Santa Barbara Film Festival Pledges to Help With L.A. Wildfire Relief

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Santa Barbara Film Festival Pledges to Help With L.A. Wildfire Relief


Roger Durling can’t conceal his pleasure for the 40th version of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The SBIFF director sees the necessity for a celebration of artwork as Los Angeles, 90 minutes or so to the south of Santa Barbara, begins to get well from devastating wildfires that destroyed giant areas of the county.

“It gives you a sense of togetherness, a sense of community, and that’s what we need right now. I have always found that in the most difficult times in my life, film festivals and films have always been a beacon,” Durling says.

SBIFF and Direct Relief are partnering in a response to the wildfires as effectively, accepting donations for reduction and placing up a $100,000 matching grant. “We’re going to be printing limited edition 40th anniversary T-shirts, and then all the funds from the merchandise will go towards the Direct Relief fund,” he says.

This 12 months the pageant will add an additional day to have a good time its milestone anniversary and can display 33 world premieres — with 52% of the movies directed by ladies — in addition to a sturdy choice of shorts.

The pageant, which runs Feb. 4-15, opens with the U.S. premiere of “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” written and directed by Laura Piani, who will attend the screening and conduct a Q&A. The lineup contains movies from 60 international locations, together with pageant circuit faves reminiscent of “The Penguin Lessons,” directed by Peter Cattaneo (Spain, U.Okay.); “Balomanía,” directed by Sissel Morell Dargis (Denmark, Spain); “Democracy Under Siege,” directed by Laura Nix (Belgium, Luxembourg, U.S.); “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” the directorial debut of actor Embeth Davidtz (South Africa); “The Good Teacher,” from Teddy Lussi-Modeste (France); and “Seeking a Haven for Mr. Rambo,” directed by Khaled Mansour (Egypt).

Fest closes with the U.S. bow of “A Missing Part,” written and directed by Guillaume Senez.

“A Missing Part”
Courtesy of Unifrance

Stars scheduled to seem at SBIFF embody Angelina Jolie (”Maria”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”), Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Pérez”), Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”), Harris Dickinson (“Babygirl”), Selena Gomez (“Emilia Pérez”), Ariana Grande (“Wicked”), Clarence Maclin (“Sing Sing”), Mickey Madison (“Anora”) and John Magaro (“September 5”).

There are additionally free household movies and free filmmaker seminars on the pageant slate. The complete program might be discovered on the SBIFF app.

While the panels that includes the 2025 Oscar-nominated administrators, writers, producers and animators are an enormous draw, Durling says that his favourite a part of the pageant is the day it performs host to five,000 elementary faculty college students from north Santa Barbara County for a screening — this 12 months, it’s DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot.” This occasion ties in with the pageant’s year-round training and screening applications.

Durling notes that the SBIFF has accomplished 60 Academy screenings since September “because we have about 200 Academy members locally.”

“You would imagine that after 20 years [at the festival], I would start getting tired, but it’s the opposite; I am so fired up,” Durling says, enthusing in regards to the group’s theaters – particularly the Film Center house — and lots of education schemes.

“When everybody thinks about Santa Barbara, they just think about the big tributes and the panels, which are Oscar-oriented. But behind the curtain, there’s quite a lot for cinephiles, and it’s a blast. We have six screens at our disposal for year-round programming. I think that the secret sauce to our longevity is the year-round programming.”

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