SBIFF30

2015 Santa Barbara International Film Festival Award Winner for Best Animation Short Film! Sinking under the weight of his own memories, a man confronts the questions: Is our past more important than life? What would we give up in order to keep on going? Read More

Sometimes the most beautiful forms of life can thrive in the most unfavorable conditions. Born in the backwoods of Kampala, Uganda, Brolin Mawejje was expected to be nothing more than a shopkeeper like his father. At the age of two, his mother left the family and reappeared nine years later, arranging Brolin’s emigration to the United States to join her in Boston’s suburbia. Read More

SBIFF 2015 kicks off with the U.S. Premiere of this timely story that tells the true story of a self-taught dancer pursuing a dream in a suppressed society. Read More

The 30th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, presented by UGG Australia, announced the winners of the 2015 festival competition at a Press Conference and Brunch Saturday morning at the Fess Parker – A Doubletree by Hilton Resort. Read More

Inspired by the 1987 true story, MCFARLAND, USA follows high school coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), whose job-hopping leads him to predominantly Latino McFarland High School, located in an agricultural community in California’s farm-rich San Joaquin Valley. Read More

2015 SBIFF Best Documentary Film Award winner CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC is a portrait of five Native Alaskan teenagers growing up in the northernmost community in the United States. As their climate and way of life undergo profound changes, they strive to be both modern American kids and the inheritors of an endangered whaling culture. Read More

The Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award Winner - A diverse group of South African actors tours the war-torn regions of Northern Ireland, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia to share their country’s experiment with reconciliation. Read More

SBIFF 2015 Audience Choice Award Winner - Who said your grandmother couldn’t be a hip-hop star? These senior citizens may each be almost a century young, but for Kara, (94) Maynie, (95) and Terri, (93) the journey to Las Vegas and the World Hip Hop Dance Championship is just the beginning of a life’s journey. Read More

SBIFF 2015 Santa Barbara Features Award Winner - Celebrated actor Hal Holbrook has carved out a prolific career in film, television and theater, but one role, which he has played since 1954, has become indelibly associated with him: Mark Twain. Read More

In this hilarious romantic comedy, Max is a young man involved in a relationship he’s unable to end. After using up all possible resources to break up with his girlfriend, he decides to hire an agency that specializes in ending relationships. Read More

2015 Santa Barbara International Film Festival winner of the Documentary Short Films Award! Rhythm & Hues Studios, the L.A.-based visual effects company, won an Academy Award for its work on LIFE OF PI just two weeks after declaring bankruptcy. Read More

2015 Santa Barbara International Film Festival Best International Film Award Winner! Paul is a detective in his forties. Dorothy, almost 16, is going through a serious identity crisis. Paul lives on the fringe of Brussels’ self-righteous society, while Dorothy has grown up in the heart of this wealthy milieu. What connects them? Read More

One of the most brazenly original cinematic voices to emerge from Canada in the last decade, Jeffrey St. Jules is known for his unusual, highly stylized short films, which are stacked with wry humour and cheeky experimentation with form... Read More

Nova Scotia-based filmmaker Andrea Dorfman (PARSLEY DAYS, LOVE THAT BOY) returns with HEARTBEAT, a tender and charmingly offbeat portrait of a musician’s bumpy road to self-discovery set against the backdrop of Halifax’s lively arts scene... Read More

Why did a successful Dallas businesswoman leave her charmed life to bake pie in a remote, dusty town in New Mexico? For Kathy Knapp, pie equals love. Read More

In FOXCATCHER, Steve Carell plays John du Pont in a career-defining turn. His transformative and immersive performance is nothing short of extraordinary... Read More

Boyhood's Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke were presented with the 2015 American Riviera Award. Read More

There have been Estonian settlements on the Caucasian Black Sea coast for over a hundred years. The 1992 outbreak of the bloody conflicts between Georgia and the Russia-supported republic of Abkhazia forced the majority of Estonians to return to the country of their forefathers. Read More

Questioning the role of technology in our private and public lives,THE NAKED SCREEN is a relevant portrait of modern day intimacy. When Alex videotapes his girlfriend, Esperanza, as they are making love, an undeniable sense of unease pervades the scene.... Read More

1993, after the Siege of Dubrovnik. Fourteen-year-old Linda has moved back to Croatia from Switzerland with her father. Her new best friend Eta takes her up to the forbidden forest above the city... Read More

Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), Richard Linklater (Boyhood), Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), Laura Poitras (CitizenFour), Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game). Director Andy Davis is presenting. Moderated by Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter. Read More

In January 2013, filmmaker Laura Poitras was in the process of constructing a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11 America when she started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four,” who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA... Read More

The Variety Artisans Award celebrates those who are essential to the filmmaking process and who have exhibited the most exciting and innovative work of the year in their respective fields. Read More

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival continues its tradition of honoring the year’s standout performers by presenting The 2015 Virtuosos Award to Chadwick Boseman (Get on Up), Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood), Logan Lerman (Fury), David Oyelowo (Selma), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl ), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) and Jenny Slate (Obvious Child). Read More

After graduating from law school, Cenk Uygur decided to create his own talk show on public access TV and became instantly hooked on political commentary. In an unlikely version of the American Dream... Read More

2014 marked the 40th anniversary of the release of Kansas, the band’s debut album. To commemorate the occasion, the classic Kansas lineup reunited for the first time in more than 30 years at the place their incredible journey began: Topeka, Kansas... Read More

Directly inspired by HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS (1976), this documentary captures a new community of folk singer-songwriters whose work is heavily influenced by the artists represented in the original film.a Read More

In A BETTER YOU, Dr. Ron Knight is a hypnotherapist in Los Angeles with a self-published book, cheesy late-night TV commercials, and his face on bus bench ads... Read More

Seven Oscar Nominated Screenwriters on one stage at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Read More

One of SBIFF's crowd favorites - the Producers Panel returns to the Lobero Theatre. Read More