The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the juggernaut of local events, rolls into town on Wednesday for 11 days of nonstop screenings, star-studded celebrity tributes, panels packed with industry insiders, and much more.

Click here to get the most recent pocket guide with the complete schedule and here for tickets and passes.

Oscar Nominees Abound

The tributes are indeed star-studded: All of this year’s five Academy Award Best Actor nominees are being individually honored, plus two Best Actress and two Best Supporting Actor nominees, and three who are up for Best Supporting Actress.

Several tributes are already sold out, including Bradley Cooper and Robert Downey Jr., and the Virtuoso Awards, which has a passel of Oscar nominees and stand-out performers.

As of this writing, tickets are still available for Mark Ruffalo (Feb. 11), Directors of the Year (to be announced, Feb. 12), Paul Giamatti (Feb. 14), Jeffrey Wright (Feb. 15) and Annette Bening (Feb. 16). All of the Artisan Award (Feb. 11) winners are also Oscar nominees.

Tributes are in-person and held at 8 p.m. at the Arlington Theatre. Come early for the red carpet arrivals, which are simulcast inside.

Every single participant in the festival’s four industry panels are 2024 Academy Award nominees, including the producers of all 10 Best Picture nominees, and four of the five Best International Feature Film nominees on the International Panel (both held Feb. 10).

The Writers Panel (Feb. 12) has standout authors of original and adapted screenplays, and the Woman’s Panel (Feb. 17) features a director/producer, composer, songwriter, hair and makeup designer, and the head of production of an animation studio.

Breadth, Variety and Diversity of Films

Festival organizers take the “International” in their name seriously, offering 77 U.S. premieres from 48 countries, plus many more non-premiere films — and the world premieres of 45 films.

Wednesday’s opening night film is a nod to Nigeria, whose “Nollywood” is the world’s second-largest film industry with more films released annually than Hollywood, surpassed only by India’s Bollywood.

Already sold out, it is the world premiere of “Madu,” a Nigerian documentary following a talented 12-year-old dancer who leaves his Lagos home to study at a prestigious ballet school.

“More than 70% of the festival’s movies have not been seen – and might not ever be seen – anywhere else,” said festival programming director Claudia Puig, a former Los Angeles Times journalist and USA Today film critic.

Countries represented for the first time this year include Burkina Faso (“Sira,” a look at troubles faced by women in the West African country), Bulgaria (“Blaga’s Lessons,” in which a scamming victim joins her scammers), Central African Republic (“Eat Bitter,” a drama set during their civil war) and Estonia (“Estonia,” based on the real sinking of MS Estonia).

Two films are from war-torn Ukraine: “In the Rearview” follows a van driven by the film’s director and other evacuees during the Russian invasion, and “Photophobia” (U.S. premiere) about a family sheltering from the war in a metro station.

Puig pointed out that a large percentage of this year’s films were made by people who are often under-represented in the film industry.

“We want a balance of worlds, genres and subjects, but to also be diverse, with a breadth of perspectives and parity of genders,” she said. “This is a particularly good year for women, as more than half of our films are directed by them.”

This includes actresses-turned-filmmakers, as with the closing night film “Chosen Family” (world premiere, Feb. 17). It was written, directed and stars Heather Graham (“Boogie Nights”), who will attend with other cast members.

Jennifer Esposito (“NCIS,” “Spin City”) presents her mob movie “Fresh Kills,” and Chelsea Peretti (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Saturday Night Live” writer) directed, wrote and starred in “First Time Female Director.” Puig played off that title for the free Filmmaker Seminar she will moderate Feb. 9 on “First Time Female Filmmakers.”

Puig also called out several documentaries that feature “women doing amazing things” such as the world premiere of “Diving Into the Darkness” about cave diving icon Jill Heinerth, and “Ashima,” named for an Asian-American 13-year-old girl who is among the youngest elite rock climbers.

“Freedom,” which uses artist Frida Kahlo’s own words to tell her story, was picked up two weeks ago at Sundance.

There’s a special treat at the screening of “Shari & Lamb Chop,” a profile of the late ventriloquist Shari Lewis, a television pioneer beloved by generations of children: Shari’s daughter, Mallory, with puppet Lamb Chop.

Puig, in her third year with the festival, leads the team of four programmers who select the festival films from more than 4,000 submissions by watching four or five movies a day for about five months.

“Yes, we get paid to watch movies,” she said. “Sometimes it can be not-so-great, but when you watch something you love, it’s all worth it.”