Not able to spring for a pass to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which starts Wednesday?
You can get the “Film Festival feeling” at a number free movie screenings and seminars – a couple with major stars – scattered throughout the 11-day event.
Visit www.sbiff.org for details on all the films, tributes, and other festival activities.
If it’s stars you want, here’s an insider tip: catch a glimpse of the honorees and other VIPs as they arrive at the red carpet before the nightly tributes. It is free and fine to hang out and enjoy the glamor parade.
Daily Free Film Screenings
Movies are screened for free nearly every day at 2 p.m. at the Arlington Theatre. Most are “Best Picture” nominees featuring the A-List celebrities honored during the festival (often the same night as the screening).
Admission to these free films is first-come, first-served after the pass holders are admitted.
The line may be as lengthy as the film “Oppenheimer” (clocking in at three hours) as its Oscar-nominated star Cillian Murphy (“Peaky Blinders”) will attend the screening (Feb. 9) for what is sure to be an explosive Q&A (pun intended).
Multi-Grammy winner Jon Batiste will attend the screening (Feb. 13) of “American Symphony,” a documentary following a year in the musician’s life. He’s nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song (“It Never Goes Away”).
Free screenings also include “Maestro” (Feb. 8), “Poor Things” (Feb. 11), “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Feb. 12), “The Holdovers” (Feb. 14), “American Fiction” (Feb. 15), and “Nyad” (Feb. 16).
Just added: two additional screenings that are held at 11 a.m.: “The Zone of Interest” (Feb. 12) and “Past Lives” (Feb. 15).
Intimate Conversations with Filmmakers
Six themed filmmaker seminars are free and open to the public, and offer insights and conversation about key topics with filmmakers who have films screening this year’s festival.
The intimate discussions are held at 11 a.m. at Tamsen Gallery at 911-1/2 State Street, across from Fiesta 5 Theatre.
Participants and moderators have not been announced, but the topics sound fascinating: First-time Female Filmmakers (Feb. 9), The Long and Short of Short Filmmaking (Feb. 12), Fight the Power: Documentary Activism at Work (Feb. 13), Independent Filmmaking (Feb. 14), Global Lens: Conversations with International Filmmakers (Feb. 15) and My So Cal Life: California Filmmakers’ Roundtable (Feb. 16).
Screenings for Schoolkids and Film Studies for Teens
More than 4,000 fourth- through sixth-graders from Santa Barbara County Title 1 schools are offered free screenings and Q&As with the filmmakers as part of “Mike’s FieldTrip to the Movies,” named for late Santa Barbara nature cinematographer Mike DeGruy.
This year, the program features directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, and Kemp Powers following their film “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” and director Peter Sohn following “Elemental.”
Twenty area high school and college students take part in the festival’s 5-month 10-10-10 Student Screenwriting Mentorship and Competition.
The selected teens are paired to create screenwriter-director duos, and over five months are guided through the process of taking a short film from script to screen.
This year’s films premiere at a free screening (Feb. 17) at the Arlington Theatre at 2 p.m.
Earlier that day, at 11 a.m., is a free screening of films about social justice issues produced by festival partner Youth CineMedia, a local organization that teaches documentary filmmaking to youth and diverse groups from urban and rural communities.
In addition, the festival becomes an interactive classroom for 30 undergrad college students from around the country as part of the Film Studies Program.
They receive priority access to the films, panels, filmmaker seminars, tributes, and Q&As. This priceless experience is offered by the festival free of cost.