Many feared for the fate of regional film festivals following the pandemic, but if attendance at the 27th Sonoma International Film Festival was any indication, these mainstays of the cinephile circuit are doing just OK. The festival announced its largest attendance ever for the 2024 event surpassing ticket and pass holder sales for 2023. But beyond serving as a showcase of independent, international and documentary film for the bay area, SIFF featured many industry players happy to connect post-Oscars and Sundance.
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Guests and jury members at this year’s festival included current Sundance Film Festival Director Eugene Hernandez, Telluride Film Festival Executive Director Julie Huntslinger, Participant Media SVP Rob Williams, Sideshow’s Jason Hellerstein, Begin Again Films’ Rosa Bosch, former Sundance Film Festival Director Tabitha Jackson, and legendary Sundance Film Festival creative director John Cooper. John Cameron Mitchell and Rob Garza of Thievery Corporation (that’s not a misprint) were both DJ’s at two of the festival’s many of the numerous parties and actor Scoot McNairy (“Fairyland”), chef Susan Feniger (“Forked”), and director Goran Stolevski (“Housekeeping For Beginners”) were in attendance to support their films.
This was the festival’s second year under the direction of Artistic Director Carl Spence who, along with his programming team, was credited by too many to count for drastically improving the quality of films at the festival from the previous regime. Movies screened this year included Bertrand Bonello‘s “The Beast,” Daina O. Pusić’s “Tuesday,” Tony Goldwyn’s “Ezra,” Bob Byington’s “Lousy Carter,” Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s “Ghostlight,” Thea Sharrock’s “Wicked Little Letters,” Thomas Napper’s Widow Clicquot, and Ethan Hawke’s “Wildcat.” The festival also featured the world premiere of Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung‘s entertaining buddy-stoner comedy “Extremely Unique Dynamic” (definitely the youngest skewing movie at the festival).
Beau Bridges was presented with the 2024 SIFF Lifetime Achievement Award for an illustrious career. A packed Q&A moderated by film critic extraordinaire Katie Walsh was followed by a 35th Anniversary screening of “The Fabulous Baker Boys.”
Mohamed Kordofan’s “Goodbye Julia” received the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature, Vanessa Hope’s “Invisible Nation” won the Grand Jury Award for Documentary Feature, Taylor James’ world premiere “ILY, Bye,” starring Kanoa Goo and Meg Stalter, won the Grand Jury Live Action Short, and Patricia Font’s “The Teacher Who Promised the Sea” won the Stolman Audience Award for Best Feature.