 30, 2007 (See website for showtimes) - www.fest07.sffs.org
Tue May 1, 2007 (See website for showtimes) - www.fest07.sffs.org
Castro Theatre
429 Castro Street
San Francisco, CA 94114 map
cross street: Market
district: Castro/Upper Market

Thu Apr 26, 2007 (7 pm (Opening Night Film - Golden Door)) - Followed by Opening Night Party at City Hall
Thu May 10, 2007 (7 pm (Closing Night Film - La Vie en Rose)) - Followed by Closing Night Party at Mezzanine

Description
The San Francisco International Film Festival (April 26 – May 10) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the first festival in the Americas to reach this milestone. “A golden anniversary comes around only once in an organization’s lifetime,” says San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Graham Leggat, “and we intend to take full advantage of this remarkable occasion.” With a half-century of cinematic excellence bolstering its reputation as a provocative and celebratory showcase for the finest in world cinema, the International will usher in its next 50 years with a characteristically abundant, diverse and rewarding array of films, tributes, parties, panels, performances and one-time-only special events.

SFIFF50 kicks off April 26 and runs though May 10, offering 200 films (108 features and 92 shorts) from 54 countries, including three world premieres, two international premieres, 11 North American premieres, five U.S. premieres and 40 West Coast premieres.

How to Purchase Tickets
By phone: 925.866.9559 (Monday – Friday, 9 am – 5 pm)
By fax: 925.866.9597
Online: www.sffs.org
In person:
Main Ticket Outlet: Sundance Cinemas Kabuki, 1881 Post Street (at Fillmore) 94115-3607
Pre-Festival: Tuesday – Sunday 4:30 – 8:30 pm
During the Festival: April 27 – May 10, open one hour prior to the first screening of the day
Embarcadero Ticket Outlet: Embarcadero Center 1, Lobby Level, on Battery Street between Clay and Sacramento
Monday – Saturday, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm

Regularly Priced Events
$12 general public,
$10 seniors, students and persons with disabilities
$9 San Francisco Film Society members
$8 weekday matinees (times up to and including 5 pm)

For Special Events and Ticket Packages call 925.866.9559 or visit www.sffs.org or the boxoffices.

The Festival opens with Italian director Emanuele Crialese’s Golden Door, in which a colorful Sicilian family journeys to America at the turn of the last century. French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg leads a brilliant cast in this lavish epic. Following the film’s screening at the Castro Theatre, the Opening Night party will take place under City Hall’s majestic Rotunda.

This year’s Centerpiece film is indie stalwart Tom DiCillo’s satiric comedy Delirious, in which Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt star as “licensed photography professionals” (paparazzi by any other name) on the lookout for celebrities. A swanky party at Suite one8one will follow the film’s West Coast premiere on Saturday, May 5 at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki.

The Festival’s Closing Night will be Olivier Dahan’s award-winning Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose, in which Marion Cotillard gives a stunning performance as the “little sparrow” who lived, loved and sang with no regrets. Following the screening at the Castro Theatre, the French-themed Closing Night party will take place at SOMA nightclub Mezzanine.

Four major award recipients will be honored at the annual black-tie Film Society Awards Night on Thursday, May 3 in the Grand Ballroom of the Westin St. Francis Hotel. The recipient of this year’s Film Society Directing Award is Spike Lee, who will appear onstage at the Castro Theatre for a conversation with Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris, a retrospective clips program and a screening of Acts II and III of When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, his epic documentary on Hurricane Katrina. The Peter J. Owens Award, honoring an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity, will be given to Robin Williams, who will be interviewed onstage by local literary luminary Armistead Maupin (whose novel The Night Listener was adapted for a 2006 film starring Williams) at the Castro prior to a screening of The Fisher King, the Terry Gilliam film for which Williams was nominated for an Academy Award. The Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting goes to Peter Morgan, who penned Longford for HBO and scored a back-to-back triumph with The Queen and The Last King of Scotland. Following an onstage interview with critic and author David Thomson, Morgan will introduce The Deal, an earlier collaboration with director Stephen Frears (The Queen) about the jockeying for power among British politicians Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

In addition to these annual awards, the Film Society is bestowing the one-time-only Irving M. Levin Award on George Lucas. Named after the founder of the San Francisco International Film Festival, this special award honors a figure who has demonstrated deep appreciation for movies as an art form, a flair for innovation, a spirit of adventure and a recognition of the important role that San Francisco plays in the world of art and film. Lucas will join Lee, Morgan and Williams at Film Society Awards Night.

This year’s recipient of the Mel Novikoff Award is film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow. Named after the pioneering San Francisco film exhibitor (1922–1987), the award is bestowed annually on an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema. Brownlow will be honored on Saturday, April 28 at the Castro Theatre with an onstage interview with scholar Russell Merritt and a screening of the silent swashbuckler The Iron Mask, for which Brownlow oversaw restoration. In addition, the Festival will present a screening of Brownlow’s authoritative documentary Cecil B. De Mille – American Epic and a special program at the Pacific Film Archive at which Brownlow will screen and discuss excerpts from rare silent films.

Renowned documentarian Heddy Honigmann will receive this year’s Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award, which honors the achievement of a filmmaker who works in forms other than narrative features. Honigmann will engage in an onstage conversation with film writer John Anderson on Tuesday, May 1 at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki, followed by a screening of Forever, her fascinating portrait Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Eleven films will be in juried competition for the 11th annual SKYY Prize, a $10,000 cash award given to a new feature filmmaker. The contenders are: Kim Rossi Stuart’s Along the Ridge from Italy; John Barker’s Bunny Chow from South Africa; Daniel Wu’s The Heavenly Kings from Hong Kong; Xiaolu Guo’s How Is Your Fish Today? from China; Joachim Trier’s Reprise from Norway; Tariq Teguia’s Rome Rather Than You from Algeria; Jean-Pascal Hattu’s 7 Years from France; Pavel Giroud’s The Silly Age from Cuba; Francisco Vargas’s The Violin from Mexico; Marwan Hamed’s The Yacoubian Building from Egypt; and Horace Ahmad’s Zolykha’s Secret from Afghanistan.

The Golden Gate Awards Ceremony celebrates exceptional filmmakers with the prestigious SKYY Prize and FIPRESCI Prize (an international critics prize for best film) as well as awards in 14 juried Golden Gate Award categories, the Chris Holter Award for Humor in Film and the SFIFF50 GreenWorld Contest for online video shorts. Winners will be announced live at Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center on Wednesday, May 9. Admission is free; tickets are required.

Also new this year is the Chris Holter Humor in Film Award. The Holter Award, honoring the life and work of San Francisco native, teacher and filmmaker Chris Holter. The award will provide a $2,500 cash prize to the filmmaker whose film (short, documentary or feature, in any genre or technique, including animation) paints the most humorous, heart-warming and life-affirming portrait of the human condition. The grant is provided by the Metro Theatre Center Foundation, with funds from the Ora A. Holter Family Trust and the Chris Holter–Ron Merk Family Trust Fund.

Each year, the Film Society invites a leader in art and cinema to address issues facing the film world today. This year, the State of Cinema Address will be delivered by the brilliant theater and opera director Peter Sellars, whose multimedia works continually expand the potential of globally relevant images and ideas. Sellars also is profiled in Jon Else’s documentary Wonders Are Many, screening at this year’s Festival. Sellars recently served as artistic director of the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, commemorating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth; two of the seven films he commissioned for New Crowned Hope are screening at this year’s Festival: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Daratt and Garin Nugroho’s Opera Jawa.

This year’s Live & Onstage events include a screening of Victor Sjöström’s haunting silent film classic The Phantom Carriage, with a new score composed and performed live by local icon Jonathan Richman; The True Story of the World: On the Road at 50, a portmanteau program of readings, testimonials and images in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s classic Beat Generation novel, with Peter Coyote, Michael McClure, Diane Di Prima and other special guests; Notes to a Toon Underground, with 11 adventurous musicians presenting world premieres of newly composed scores to historic and contemporary animated shorts; Five-0: Stories and Images from 50 Years of the SF International, featuring onstage appearances by Festival alumni and clips from 50 years of the International’s glorious and tumultuous history; and Festival favorite Guy Maddin’s new silent masterwork Brand upon the Brain! The film’s original score will be performed live by a 13-piece ensemble, with live narration by the captivating and multi-talented Joan Chen, foley artists and a “castrato” adding to the fun.

This is a sampling of the big events… pick up a program guide around town, on line at www.sffs.org or at the box office venues.