Founded in 1957, the San Francisco International Film Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas. Held each spring for two weeks, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in the country’s most beautiful city, featuring some 150 films and live events with more than 100 filmmakers in attendance and nearly two dozen awards presented for cinematic excellence. The Festival attracts an annual audience of more than 80,000.

“Few festivals are more suited to their city than the International. It’s clearly a festival programmed by those who love film for people who love film.” — Alex Romanelli, editor, Variety

 

The San Francisco Film Society presents the fifth annual San Francisco International Animation Festival (SFIAF), a four-day celebration of the Bay Area’s preeminence as a hub for one of the most creative forms in cinema, November 11–14 at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. This year’s International Animation Festival ranges from FX-based features to family-friendly cartoons and includes Hayao Miyazaki protégé Sunao Katabuchi’s Mai Mai Miracle, the Decemberists-inspired Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, six wildly diverse shorts programs and a live animation and musical performance by artist duo Semiconductor.

“SFIAF explores the many forms of animation as both an artistic practice and a mode of production,” said programmer Sean Uyehara. “Each year it’s exciting to discover and present a range of work from established artists such as anime director Sunao Katabuchi and this year’s Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award recipient Don Hertzfeldt to works by emerging talents such as Brent Green and Skye Thorstensen to the unique work of the innovative duo Semiconductor.”

The San Francisco Film Society, New Italian Cinema Events of Florence, Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco present New Italian Cinema, November 14–21 at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. The eight-day festival is dedicated to bringing Italy’s newest directors and films to Bay Area audiences and celebrating the country’s rich cinematic tradition. The 2010 edition opens with Ferzan Ozpetek’s humorous drama Loose Cannons and a three-film retrospective of this talented and prolific auteur’s work, and closes with Paolo Virzì’s moving new film The First Beautiful Thing. The core program of New Italian Cinema features seven recent films by breakthrough filmmakers vying for the City of Florence Award.

The San Francisco Film Society in association with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco, Taiwan's Government Information Office and Taiwan's Tourism Bureau presents Taiwan Film Days, October 22–24 at Viz Cinema at the New People center, 1746 Post Street. This exciting showcase highlights the best of contemporary Taiwanese cinema and provides Bay Area audiences with unique opportunities to view bold new Taiwanese films and engage with visionary filmmakers.

The San Francisco Film Society, in association with the French-American Cultural Society, the French Consulate of San Francisco and Unifrance USA, presents French Cinema Now, Thursday, October 28–Wednesday, November 3, at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema, One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level. The weeklong annual festival brings the most significant new work from one of the world’s most renowned filmmaking countries to discerning Bay Area audiences. FCN covers a broad spectrum of subject matter and genres, builds a comprehensive picture of the current moment in French cinema and delivers some of the country’s most vital filmmakers in person to San Francisco audiences.

The San Francisco Film Society will present the second annual Cinema by the Bay, a celebration of the passion, innovation and diversity of Bay Area filmmaking, the intelligence and probing spirit of local directors and the incredible depth and breadth of America’s film and media frontier, November 5–8 at the Roxie Theater, Southern Exposure and the Lab. The four-day festival will feature new work produced in or about the San Francisco Bay Area and provide a compelling window into Bay Area film culture and practice at its best. CBTB includes features, shorts, narratives and documentaries from well-known and emerging local talent.