We launched our A2E (Artist To Entrepreneur) program at the San Francisco Film Society with OnRamp (The Direct Distribution Lab). This is a pilot lab of a pilot program designed to give filmmakers the necessary entrepreneurial skills to achieve a sustainable creative life amidst this changing paradigm.
Read MoreYesterday's San Francisco Chronicle Datebook featured some familiar faces with a double feature on the San Francisco Film Society. Executive Director Ted Hope made the cover(!) and Filmmaker360 Director Michele Turnure-Salleo talked about helping great films get made.
Also, make sure not to miss the bonus 16 capsules full of exciting SFIFF films and events! See you at Opening Night this Thrsday!
Yesterday we toasted to the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival with our Press Conference, Member's Night, and Festival website launch! Our trailer has gone public, film guides are out, and merchandise is in and on sale. Hats off to our amazing staff, volunteers, members and supporters who made last night a blast!
On December 2, SFFS Executive Director Ted Hope gave the following keynote address at the International Film Festival Summit in Austin, Texas.
Thank you for inviting me into your community. I have been in the film business for close to 30 years now – but it is as if I lived on the other side of a wall from you. I had one vision of what it took to put on festivals, but that was just a pale shadow of the brutal reality I have come to face in my two months on the job at the San Francisco Film Society. It’s hard work running a film festival! If any of you have played my films over the years and I didn’t bestow flowers and thanks on you, please line up at the end of this talk and you can slap my hand, twice! I owe you guys!
I like to think the kind invite to speak today, though, is symbolic of us crashing down that wall, and the start of a new era – but then I have always been a tad grandiose… I mean, I did get drawn into this show business thing, after all.
Today, I think we all come for answers, but I have to warn you: my search for those answers has only led me to more questions. Those are the gifts I have to share after two months on the job as the Executive Director of The San Francisco Film Society. Questions that come from looking at our film culture and wondering how we can serve it best.
Read MoreThe San Francisco Film Society wrapped its 56th San Francisco International Film Festival with 263 screenings of 158 films from 51 countries, which were attended by over 210 filmmakers and industry guests from over 21 countries around the globe. During its 15-day run, SFIFF56 showed 67 Narrative Features, 28 Documentary Features and a total of 63 short films.
This year the International awarded over $70,000 in prizes—one of the largest cash totals distributed by a U.S. film festival—to emerging and established filmmakers from ten countries around the world. Below are the award winning films.
