Tonight on January 26th, 2012 will see opening of the 27th SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (SBIFF) in Santa Barbara, California. The festival will open with the world premier of Lawrence Kasdan's film: “DARLING COMPANION” (2012) with an all star cast including Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest. The film will open with a an Oscar-nominated Animated Pixar Short, “LA LUNA” (2011).
The screening will take place in the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA wi...
Oh Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey! Toni Basil's song played in my head all day and for good reason, I was planning on spending the night with Mickey Rourke. Me and about 2,500 other people.Roger Durling, Executive Director of The Santa Barbara International Film Festival was a frontrunner in recognizing the resurrected career of Mickey-where’ve-you-been-Rourke and swooped in to honor him for his heartbreaking performance in The Wrestler...
The producers panel aptly named “Movers and Shakers,” included Charles Roven-Dark Knight, Christian Colson-Slumdog Millionaire, Dan Jinks-Milk, Jim Morris-Wall-E, Neda Armian-Rachel Getting Married were asked questions by Los Angeles Times writer Pat Goldstein that pried open Pandora’s industry box and let fly what it takes to bring a film from concept to fruition. First question went to Slumdog’s Christian Colson about the recent criticism regarding the youngest lead actors of the ...
On Friday night, another mob scene waited outside the Arlington for their honoree and ultimately filled the house. Every year the Santa Barbara International Film Festival presents a Director In Residence and this year the versatile David Fincher opened up at the Q & A, dishing the 411 on his film career and the industry in general. Jake Gyllenhaal and Taraji P. Henson were also on hand making additional contributions as per their experience working with Finch with Pete Hammond on deck ...
Last night’s red carpet event could have been something written in a movie. Our Modern Master had a local driver drop him off at the award ceremony. With fans filling the streets and ticket holders wrapped around the block, red carpet access was limited to say the least. So limited in fact, that when I arrived there was nary a sliver of space to even sneak through, which made Mr. Eastwood’s entrance all the more incredible. As the festival powers-that-be, press and fans waited ...
For decades Clint Eastwood has been captivating macho men, swooning weak kneed women and setting box office records with his relentless talent as an actor, director, producer and composer. As an elder statesman of filmmaking, Eastwood’s cool, one-take / two-takes-top directing style is only one ingredient making his films unique, personally composed soundtracks is the other. As a musician and jazz aficionado, Eastwood lays down haunting melodies that seep into the marrow of yo...
An impromptu conversation that took place in the Lobero Theater green room was the direct result of an accidental drop off of both Melissa Leo and Rosemarie DeWitt at a red carpet event, albeit not for the Virtuosos Awards, but for the surf film Waveriders.
“Looking for something hot to do in Santa Barbara? Check out the new film Surfer Dude … no wait, Super Dude, yeah, that’s funnier. Okay, Super Dude it is … I saw lights, I saw a red carpet … did I look at th...
This was one of those perfect mornings where I whiled away the hours just watching films. Starting with the Bestor Cram documentary Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison, I found this to be a real throw back to a time in Cash’s life that’s not really been explored. In depth interviews with family members, band members and former Folsom Prison inmates, offer insight to Johnny’s writing process and expose it and his songs with more intimacy than we’ve seen before on film. Next up, was ...
After taking a breath and viewing only movies for two days, the energy here in Santa Barbara is once again building with anticipation for two spectacular events planned for this evening. At 7:30 tonight the Arlington Theater screens The Road To Fallujah, directed by Mark Manning, this film documents the controversial war in Iraq. While most films that focus on conflict involving the U.S. Military usually draw opinion and perspective solely from Americans, Fallujah provides an outlet f...
If you don’t know Danny Boyle or his films by now, you don’t know what you’re missing. Today is a unique day here in the SB Festival Hood with a complete Retrospective of the incredible work of filmmaker Danny Boyle, including Millions, Sunshine, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and the newly acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire. This morning the Metro 4 screened Millions, with the aforementioned films to follow, check www.sbiff.org for schedule times. Saturated in brilliant color, spec...
Santa Barbara Sunday
The opening weekend successfully kicked off with incredible films and celebrity tributes and today was no exception. What ticks me off is having so many great films and not enough hours in the day to see everything. By the time I got my blog posted, half the day was shot and so I shoe-leather-expressed it up to the Victoria Hall to check out one of this year’s nominees for The Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award for Documentary Film entitle...
Having just attended the most historic event of a lifetime, the 56th Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, I can think of no better way to segue back into community than by attending The 24th Santa Barbara International Film Festival.My personal love affair with this festival started nine years ago and each year is no less exciting than the previous year or will be as exciting as the next. With no shortage of global representation in film offered, my first inte...
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is proud to honor Penélope Cruz with the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 24th edition of the Fest, which runs January 22-February 1, 2009, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.
Cruz, who returned to theaters this summer with two powerful and diverse back-to-back performances in "Elegy" opposite Sir Ben Kingsley and Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," opposite Javi...
“I think this is the most important role of my life,” Angelina Jolie remarked upon playing Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart. Pearl is the famous widow of fellow Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan. Pearl’s heart is mighty indeed, as the clips shown in Jolie’s conversation with film critic Pete Hammond reveal. She graciously accepted the award presented by renowned actor and director Clint Eastwood. The two praised each other...
Prolific actor Tommy Lee Jones can't name his favorite film role. “I don't think that way,” he answered while he strolled down the evening's red carpet with a bit of a grin. He's a professional, he states, working at whatever role he finds himself in. During the discussion and movie clip viewing, Jones was intense. He leaned forward to raptly watch the film clips and sat on the edge of his seat to dicuss reading every...
Chance and Happenstance, the World Premiere of the Spanish Film 3:19 by Felicia TomaskoOn a whim, we walked into one of the screenings of the world premiere of 3:19. The danger is that this story could be depressing. After all, it takes its title from the Genesis passage ending “for dust you are and to dust you will return.” One 26-year-old member of a trio of friends is dying of terminal cancer. While this story of friendship, love and loss could conceivably be dark and mournful, director...
After Javier Bardem received the Montecito Award, a long-time Santa Barbara tradition. Montecito is the town just south of Santa Barbara on the 101, most of it tucked within hills and behind trees, a playground with class. Javier Bardem has class and piercing eyes, and good looks that often get masked behind the intense roles he plays, and the dizzying variety in his body of work. He’s Spanish, from Madrid (where he walks everywhere and doesn’t have to drive a car—so he doesn’t drive)...
I have to blog and write reviews and festival experiences so my way of making it through the theaters, award ceremonies and parties is by not drinking at the festival parties. Well, some people are a bad influence. Take blogger Craig Smith for example, now he’s a bad influence. Both of us were at the intimate, post-Javier Bardem tribute party at the Sacks Fifth Avenue Store. No red wine was served, but there was plenty of white, along with vodka-enhanced mixed drinks. There was no shopping to ...
Cate Blanchett can only be described as gorgeous, gracious, well, really a host of other adjectives. And she's funny, and smart. And stunning when pregnant. When she sat on stage to review and discuss the body of work that has given her the title of Modern Master, it was a chance for the hundreds in attendance, braving the Saturday night rain, to sit with Cate for two hours and get a glimpse of the person behind the on-screen persona, or the plethora of compelling characters. One of the remarkab...
Before screen actor and Indie film favorite Ryan Gosling even got out of the black car delivering him to the Lobero Theatre, the girls were outside waiting. With DVD cases in hand (many from The Notebook), other paraphernalia to collect a signature, and cameras overhead to snap an image as the heartthrob exited to step onto the red carpet. to see a gallery of images from the red carpet, view:http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=847&event=08SBIFF_goslingIt was a night of scr...
Maria Ceballos-Wallis is a researcher with the Australian Broadcasting Company. When I met her at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Social Justice Award reception, she had a glass of wine in her hands and was talking about the work of documentary filmmakers and marine biology Robert Smith. In order to discover more about oil, where it comes from, and the nature of our dependance on it, he traveled the world, often as a film crew of one, to uncover its secret history. The result...
In past years, the SBIFF has shown a midweek movie, with varying degrees of success. In 2007, it was Amazing Grace, with director Michael Apted in the audience (and also serving a role as a special curator/director). The film went on to garner critical acclaim. In 2006, Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys featured the stars and John Cleese in attendance. This year, the fest has gone the route of adding yet another award ceremony, complete with a red carpet, star wattage and on-stage interviews and v...
Santa Barbara International Film Festival Day One : Opening Night Film: Definitely, Maybe “I like to be manipulated.” I heard one of my male film-going companions state this when talking about why he liked Definitely, Maybe. I don’t think he’s getting in touch with his feminine side as much as he is commenting on his film-going personality. After all, this is why we go see films oftentimes: to be manipulated. To have our tears jerked, to feel something, to follow along on the trials, tri...
Buzz is one of those things that makes a film festival a festival. I'm not talking here about the kind of buzz to be found at a late-night after-party or a pre-event happy hour, but the kind of buzz that's audible, that you hear while standing in line, that you can't help but hearing from pass-wearers strolling the sidewalks. It's the kind of buzz that you hear when selecting which film to see next or the kind of buzz that programmers try to overhear when slotting in new screenings of popular fi...
