San Francisco International Film Festival
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The San Francisco International Film Festival, first held in December 1957 in San Francisco, is the oldest continuously running film festival in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, the event celebrates its 50th anniversary at the 2007 festival held between 26 April to 10 May 2007. Graham Leggat became the executive director of the festival on 17 October 2005.
The Festival played a major role in introducing foreign films to American audiences. Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali screened at the first festival, which opened on December 4, 1957, and took place at the Metro Theater on Union Street, owned by Irving M. "Bud" Levin.
The annual 15-day Festival now presents nearly 200 films from over 50 countries and reaches an engaged audience of tens of thousands of film lovers, filmmakers, industry representatives and journalists with screenings in San Francisco, Berkeley, and the Peninsula. The Festival highlights current trends in international film and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution.
The Golden Gate Awards is the competitive section for documentaries, shorts, animation, experimental, youth-produced and work for television. Juries award cash prizes ranging up to $5,000 in ten of the 14 categories.
First features by emerging filmmakers are eligible for the SKYY Prize, which includes a $10,000 cash award, and was established in 1997 by the Festival and premier sponsor SKYY Vodka to recognize a director whose film exhibits a unique artistic sensibility.
The Festival also invites recent feature-length narratives and documentaries and archival presentations from around the globe, special awards and tributes recognizing individual achievement.
