For Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) fans, the unveiling of the new poster and list of films is the starting gun of the festival. It all becomes real.
That happened Wednesday morning at Sullivan Goss Art Gallery. After the untimely passing of long-time SBIFF poster artist (and lovely person), Barbara Boros, five years ago, each year the festival has engaged a prominent local artist to bring their vision to the poster.
The Poster
This year, Executive Director Roger Durling chose Baret Boisson, a vibrant, self-taught artist who started at age 30 and is a 10 year Santa Barbara resident. Her poster is a striking collage of symbols and images that the artist said she did not want to interpret for others, stating she wants people to “feel what you feel when you see it”.
Durling gave her free reign to put her vision into the poster with the only limitation being the retention of the font that SBIFF has used for decades, although that too was tweaked a little.
While the interpretation may be individual, the timely message of artistic freedom is summarized in the JFK quote at the bottom, “if art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free, to follow his vision wherever it takes him”, chosen after the renaming of the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center.
Feel free to comment on what you see in the poster.
The Films
For its 41st edition, SBIFF is featuring 46 world premieres and 80 U.S. premieres from 50 countries and, continuing its groundbreaking trend, 50% of films are directed by women. There are also the tributes with the most anticipated being the unholy bringing together of aging smart-hunks Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro for the Hammond Cinema Vanguard award, newly named after long-time SBIFF moderator Pete Hammond.
Roger Durling also highlighted the career retrospective of Julian Schnabel, renowned visual artist turned filmmaker whose film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I thought was so emotionally beautiful. His first film since 2018, In the Hand of Dante, will show at the festival.
The program guide will be posted soon but the films are listed here. The direct link to purchase tickets and passes is https://portal.givepayments.com/2302
The New McHurley Film Center
The big news is that McHurley Film Center (where the Fiesta 5 used to be) will host the film festival. The theater will have state-of-the-art film projection, with three theaters having Dolby Atmos sound. The films will pop and the fest-going experience will be entering a new age.
Sean Pratt, SBIFF’s unstoppable Managing Director, has been overseeing the construction, which isn’t usually with the scope of the job of a film festival Managing Director but construction is in the family.
Durling thanked Sean for his work, but inadvertently called him Sean Penn, and then joked that he needed to chain smoke and age himself. Perhaps, as Nikki Glaser remarked about Sean Penn during the Golden Globes, Sean Pratt will “slowly morph into a sexy leather handbag.”
Durling also thanked the rest of the well-oiled machine: Claudia Puig, the Programming Director, Benjamin Bhutani Goedert; and Claire Waterhouse, Education Director.
More to come from edhat as the festival launches on February 4th!
Also Read
- Jessie Buckley Earns Standing Ovation at Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Unpacks Emotional Ending of “Hamnet”
- UCSB Student Documentary on California Grizzlies to Screen at SBIFF
- Decorated Filmmakers Honored with Outstanding Directors Award at Santa Barbara International Film Festival
- Film Review: Peter Asher – Everywhere Man
- UCSB Filmmaker Wendy Eley Jackson’s ‘The Other Roe’ at SBIFF
ok i’ll just say it….and i’m sure i’ll get pummeled for my opinion. I am not a fan of this event, at all. I have lived here since 1981 and am involved in the ‘art scene’. i do not know one single person from SB that is into this or attends. It just brings in people from LA and NY. The film festival people are quite rude to the locals and people downtown. Last year they took over the Fiesta theater. The put stations block the entire street from pedestrians, joggers, bikes and everything else. They were told to change their line direction and refused to, clearly blocking the entire road. People complained and it fell on deaf ears. I personally went to SBPD and provided photos and a statement, and that got them to send an officer downtown to tell them to remove the stantions and place them elsewhere and not to block the road. They pushed back on this. This event brings very little to SB other than headlines.
And a whole lot of money…
Go back to gouging renters, you’ll feel better.