The 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival Begins
Our 2025 picks and tips for celluloid nirvana
WORDS Ninette Paloma
If the café lines feel longer than usual today, it is likely due to the 600 Santa Barbara International Film Festival volunteers fueling up before posting up for a twelve-day marathon of all things cinema and celebrity. Wearing pink matching t-shirts and first-day grins, some will head over to the SBIFF Film Center, where around-the-clock programming on five screens will keep moviegoers entertained from 8am to just before the witching hour. Others will make a beeline for the intimate SBIFF Riviera Theatre, where the beloved arthouse will play host to a tightly edited selection of films in serene environs. A hefty contingent will stroll toward the 2,000-seat Arlington Theatre where dazzling celebrity tributes, industry panels, and free blockbuster screenings are on the bill. Mobilized throughout the city, these volunteers are the mighty seeds from which the festival has sprouted from for four decades, so be sure to thank them as you amble toward the milk station.
As for this year's programming, the 185 films from 60 countries, 8 celebrity tributes, 5 industry panels, and 8 filmmaker seminars pose the usual time constraints dilemma, so when it came time to curate our annual film fest picks, we let our senses and sensibilities guide us toward a streamlined festival experience. Taking inspiration from Birdwoman - this year's poster subject created by artist Mary Heebner - we selected films for their quiet power to resurrect empathy while resonating beauty. Grouped together by thematic expressions, this is how we'll be celebrating SBIFF 2025:
If February ushered in a serious case of wanderlust, then the luscious cine-scapes of Gabriele Fabbro's Trifole, Charlie McDowell's The Summer Book, Ricardo Montreuil's Mistura, and Gaby Dellal's Park Avenue are the next best thing to hopping on a plane.
Looking for sociopolitical films plucked directly from today's headlines? Zainab Entezar's Shot the Voice of Freedom, Kinshuck Surjan's Marching in the Dark, Joel Kachi Benson's Mothers of Chibok, Errol Morris's Separated, Bonnie Cohen's The White House Effect, and Vincent De Luca's Desert Angel will inspire even as they break your heart.
Are inventive and colorful storylines more your style? Look no further than Madeleine Rotzier's O Horizon, Ann Marie Fleming's Can I Get a Witness, Peter Cattaneo's The Penguin Lessons, Elizabeth Lo's Mistress Dispeller, and Farahnaz Sharifi's My Stolen Planet.
If championing local filmmakers is a priority this year, then don't miss Soraya Simi's Row of Life, Heidi Levitt's Walk With Me, and Amy Herdy's Parrot Kindergarten along with the Santa Barbara Documentary and Narrative Shorts.
Follow along with us over the next twelve days as we share our reviews and experiences through a narrative lens that also highlights the vibrant coastal town hosting this cinephile love fest rain or shine each year. See you in the theatres, Santa Barbara!
