The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival, a celebration of international and independent film and filmmakers, will run April 23-May 7, 2009. The call for entries for narrative features, documentary features and short films is now open. The primary deadline is Friday, November 7 and the final deadline is Friday, December 5, 2008.
The longest-running film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival has built an international reputation for bringing the world's finest films and filmmakers together with passionate and enthusiastic Bay Area audiences. Visionary from the start, the S.F. International has shown nearly 6,000 films from over 120 countries to nearly two million people and earned worldwide recognition as an extraordinary showcase of cinematic excellence.
The 15-day festival presents 200 films from 50 countries to an audience of 80,000 film lovers, filmmakers, industry representatives and journalists and awards $80,000 in cash prizes to filmmakers.
Narrative features, documentaries, shorts, animation, experimental, youth-produced and television works on film, video and digital media which have been completed after January 1, 2008 may be submitted. The Festival highlights current trends in international film and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution.
Entry form and information can be found at http://www.sffs.org/sfiff/enter.html. San Francisco Film Society members at the Filmmaker Pro level are eligible for a discount on SFIFF entry fees. More information about SFFS membership can be found at www.sffs.org/membership.
Documentaries, shorts, animation, experimental, youth-produced and television works are eligible for 15 Golden Gate Awards and cash prizes totaling $80,000. SFIFF52 will inaugurate the Golden Gate Award for Best Investigative Documentary Feature to $20,000 and with a juried cash prize of $25,000. This new award, along with increases in the purse for Best Documentary FeatureBest Bay Area Documentary Feature to $15,000 will enable the Festival to showcase the world's finest nonfiction works. Additional prizes of goods and services TBA. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes the San Francisco International Film Festival as a qualifying festival for the live action, animated and documentary short categories of the 81st annual Academy Awards.
First features by emerging filmmakers will be considered for the $15,000 New Directors Prize, established in 1997 by the Festival to recognize a film with a unique artistic sensibility or vision. Narrative features are eligible to be considered for the FIPRESCI Prize, awarded by members of the International Federation of Film Critics. The San Francisco International Film Festival is one of only three North American film festivals selected to award a FIPRESCI Prize.
Audience Awards will be given to the Best Narrative Feature and the Best Documentary Feature. The Chris Holter Award for Humor in Film includes a $3,500 prize.
The Golden Gate Awards, New Directors Prize, Holter Award and FIPRESCI Prize winners will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards celebration on Wednesday, May 6. The Audience Awards will be announced on Closing Night, Thursday, May 7.
