2006 Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Here are the archived articles from Edhat's coverage of the 2006 festival. Scroll down on the page to find links to stories about tributes, parties, panel, discussions, films, and more.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Festival Photo Gallery
You see us everywhere taking pictures. See how the pictures came out. Maybe there is one of you.

DAILY REPORTS

Festival Day 1
Yesterday was Day One of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the dedicated staff of edhat.com rose early, packed up our brand new bags with clipboards, buttons, pens and clickers, and headed downtown to the Hotel Santa Barbara to pick up our press passes and check out the scene.

Festival Day 2
Friday was the first full day of the 2006 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. In case you haven’t counted, there are 37 letters in that name. Racehorse names cant be more than 18 characters long. But then again, not even John Henry ran for 21 years. Speaking of race horses, that is what the dedicated staff of edhat.com felt like yesterday as we rushed from venue to venue to provide full coverage of the days events.

Festival Day 3
Saturday was a busy day at our 37-letter named festival. For starters, eight more people graced the Ed Carpet. And, there were some very tasty baked goods available in the Press Room.

Festival Day 4
The crowd at the Hotel Santa Barbara was a little bit thinner Sunday morning, perhaps the effects of too much late night partying? And as the dedicated staff of edhat.com stood on the sidewalk in front of the hotel examining the day, we thought that Santa Barbara had its sleepy little home town feel back. The air was unusually warm, and was twinkling with snippets of Superbowl smack talk, as locals and tourists sauntered past.

Festival Day 5
It was water day at the SBIFF, but the members of the dedicated staff of edhat are all good swimmers. We were able to overcome the deluge to get from one venue to the next in order to bring you coverage of these events. The only time we started dogpaddling was at the SBIFF Press Office.

Festival Day 6
Tuesday was a slow day at the Film Festival. Aside from the centerpiece screening of Man About Town and the after-movie party, there were just films. Imagine that, a day at the film festival with nothing but films?

Festival Day 7
Yesterday was Heath Ledger day at the 37 character named film festival. Ledger received the Imperia Award and was the toast of the party at the Harley Davidson store on Haley and Chapala, the old tire store that has changes tenants as often as Ed changes toasters.

Festival Day 8
Yesterday was a warm day in Santa Barbara. Folks were walking up and down State Street in shorts and capri pants and open toed shoes. It was just a typical summer day, except that its February. And for many visitors, here for the SBIFF, it must have been a challenge to pull something out of the old Pullman. Some people might bring a jacket in August, but no one brings flip-flops on a trip in February – even a trip to Santa Barbara.

Festival Day 9
It was the world premiere of On the Pipe 2 at the Arlington. Now, if you are as naive as the dedicated staff of edhat.com, you are probably wondering just what the pipe is referring to, Snowboarding? Surfing? Skateboarding? A hash pipe? Plumbing? Organ music? All wrong. On the Pipe 2 is about dirt biking.

Festival Day 10
Yes Jim, we have seen some good films - but you are correct, we have also seen quite a few not-so-good films as well. You see, its not always coffee and palm trees being a member of the dedicated staff of edhat.com. Aside from the fact that our boss, Ed, is as crazy as an AYSO soccer fan, we don’t always get the choice assignments - remember the toilets?

Festival Day 11
It was eleven days of movies, parties, panels, discussions, spin, networking, access, schmoozing, drinking, eating, complaining about being tired ...

TRIBUTES

Philip Seymour Hoffman
I first became aware of Philip Seymour Hoffman in the Paul Thomas Anderson film, Magnolia. He played Phil Parma, a hospice worker who never left the side of his dying patient. His job was to be silent, invisible and still. Oh yes, his big action in the film is to make a phone call. Then he goes back to being silent, invisible and still.

Heath Ledger
I can tell you that Mr. Ledger was not all that comfortable sitting in front of the standing room only crowd at the Lobero and being the subject of all that attention. Shoulders hunched forward, hands and feet nervously flying into action he gamely answered the requisite questions.

James Cameron
It seems the self-proclaimed King of the World has gone natural. Which helps explainwhy James Cameron was awarded this year’s Attenborough Award for Excellence in Nature Filmmaking.

George Clooney
Saying that he does not worry about making good dramas about contemporary issues, but NOT making them, George Clooney accepted his Modern Master Award, which accidentally broke apart on stage, and as George feigned disgust, the audience responded with laughter, as we had all evening during Georges disarmingly animated recollections of his acting career

Naomi Watts
The theater was as packed as turkeys on their way to an Adopt A Turkey sanctuary farm in upstate New York. Pete Hammond, interviewing her on stage for a full two hours, introduced Naomi Watts as one of the great actresses of our day – an artist capable of projecting the deepest and subtlest emotions, the poetry of life, both sad and light, on the screen.

PANELS & DISCUSSIONS

Scoring the Film
Stewart Copeland eluded Ed and me yesterday at the SBIFF Composers Panel, Scoring the Film. After chasing him down in 1999 and shamelessly slipping him my screenplay at that years SBIFF composer’s panel, I wanted to see whether he’d changed much, but such was not to be. His panel discussion with Glenn Ballard had been something of a revelation to me, explaining the scoring process in Shakespearean terms that made perfect sense to a writer. It was the most useful panel I attended that year, and I have made a point of trying to attend the composer panels ever since.

Producers Panel
Preaching to a packed Victoria Hall, the movers behind this years most honored films, Caroline Baron, J.C. Sprink, Mark Johnson, Grant Heslov, Diana Osana, and James Keach spoke up for what they believed in, which was necessary, since their mikes were turned off. This was due to a sound system that inadvertently broadcast an AM radio station.

Screenwriters Panel
The morning dawns gray and cold on the coldwater sandstone steps of MARJORIE LUKE THEATER. Several CROWS peck and pull at the GRASS outside. Unbeknownst to the crows, within the SOIL just beneath the grass, WORMS scurry and frolick. CARS file into the parking lot. This will be a day to remember.

Directors Panel
Nicole asked a group of these talented directors, some of who actually are nominated for an Oscar the question, How does it really feel to be the person on the set who gets to yell CUT?

Reel Nature Panel
Famed undersea photographer Mike deGruy brought together an impressive panel of experts this afternoon at the Reel Nature Panel at the Lobero Theatre. The panel included Keenan Smart of National Geographic, IMAX honchos, Howard and Michelle Hall, and Phil Fairclough. The group came to discuss the challenges and the future of nature films.

Women in the Biz
Abate, a producer, told about her first job in LA, temping at Disney Studios. She was working in a trailer with a leaky roof on a rainy day. Her boss handed her a small phone book and a piece of cardboard and asked if she could make a box for the phone book. She shrugged and did it. Tired of the rain coming in, she found a piece of plastic and put it on the roof. The producer for whom she was working was so impressed, he hired her to work on the film.

Robert Towne
On Friday, I went to a discussion with Robert Towne at Victoria Hall. You could have called it a Towne Hall Meeting, well except for the fact that there weren’t a lot of people there, mostly just press – out of town press, I might add.

PARTIES

Two Parties For Thursday
Last night there was no big event at Film Festival, but there were a couple of parties. Actually there were two parties - one honoring local Santa Barbara filmmakers at a private home in the Upper-East-Side-Slash-Lower-Riviera area, and the other celebrating the Latino Cinemedia sidebar at the Anthropologie store on State Street. The sidebar is a selection of Spanish language films from Central and South America being shown at the Festival.

Centerpiece Film and Party
This years Centerpiece Film was the world premiere of director Mike Binder’s Man About Town, starring Ben Affleck. To start off the comparisons, both this years centerpiece and last year’s centerpiece had parts by Santa Barbara local, John Cleese. In both films his character is pompous and very dryly funny.

Heath Ledger Party
Imagine how excited I was - my first Edhat writing assignment and I landed the plum Heath Ledger Party gig. At the Harley Davidson Store? I put the little black sequin number back in the mothballs, and scrounged around for the black leather Harley Jacket. It fits better anyway.

Party In The Garage
I was very flattered when Edhat contacted me and asked if I would be willing to help cover the film festival. I was even happier when given my first SBIFF assignment; to cover the George Clooney party. A press pass, a night out on the town and George Clooney? How lucky could one girl get?!

OTHER

Opening Night
But duty calls and I eventually make my way to the Arlington, where not only do I get to see the big searchlights up close and personal, I get my first star sighting of the evening. It is Kate Wentzel. No, not Kate Winslet, but dont they sound alike? Kate does the weather for KEYT and is very sweet when I tell her that my coworkers are big fans, which they are, did I tell you how large the press pass is? It blocks my whole shirt.

Film Festival Awards
2006 Santa Barbara International Film Festival Awards were announced.

Closing Night Film
The 21st SBIFF ended on a refreshingly iconoclastic note with Santa Barbaras own Jason (son of Ivan) Reitmans film, Thank You for Smoking.

Ten Ten Ten
Ten local students had ten days to do a ten minute long movie – film at eleven. The Santa Barbara Film Festival proved once again that it offers something for everyone

Karla
It was nine thirty and the fog had rolled in by the time I walked out my front door to wait for my friend to pick me up. Because it was so late, there were no other cars driving up and down the hillside road. But as I stood there watching the shifting images of the fog, I could swear I heard noises in the underbrush.

On The Pipe
Im still not quite sure why it was called On the Pipe. I am pretty sure that pipe refers to a halfpipe, but there was not one halfpipe to be found. And the only full pipe present was the exhaust pipe. The movie was about motorcycles, of course, and it featured many extreme videos of freestyle motorcycling.

What I Did Last Night
Last night Ed called me to say that my assignment for the evening had been cancelled, and before I could stop myself, I blurted out, oh, thank god. Luckily, Ed was not peeved, he is a bit exhausted from all this nonstop film festival coverage. All those stories he has to edit make for late nights. Plus he has to field emails from Edhats dedicated subscribers, some of whom seem to not be too gungho on festival coverage.

The Ed Carpet
Every day during the Festival from 11:00AM to 1:00PM the dedicated staff of edhat.com will be in front of the Hotel Santa Barbara interviewing and photographing anyone who wants to tell us why they are at the Film Festival. Below are the people who are already visited our little piece of shag on State Street. We are looking forward to seeing you there too!

Local Surf Movie
Last night was locals night at the 21st Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The world premiere of The Craving, a local movie about local people addicted to surfing, played at the Arlington.

Short Movie Reviews
We asked our writers to send in a brief write up whenever they have the chance to sneak into a film.

Roy London
Twelve years after his death, acting coach Roy London continues to thrive. His teaching still resonates in the work of actors like Academy Award winner Geena Davis, and Golden Globe winners Sharon Stone and Brad Pitt.